Convective drying characteristics of Amelie mango (Mangifera Indica L. cv. ‘Amelie’) with correction for shrinkage

Drying characteristics of Amelie mango were investigated through slices shrinkage behaviour at 50, 60 and 70°C and drying kinetics at temperatures ranging from 50 to 70°C and for slices of 2.5, 5 and 10mm thick. Results showed that mango slices shrinkage was less influenced by temperature and best fitted by the linear model of volume additivity. The density of solid matrix and the linear shrinkage coefficient were evaluated respectively at 1468kg/m3 and 1.468. The fitting of experimental data with two models (Page and Henderson & Pabis) showed that drying curves were best described by the Page model. Both water diffusivity values and drying rates curves were strongly influenced by shrinkage. Drying rates were underestimated and diffusivities overestimated when drying data are not corrected for shrinkage. An Arrhenius dependence type of diffusivity was established from drying data corrected for shrinkage and the activation energy deduced was 25.355kJ/mol.