Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147

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Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Drying of shrinkable food products: Appraisal of deformation behavior

and moisture diffusivity estimation under isotropic shrinkage
B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco a, E. Yañez-Mota a, F.M. Pacheco-Aguirre a,b, H. Ruiz-Espinosa a,
M.A. García-Alvarado b, O. Cortés-Zavaleta b, I.I. Ruiz-López a,⇑
a
Colegio de Ingeniería en Alimentos, Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Av. San Claudio y 18 Sur, Ciudad Universitaria, Puebla,
Puebla, Mexico
b
Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo en Alimentos, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Bioquímica, Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz, Av. M.A. de Quevedo 2779, Col. Formando
Hogar, C.P. 91860 Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new methodology based on image analysis was proposed to estimate the simultaneous size reduction
Received 20 May 2014 (shrinkage) and shape change (deformation) during food drying. Potato strips (9.525 mm 
Received in revised form 21 July 2014 9.525 mm  80 mm) were used as model system and subjected to convective drying at 50, 60, 70 and
Accepted 28 July 2014
80 °C with an air velocity of 2 m/s. Developed protocol was used to analyze the shrinkage-deformation
Available online 7 August 2014
behavior occurring in minor product dimensions, considered the dominant directions in mass transfer.
To this purpose, 2D perpendicular slices were obtained from original 3D product and their digital images
Keywords:
were processed to evaluate the changes in contour shape, perimeter, and cross-sectional and specific
Image analysis
Mass transfer
areas of samples. Product contours were averaged to extract relevant deformation characteristics of dried
Shape change samples. Drying and shrinkage data were further used to estimate variable water diffusivities in product
Water diffusivity with a previously reported analytical solution for shrinking solids, which was extended to allow for 2D or
3D mass transfer. Studied responses were successfully described as a function of free moisture fraction
(R2 > 0.84). It was demonstrated that shrinkage-deformation behavior was not affected by drying temper-
ature under the tested conditions (p < 0.05). The analysis of averaged contour shapes showed that,
although shrinkage occurs from the beginning of drying, deformation appears at the final stages, when
the free moisture fraction is below 0.2. Mean water diffusivities were estimated in the range of
3.04–5.36  1010 m2/s for studied drying temperatures.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction reliable estimation of diffusion coefficients and its description

Food products are complex systems which ordinarily require
the reduction of their water content in order to extend their
shelf-life. In this regard, convective drying with hot air is the most
widely used technique for the production of dehydrated foodstuffs.
Air drying involves several heat and mass transfer mechanisms;
yet, water diffusion within the product described by Fick’s second
law is usually considered the controlling factor for modeling and
simulation purposes (da Silva et al., 2014; Pacheco-Aguirre et al.,
2014). This operation is accompanied by several changes in food,
but shrinkage and deformation, besides color, are the most evident.
Thus, the inclusion of food shrinkage is paramount for making a
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 222 2295500x7250.
E-mail addresses: irvingisrael@gmail.com, irving.ruiz@correo.buap.mx
(I.I. Ruiz-López).
remains an actual subject (Souraki and Mowla, 2008; García-
Pérez et al., 2012; Ruiz-López et al., 2012).
In order to gather the relevant information to complement a
drying model, the appraisal of product shrinkage can be achieved
through universal methodologies including direct measurement
of product dimensions or volume displacement techniques
(Panyawong and Devahastin, 2007; Yan et al., 2008; García-Pérez
et al., 2012; Ponkham et al., 2012; Curcio and Aversa, 2014). In
any case, dimensional changes are lumped in a single variable,
such as thickness or volume. Nevertheless, foods not only shrink
during drying but also may suffer a considerable deformation
(i.e., shape change), which can affect both the visual appeal and
packing properties of product. In addition, geometry deformation
may reflect the collapse of microscopic porous structure of food,
leading to a drastic change in its physical properties (Ruiz-López
et al., 2012). Both assessment and prediction of food deformation

