Mathematical modeling of ultrasound pretreated carrot slices

In this study, the effects of ultrasound pretreatment, air drying temperature and slice thickness on the drying kinetics of carrot were analyzed. Ultrasound pretreatments were applied to carrot samples of different slice thicknesses with for 0 (control), 20 and 40 minutes. All products were dried in the convection oven with constant air speed 1 m s-1 . The drying times varied from 260 to 110 minutes depending on the varying slice thicknesses, temperatures and the applied ultrasound pretreatments. In order to determine a suitable thin layer model for drying applications, 10 different mathematical models were fitted to the experimental results. The model was selected as the best model with the highest value of R 2 (Regression coefficient), lowest RMSE (Root mean square error) and χ2 (Chi-square). As a result of the statistical evaluation, it was determined that the Midilli et al. model is the most suitable model for explaining the convective drying characteristics of carrot according to other models. Consequently, ultrasound pretreatment can be used as a favorable method for reducing the drying time of the carrots in the convective process.