Convective drying simulation of banana slabs considering non-isotropic shrinkage using FEM with the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method

The finite element method was employed to model the simultaneous heat and mass transfer in cylindrical samples of banana during convective drying. The Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach was implemented to incorporate the axial and radial shrinkage effects in the FEM model. The results showed that the FEM model was satisfactorily able to predict the moisture content (R-2 > 0.97) and core temperature (R-2 > 0.98). Therefore, the proposed model can be used as a promising tool to optimise the drying process of banana from quality and efficiency points of view. Also, the model can be easily extended for drying of similar products with cylindrical shape.