After preheating, a cylindrical carrot sample (20 mm diameter)
was set in the center of the fluidized bed of inert particles
(0.106e0.125 mm diameter) using a basket composed of a steel net
(the wire diameter was 0.5 mm). The openings of the steel net were
2.5mm 2.5 mm, and were sufficiently wider than the diameter of
the fluidizing particles (0.12 mm). Therefore, we assumed that the
effect of the steel net on the drying characteristics was negligible.
No change in the fluidization state was observed in this study (by
visual observation), with or without the steel net