An Experimental Study on Open Sun Drying of Vermicelli

Abstract

In this research paper, an attempt has been made to determine the convective heat transfer coefficients of vermicelli for different thicknesses under open sun drying mode. Various experiments were conducted in the months of March and April 2012 for open sun drying of vermicelli in the climatic conditions of Rohtak (28o 40’: 29 05’N 76o 13’: 76o 51’E). Experimental data were used to evaluate the values of constants (C and n) in the Nusselt number expression by using linear regression analysis and consequently convective heat transfer coefficients were determined. The average values of convective heat transfer coefficients were found to be 5.61 W/m2 oC and 4.13 W/m2 oC for vermicelli of diameters 2 mm and 1.25 mm respectively. The experimental errors in terms of percent uncertainty have also been evaluated