MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Coconut, which was seasoned for more than three weeks,
was de-husked and splited, before cutting 60 samples of
required size from the kernel. Cubic samples of dimensions
0.01×0.01×0.01 m3 (“Fig. 1,”) were used in the drying
experiments. Hot air dryer was equipped with a hot air blower
of 9 kW and a drying chamber of 0.3×0.3×0.15 m3 as shown
in “Fig. 3,”. All the 60 samples with average moisture content
of 80 ± 0.8 % (w/w, dry basis) were evenly placed as a single
layer on the tray in the drying chamber. Hot air temperature
and velocity were maintained at 55 °C and 0.1 ms-1
. The
masses of the samples were separately measured using an
electronic balance with an accuracy of ±0.001 g in 2 hours
intervals for 24 hours until the moisture content was reduced
to 7 ± 0.5 %. (w/w, dry basis).