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.07.022
0260-8774/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147
Nomenclature
a specific area (m1)
A affine transformation matrix
A cross-sectional area of product (m2)
Bim Biot number for mass transfer (dimensionless)
C number of contours to be averaged
D effective diffusivity of water in food (m2/s)
d0 parameter for moisture diffusivity equation (m2/s)
d1 parameter for moisture diffusivity equation (m2/s°C)
e basis vector of the orthogonal coordinate system
H absolute humidity of drying air (kg water/kg dry air)
hm external mass transfer coefficient (m/s)
K water partition ratio between gas and solid phases
k1, k2 parameters for moisture diffusivity equation (dimen-
sionless)
L product length (m)
mp product mass (kg)
n power constant (dimensionless)
n normal unit vector
N number of points on a product contour
n1, n2 parameters for moisture diffusivity equation (dimen-
sionless)
P perimeter of product contour (m)
b P
P, P, edge coordinates of product contour: original, mirrored
and averaged, respectively
S product surface (m2)
t drying time (s)
T cyclic order rotation of a given contour
u moisture content (kg water/kg dry solids)
v humid volume of drying air (m3 humid air/kg dry air)
V product volume (m3)
X characteristic length for water diffusion along x-axis (m)
represents a challenging task both numerically and experimen-
tally. Thus, several studies have focused on the characterization
of macroscopic (external) shrinkage-deformation (SD) characteris-
tics of food products, mainly through using novel image analysis
techniques.
Common properties obtained from digital images related with
product SD behavior include projected area and its correspond-
ing perimeter, as well as selected sample dimensions which
are further used to evaluate secondary indices such as elonga-
tion, fractal dimensions, roundness, etc. (Campos-Mendiola
et al., 2007; Yan et al., 2008; Yadollahinia and Jahangiri, 2009;
Yadollahinia et al., 2009; Khazaei et al., 2013). Recently, volume
changes in dried products have been calculated using dimen-
sions obtained from lateral and top digital images including
dual-camera setups (Sampson et al., 2014). However, while the
aforementioned characteristics are related to product quality
indices, reported methodologies do not pursue a further applica-
bility of SD data in the modeling and simulation of drying
processes. For example, projected area is measured in non-
dominant mass transfer directions (top area in flat slices) or is
affected by product bending in lateral views of samples.
Product deformation during drying imposes an additional diffi-
culty: no food sample shrinks and deform in the same way, even
under the most controlled conditions. Thus, the use of SD data
for advanced process simulations would require the development
of new protocols to extract relevant descriptors of product behav-
ior. The main objective of this study is to develop and validate a
new methodology based on image analysis to estimate the simul-
taneous SD during food drying and obtain the representative pat-
terns of this behavior using potato as food model. Besides,
139
Y characteristic length for water diffusion along y-axis
(m)
Greek letters
d distance criterion between two contours
Dx horizontal translation (m)
Dy vertical translation (m)
c denotes the c th cyclic order rotation of coordinates in
product contour
/ rotation angle (rad)
j height-to-width ratio (dimensionless)
q volumetric concentration of dry solids (kg dry solids/m3
product)
h modified Fourier number for mass transfer in shrinkable
products with time-dependent diffusivity (dimension-
less)
n axial coordinate along x-axis (dimensionless)
w, W free moisture fraction (dimensionless): local and aver-
aged, respectively
f axial coordinate along y-axis (dimensionless)
Subscripts
0 at the beginning of the drying process
a for specific area
A for cross-sectional area
e at equilibrium
i at the air-product interface
P for perimeter
r any reference product contour
generated data are further used to evaluate water diffusivity in
food system corrected for product shrinkage.
2. Methodology
2.1. Drying experiments
Two sets of air-drying experiments were conducted in order to
obtain the SD behavior of potato strips as a function of their moisture
content. Fresh, well-graded potatoes were locally purchased
(Puebla, Pue., México) and dried the same day. Potatoes were
washed, dried with a cloth and sliced with a vegetable chipper
(9.525 mm-square openings) to produce strips that were further
cut to their desired length (80 mm). On average, 12 regular slices
were obtained from each tuber while remaining portions were
reserved for the initial water/dry solids analysis. Drying experi-
ments were conducted with 20 potato strips placed flat on a stainless
steel welded mesh open tray (dimensions: 0.25 m  0.20 m, open-
ings: 4.5 mm  5.0 mm, wire diameter: 0.7 mm) in a tunnel dryer
(Armfield UOP8, Ringwood, UK) with airflow parallel to the longest
product dimension. Samples were dried at 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C for
about 330–470 min with an air velocity of 2 m/s. Drying curves were
obtained in the first experiment set, where moisture evolution was
calculated by continuously recording the weight of the product
throughout the process with trays that are carried on a support
frame that was in turn attached to a digital balance mounted above
the tunnel. A schematic view of the experimental setup was recently
presented in Pacheco-Aguirre et al. (2014). Moisture content in
product was expressed as the dimensionless free moisture fraction
