Research of the Characteristic Dimension of the Transfers during the Convective Drying of the Sweet Potato for the Parallelepipedic and Spherical Shapes

The aim of this work was to determine the characteristic dimension governing transfers during convective drying. Parallelepipedic and cylindrical form of sweet potato was used. For the parallelepipedic form P_L-l-e, the thickness e is set to 1 cm while the length L and the width l are varying. The results show that the variation of the other dimensions other than the thickness e does not influence the transfers in a considerable way. The same observation is made for the cylindrical samples c_H-R by keeping the radius R constant. This present work therefore allows us to conclude that the thickness of the parallelepiped shaped samples and the radius of the cylindrical shapes, all being the smallest dimensions, characterize the transfers.