Drying of Tunisian sardine (Sardinella aurita) experimental study and three-dimensional transfer modeling of drying kinetics Original Research Article

Experimental drying curves of sardine muscles (Sardinella aurita) in parallelepiped form were performed under different drying air conditions (three air temperatures: 35, 40 and 50 °C ± 1 °C, two air velocities: 1 and 2.5 m s−1, and at atmosphere humidity). A diffusive three-dimensional model was established to describe drying of sardine sample in parallelepiped form. The calculated drying curves was compared to the experimental ones in order to determine apparent moisture diffusivity. An empirical equation describing the apparent moisture diffusivity within the sardine muscles was suggested versus temperature and local moisture content of the product. A good agreement was found between experimental and calculated drying kinetics.