W (the removable water portion left in product) according to
140 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147
u  ue mp  mpe
W¼ ¼ ð1Þ
u0  ue mp0  mpe
These data were used to estimate the required time to approx-
imately achieve a specific moisture content in product at each dry-
ing temperature (from W = 0.1 to W = 0.9 in 0.1 increments) in
order to obtain SD data regularly spaced over this variable in the
second experiment set.
With the purpose of evaluating the SD product behavior, groups
with 5 samples each were formed and dried for the predefined
times. Then, a single transversal slice (perpendicular to the largest
dimension) of about 1 mm-thick was cut with a sharp blade from
the central part of the strip. A schematic view of samples along
with its relevant characteristics is shown in Fig. 1. Digital images
of resulting slices were immediately taken. Remaining product
portions were analyzed for their moisture content. The aforesaid
procedure was also applied to fresh (W = 1) and equilibrium-dried
(W = 0) samples. A total of five slices were obtained for each mois-
ture content-temperature combination.
Required moisture contents were determined by oven-drying
(Binder ED 53, Germany) the samples at 105 °C until constant mass
weight (when mass change was less than 0.001 g over an 8 h per-
iod). Initial moisture content of product was 84.5 ± 3.1 g water/
100 g product (mean ± s.d.).
2.2. Image acquisition
Potato slices jointly with a reference object of known dimen-
sions (a black-anodized metal washer of 0.59 cm-diameter) were
placed on a blue paper sheet to provide plenty contrast for back-
ground extraction, and their digital images were acquired (Coolpix
L810, Nikon Corp., Japan). Digital camera was positioned with its
sight line normal to the supporting base. Illumination was pro-
vided through ordinary 18 W fluorescent lamps without special
specifications as color standardization was not needed between
images. Images were taken with the maximum available resolution
(4608  3456 pixels) in macro mode with a focal distance of about
0.10 m, using automatic settings. Digital images were stored in
JPEG format. The schematic view of the experimental image acqui-
sition setup is shown in Fig. 2.
2.3. Image analysis
Two rectangular portions containing either the potato slice or
the reference object were manually selected from the original
image for their subsequent handling. Color information in these
images was transformed to the CIELAB color space for their analy-
sis. Thus, every pixel was represented as a vector of color compo-
nents L*, a* and b*. Afterward, color data were quantized using
Fig. 1. Schematic view of potato strips with their initial geometry (right square
prism) and relevant characteristics.
k-means clustering algorithm (Press et al., 2007) and reduced to
3 dominant color descriptors, which were enough to retain the
image details in product border. This operation facilitated both
background extraction of image with a foreground mask and esti-
mation of the pixel fraction corresponding to product. Quantized
image without background was transformed to grayscale and
finally coordinates of product boundary were obtained from this
image. A total of 400 points were used to describe each product
contour. Fig. 3 shows the image analysis steps used to determine
product deformation. On a separated procedure the relationship
between pixel number and real dimensions of reference object
was obtained, allowing the estimation of the slice area A. Boundary
coordinates were further used to estimate contour perimeter P as
the cumulative sum of the Euclidian distance between consecutive
points. All image analysis operations were performed with the
Matlab Image Processing Toolbox 7.0 (Matlab R2010a, MathWorks
Inc., Natick, MA, USA).
2.4. Modeling of shrinkage characteristics
By assuming a constant cross-sectional area (A) along major
dimension (L), the volume (V) can be estimated as the quantity
AL (Fig. 1). On the other hand, total surface of sample (S) can be
expressed as the sum of lateral (PL) and minor (2A) faces. If
PL  2A, then specific area can be estimated with the simple
expression
S PL þ 2A PL P
a¼ ¼  ¼ ð2Þ
V AL AL A
In addition, changes in slice perimeter and cross-sectional area
are proportional to changes in mass transfer surface and product
volume if shrinkage is considered negligible along major dimen-
sion. Thus,
S PL P
  ð3Þ
S0 P 0 L 0 P 0
V AL A
  ð4Þ
V 0 A0 L0 A0
The following relationships are proposed in this study to relate
dimensional changes of product with moisture content:
A
¼ DA þ ð1  DA ÞWnA ð5Þ
A0
P
¼ DP þ ð1  DP ÞWnP ð6Þ
P0
a na
¼ 1 þ Da ekW ð7Þ
a0
Eqs. (5) and (6) have been used to express the shrinkage behav-
ior of food products during drying (Zielinska and Markowski, 2010;
García-Pérez et al., 2012; Ruiz-López et al., 2012). Here, parameters
nA and nP both control the deviations from the straight-line behav-
ior, while DA and DP represent the final fractions of cross-sectional
area and perimeter at the end of drying, respectively. On the other
hand, Eq. (7) is an exponential decay model, similar to Page’s
model (Ruiz-López et al., 2012), where Da controls the relative
increase of specific area and k and na define the decaying rate
and shape of the curve, respectively.
2.5. Mean SD behavior
Since all dried samples shrink and deform in a different way it is
desirable to develop a strategy for appraisal of relevant and common
characteristics of this behavior. In this study, the contours were
combined to obtain a mean deformation profile. However, contour
coordinates cannot be simply averaged after their estimation.
 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147 141

