The Impact of Ultrasound Pre-Treatment on Hot-Air-Drying Kinetics and Quality of Carrot Slices Assessed by Simulations and Experiments

This study investigated experimentally and numerically the influence of ultrasound pre-treatment on the drying kinetics of sliced carrot samples. Drying experiments were performed under different conditions, including scenarios with and without ultrasound pre-treatment at drying temperatures of 30 °C, 40 °C, and 50 °C. A diffusion-based-drying model was developed to study the impact of ultrasound pre-treatment on drying kinetics. The effective moisture diffusivity of carrots was expressed as a function of moisture content and temperature. Given the complexity of the dehydration process in carrot slices, which depends on the spatiotemporal variations in moisture content and temperature, and is challenging to monitor experimentally, the effective moisture diffusivity is computed by minimizing the discrepancy between numerical predictions and experimental moisture-content changes over time. This study revealed that ultrasound pre-treatment significantly enhanced the moisture diffusivity of the samples, increasing it by 43% to 90% at drying temperatures of 40 °C and 50 °C, respectively. To apply this analysis of ultrasound pre-treatment in large-scale dryers where thousands of slices may be involved, the proposed diffusion model was simplified to a characteristic drying-curve model. Afterwards, this characteristic drying-curve model was incorporated into a belt-dryer model. The results indicated a 12% reduction in the length of the belt dryer when ultrasound pre-treatment was applied. Additionally, the color of carrot samples was preserved better with ultrasound pre-treatment. On the basis of these results, the application of ultrasound pre-treatment in the hot-air drying of carrot slices was favored, both in terms of improved drying kinetics and quality aspects.