An Inverse Method for Determining the Instantaneous Diffusion Coefficient of Pumpkin Slices During Drying Process

Abstract

In food and biological materials, most methods used to determine the effective moisture diffusivity do not provide reliable results. In this work, an experimental approach to determine the instantaneous diffusion coefficient of pumpkin slices during drying process was used. We use the inverse method by combining the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization technique with analytical solutions of Fick's second law of dif-fusion. A series of drying kinetics experiments are performed followed by the analytical identification of moisture diffusivity. All experimental runs were carried out according to response surface based on central composite design, and the results obtained were validated