Fig. 2. Schematic view of experimental setup for image acquisition and sample preparation: (1) digital camera, (2) fluorescent lamps, (3) reference object, (4) product slice,
(5) contrast background, (6) adjustable support, (7) dried product strip and (8) sharp blade.

Fig. 3. Image analysis steps used to determine product deformation: (a) original image, (b) simplified image with three color clusters, (c) gray-scale image after removing
non-product color clusters and (d) product contour. Image corresponds to an equilibrium-dried potato strip at 50 °C (440 min). Initial contour shape is a square. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Instead, they need to be translated and aligned with respect to P0i ¼ APi ð9Þ
some reference point as both position and orientation of objects
in digital images changes with every shot. Otherwise, SD contour where A is both a clockwise rotation matrix and a translation
characteristics would cancel or produce unexpected results when matrix
averaged. Thus, the following algorithm was developed in order 2 3
cos / sin / Dx
to align contours. Let us consider that Pi contains the ordered 6 7
homogeneous coordinates, in clockwise or anticlockwise direction, A ¼ 4  sin / cos / Dy 5 ð10Þ
of every point on contour i. Thus, 0 0 1

2 3 2 3 The parameters Dx, Dy and / should minimize some distance

xi xi;1 ... xi;N criterion between Pi and Pr. However, the straight comparison of
6 7 6 7
Pi ¼ 4 yi 5 ¼ 4 yi;1 . . . yi;N 5 ð8Þ these contours relates point pairs (xi,1, yi,1) with (xr,1, yr,1), (xi,2, yi,2)
1 1 ... 1 with (xr,2, yr,2) and in general form (xi,k, yi,k) with (xr,k, yr,k), which
not necessarily produce the best results. Consequently, both the
The alignment of contour Pi with respect to contour Pr involves the cyclic order rotation and mirrored projection of Pi were considered
translation of Pi coordinates in the amounts Dx and Dy, as well as to render the best overlap with reference contour. The cyclic order
their rotation in the angle / by means of the affine transformation rotation Ti,c of contour Pi was defined as
142 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147

