Computational modeling of dehydration of mushroom

Abstract

Mushrooms are a group of edible macroscopic fungi with high nutritional value, flavor and taste. Mushrooms are highly perishable in nature leading to low shelf‒life causing economic losses to the producers. Dehydration is one of the oldest and widely used methods to increase the shelf life of mushroom. During dehydration, it is difficult to monitor the temperature and moisture content. Hence, a 2D finite element model was developed by considering the simultaneous heat and mass transfer along with phase change effect during dehydration for predicting the temperature and moisture profiles. The model predictions were validated with the experimental measurements of temperature and moisture content of mushroom dried at 54±1°C in a cabinet hair dryer. Drying was carried out for a maximum period of 5 hours. The temperature and moisture content profiles, effect of convection and conduction heating, slowest heating zone (SHZ) were studied. The temperature profile of mushroom shows initial exponential increase followed by constant temperature during the drying process. Mushroom head portion showed higher moisture content when compared to stem as it also appears to be the slowest heating zone.