2 3 2 3
xi;c xi;c ... xi;N xi;1 ... xi;c1 diffusion model and its boundary condition are written as
6 7 6 7 (Ruiz-López et al., 2012)
Ti;c ¼ 4 yi;c 5 ¼ 4 yi;c . . . yi;N yi;1 . . . yi;c1 5 ð11Þ
   
1 1 ... 1 1 ... 1 @u @ @u @ @u
¼ D þ D ð15Þ
An Euclidian distance criterion (/c) between Pr and Ti,c is given
@t @x @x @y @y
by hm @ui @ui
ðH  HÞ ¼ n  Dq ex  n  Dq ey ð16Þ
v i @x @y
2 T T
/c ¼ ðxr  xi;c Þðxr  xi;c Þ þ ðyr  yi;c Þðyr  yi;c Þ ð12Þ Let us consider that both diffusion coefficient D and character-
which correspond to the squared sum of x and y distances istic lengths for diffusion X and Y are explicit drying time functions,
between both contours. Parameters Dx, Dy, / and c achieving the i.e., D = D(t), X = X(t) and Y = Y(t). Then, Eqs. (15) and (16) can be
best overlap between Pi and Pr (those minimizing /) can be esti- rewritten as
mated by means of nonlinear regression analysis. This procedure @w @ 2 w 1 @ 2 w
is repeated with the mirrored contour ¼ þ ð17Þ
@h @n2 j2 @f2
2 3 2 3 @w 1 @wi
^i
x maxðxi Þ  xi;1 . . . maxðxi Þ  xi;N Bim ðtÞwi ¼ n  i ex  n  e ð18Þ
bi ¼ 6 ^i 7 6 7 @n j @f y
P 4y 5¼4 yi;1 ... yi;N 5 ð13Þ u  ue
1 1 ... 1 w¼ ð19Þ
u0  ue
Only the best overlap of contour Pi (achieved using the original DðtÞ
@h ¼ @t ð20Þ
or mirrored image) with respect to Pr, designated as Pi?r, is consid- ½XðtÞ2
ered in the rest of the analysis. Finally, contour coordinates can be 1 1
averaged to obtain a single representative image of product defor- @n ¼ @x; @f ¼ @y ð21Þ
XðtÞ YðtÞ
mation as YðtÞ ð1=v Þ hm dHi
P j¼ ; Bim ðtÞ ¼ K ; K¼ ð22Þ
Pr þ Pi!r
XðtÞ q ½DðtÞ=XðtÞ dX i
P¼ ð14Þ
C The term K in Eq. (22) is the local slope of equilibrium curve (an
Preliminary results indicated that any contour can be chosen as instantaneous partition coefficient). The variable transformations
the reference since the same final image is obtained in all cases. in Eqs. (20) and (21) allowed expressing the original problem for
The adequacy of averaged contour to represent the global SD moisture diffusion in a shrinkable body with variable diffusivity
behavior of product can be estimated by calculating the evolution as the simpler case of mass transfer for constant D in a non-
of its enclosed area which should be as close as possible to the shrinkable product (Ruiz-López et al., 2012). However, the
mean value of original contours at each moisture content-temper- unknown variable nature of Bim(t) in boundary condition (18) rep-
ature combination. Please notice that it is expected that both resents a difficulty for providing an analytical solution to the afore-
perimeter and specific area of averaged contour slightly deviate mentioned problem. Ruiz-López et al. (2012) demonstrated that if
from the mean values of original contours, especially at low the internal resistance to mass transfer by diffusion is accepted as
moisture contents, since the averaging procedure smooths out the only mechanism controlling drying rate throughout the drying
roughness and irregularities developed in product border. Fig. 4 process then existing solutions could be used to solve Eqs. (17) and
shows the steps used to determine the representative SD behavior (18) considering product shrinkage and variable water diffusivity.
of potato strips. Under this assumption boundary condition (18) is simplified to
wi ¼ 0 ð23Þ
2.6. Modeling of drying data The procedure to both evaluate water diffusivities and describe
drying kinetics of shrinkable food products proposed by
By assuming (i) negligible heat transfer, (ii) constant properties Ruiz-López et al. (2012) is now extended to products with mass
of drying air, (iii) constant volumetric concentration of dry solids, transfer in more than one direction. It should be noticed that the
(iv) uniform initial distribution of water within the solid and (v) following procedure is only applicable for products with isotropic
two-dimensional mass transfer in product, the unsteady-state shrinkage (solid shrinks in the same proportions in involved mass

Fig. 4. Contour manipulation steps used to determine a representative image of product deformation: (a) original, (b) aligned and (c) averaged contours (black contour was
chosen as the reference one). Contours correspond to an equilibrium-dried potato strip at 70 °C.
 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147 143

Fig. 5. Effect of moisture content on relative cross-sectional area of dried potato Fig. 7. Effect of moisture content on relative specific area of dried potato strips.
strips.

A XY jX 2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ ¼ or X ¼ X 0 A=A0 ð26Þ
A0 X 0 Y 0 jX 20

In this study, Eq. (24) was numerically solved for experimental

W values with bisection algorithm, while derivatives dh/dt in Eq.
(25) were estimated using finite differences with second-order
accuracy. Estimated diffusivities were further used to evaluate its
dependence on moisture content and drying temperature with
the model

DðWÞ ¼ ðd0 þ d1 TÞ½1  expðk1 Wn1 Þ expðk2 Wn2 Þ ð27Þ

Mean water diffusivities for every drying temperature were
estimated from the numerical integration of instantaneous values
using trapezoidal rule according to

Z W2 Z W2
D¼ DðWÞdW dW ð28Þ
Fig. 6. Effect of moisture content on relative perimeter of dried potato strips. W1 W1

transfer directions, that is, j is constant). The analytical solution 2.6.2. Drying simulation
for Eq. (17) and (23) with mass transfer in x and y directions can If the dependence of both D and X on time or moisture content
be obtained from the well-known flat-slab solution and the super- are known, for example with Eqs. (26) and (27), then drying curves
position principle to obtain can be simulated from Eq. (20) by solving the initial value problem,
" #
X
1  2 2

p
W¼ 8 1
exp  ð2n1Þ h  ...
p2 ð2n1Þ2 4 dt ½XðtÞ2 ½XðWÞ2
"
n¼1
# ð24Þ ¼ ¼ with tðh ¼ 0Þ ¼ 0 ð29Þ
X
1   dh DðtÞ DðWÞ
2 2
p
p2
8 1
ð2n1Þ2
exp  ð2n1Þ
4
h
j2
n¼1
where W is calculated from h in each iteration with Eq. (24), and W
Eq. (24) allows the calculation of W for a given drying time is further used to evaluate both D(W) and X(W) .
expressed as variable h (or the inverse problem). Generalization of the just described procedures to 3D mass
transfer or other coordinate systems should be evident.
2.6.1. Moisture diffusivity estimation
Drying data, in the form of W vs. t and X vs. t (or W), can be used
for moisture diffusivity estimation using the following procedure: 2.7. Data analysis
(i) calculate h for every W value in the drying curve by solving Eq.
(24), (ii) calculate the derivative dh/dt and (iii) estimate moisture The fitness quality of identified models was quantified by the
diffusivities from Eq. (20) at every experimental t as determination coefficient (R2) and statistical significance of param-
eter estimates was evaluated through their 95% confidence inter-
dh
DðtÞ ¼ ½XðtÞ2 ð25Þ vals (95% CI). Numerical procedures, nonlinear regression (based
dt on ordinary least squares) and statistical analyses were performed
In our case, as cross-sectional area can be calculated with with the Matlab software and its Statistics Toolbox 7.3 (Matlab
Eq. (5), then R2010a, MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA).
144 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147

Table 1 As demonstrated in Eq. (4), changes in cross-sectional area of

Regression parameters for shrinkage models. the studied geometry are related with changes in product volume.
Response Parameters Value 95% CI R2 Drying of potato strips resulted in samples with about 17% of their
Cross-sectional area a
DA 0.1733 0.1469/0.1997 0.9320 original size (Fig. 5). This shrinkage value is comparable to those
nA 0.7222 0.6732/0.7712 found in other studies, regardless of the sample geometry and
b
Perimeter DP 0.6390 0.6233/0.6547 0.8460 the method used to estimate it. For example, Wang and Brennan
nP 0.9581 0.8625/1.0537 (1995) and Hassini et al. (2007) reported potato slabs
c
Specific area Da 2.2641 2.1730/2.3553 0.9226
k 5.8974 4.8650/6.9297
(10 mm  45 mm  20 mm) shrinking up to 17–20% of their origi-
na 1.1257 1.0002/1.2512 nal volume when dried at 40–85 °C with air velocities ranging from
0.5 to 4 m/s. Lozano et al. (1983) also reported a final shrinkage
a
A=A0 ¼ DA þ ð1  DA ÞWnA .
ratio of approximately 19% for potato cylinders (1 cm in diameter,
b
P=P 0 ¼ DP þ ð1  DP ÞWnP .
c na
a=a0 ¼ 1 þ Da ekW . 4 cm long) dried at 40 °C with an air velocity of 1 m/s. Hassini et al.
(2007) determined volume of potato slabs using direct local mea-
surements of length, thickness and width, while Lozano et al.
3. Results and discussion (1983) and Wang and Brennan (1995) used volume displacement
techniques with toluene and water, respectively. According to sta-
3.1. Shrinkage characteristics of potato strips tistical analysis, the dependence of cross-sectional area on mois-
ture content shows a noticeable deviation from straight line
Figs. 5–7 show the dependence of cross-sectional area, perime- behavior (nA – 1, p < 0.05), indicating that dimensional changes of
ter and specific area of slices on moisture content. Initial values of product not only depend on volume of evaporated water, but also
these variables were determined by image analysis as on the collapse resistance of cell structure. As shown in Fig. 5, the
86.5779 mm2, 37.4430 mm and 0.4325 mm1, respectively. These size of potato strips was initially reduced in about 40% when 60% of
values were slightly different than those expected from size of available water was eliminated, but a comparable size reduction
chipper openings (9.525 mm), corresponding to 90.7256 mm2, was observed thereafter, when a smaller amount of water was
38.1 mm and 0.4199 mm1. Real product metrics produce initial evaporated (the remaining 40%). We hypothesize that as water is
values for volume (V0), and surfaces of both lateral (P0L0) and eliminated from product cell turgor is gradually loss, but rigidity
minor faces (2A0) of 6926.232 mm3, 2995.44 mm2 and of cell walls offers a resistance against shrinkage. However, as dry-
173.1558 mm2, respectively. Therefore, square faces of potato ing proceeds, the continuous water flux across membranes might
strips amount to less than 6% of the total available surface for mass rupture them once a critic moisture content is reached, debilitating
transfer, validating the assumption made in the development of Eq. the inner structure of product and causing a pronounced shrinkage
(2) that P0L0  2A0 (by little over 17 times). As expected, perimeter (0.1 6 W 6 0.4). Finally, at very low moisture contents water could
and cross-sectional area of samples decreased with moisture con- be removed with minimum product shrinking if collapse of cell
tent, while the specific area exhibited the opposite behavior. No structure is not complete, causing the development of an air-filled
significant effect of drying temperature was observed on shrinkage porous network, which reflects as a subtle tail of data in plot at
characteristics of potato (p < 0.05), which is in agreement with pre- W < 0.1. Shrinkage deviations from the straight-line behavior have
vious studies (Hassini et al., 2007). Thus, Eqs. (5)–(7) were fitted been well-documented in several studies with current product
over the entire temperature domain. Regression coefficients of (Lozano et al., 1983; Ratti, 1994; Wang and Brennan, 1995;
the models used for the mathematical description of these data Hassini et al., 2007).
are presented in Table 1. A satisfactory reproduction of these According to Eq. (3), changes in contour perimeters are related
responses was obtained in all cases (R2 > 0.84). to changes in available surface for mass transfer. Surface area of

Fig. 8. Final edge deformation of slices cut from dried potato strips.
 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147 145

Fig. 9. Mean edge deformation of slices cut from dried potato strips (80 °C). Inner numbers represent the free moisture fraction reached in product/elapsed drying time (min).

Fig. 11. Comparison of perimeter estimated from original and averaged contours.
Fig. 10. Comparison of cross-sectional area estimated from original and averaged
contours.

Product volume lowered faster than available surface for mass

potato strips decreased with moisture content up to about 64% of
transfer, as expected from its proportionality with linear dimen-
its initial value (Fig. 6), with no significant departure from the
sions raised to the third, during drying causing a 3.26-fold increase
straight-line behavior (nP = 0.9581, 95% CI = 0.8625/1.0537). Image
of the specific area (Fig. 7), with a near first-order exponential
analysis has been previously used to estimate the surface area evo-
behavior (na – 1, p < 0.05). Comparable results were obtained by
lution of potato slices. Selected studies include those from
Ratti (1994) during drying (40–60 °C, 1–5 m/s) of potato disks
Campos-Mendiola et al. (2007) where the projected lateral area
(4 cm-diameter, 0.9 cm-thickness) and cylinders (1 cm-diameter,
of air-dried (55 °C, 1.7 m/s) circular potato slices (2.5 mm-
5 cm-length), reporting 2.18 and 2.95-fold increments in this
thickness, 40 mm-diameter) was measured, observing a significant
variable, respectively, where sample volume was determined by
increase of this variable, caused by sample bending during process.
liquid displacement and surface area was roughly estimated from
In later studies, Yadollahinia and Jahangiri (2009) and Yadollahinia
product dimensions.
et al. (2009) followed the evolution of the upper area of
circular slices (10 mm-thickness, 35 mm-diameter) during drying
(60–80 °C, 0.5–1 m/s), reporting final reductions between 50% 3.2. Deformation characteristics of potato strips
and 65% of the original values. These authors reported a marked
deviation from the straight-line behavior for this response for Deformation and shrinkage characteristics of the cross section
W < 0.1, caused by upward bending of product developing an of potato strips were successfully estimated with the proposed
irregular shape and affecting the measured area. methodology. It was found that all samples suffered a similar size
146 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147
Fig. 12. Comparison of specific area estimated from original and averaged contours.
reduction and shape change along process regardless of drying
temperature. A comparison of the contour shapes at the end of dry-
ing is presented as example in Fig. 8 (for W = 0), where it can be
verified that product surface developed irregularities or roughness
with drying, which is in agreement with other studies (Campos-
Mendiola et al., 2007). It should be emphasized that shrinkage
and deformation behavior was unique for each sample, but they
clearly exhibit a repetitive pattern. Thus, the use of a mean defor-
mation profile is desirable for a representative description of prod-
uct shape changes during drying, both mathematically and
qualitative wise. For all studied temperatures, product reduced
its dimensions without a significant shape change up to a free
moisture content of 0.2, with an important deformation occurring
thereafter, mainly manifested in a preferential contraction of the
middle section of contour edges toward the sample center, as
evidenced in Fig. 9 for product dried at 80 °C. The estimation of rel-
evant SD characteristics of product is also desirable for simulation
of drying process, as the effect of product deformation on water
diffusivity could be evaluated without requiring particular data
of a specific sample, especially if drying is conducted with several
slices. Thus, it is important to determine if an averaged contour
retains some characteristics of those from which it was obtained.
Figs. 10–12 show a comparison of shrinkage properties (cross-
sectional area, perimeter and specific area) from original and
averaged contours. As shown in Fig. 10, averaged contours allowed
Fig. 13. Experimental (dots) and predicted (lines) potato drying curves in linear (left) and semi logarithmic representations (right).
for an excellent reproduction of cross-sectional area from original
data; consequently, size reduction estimated from averaged con-
tours is representative of observed behavior in individual samples.
On the other hand, perimeter is slightly underestimated (Fig. 11) at
lower moisture contents (W < 0.3, < 12% of relative difference)
when calculated from averaged contours since this is smoothed
during averaging procedure (Fig. 4). Consequently, the specific area
is also underestimated (<10% of relative difference, Fig. 12). Never-
theless, for simulation purposes observed discrepancies would not
translate in notably different results, as numerical convergence
would be reached before mesh fineness had to be increased to
unpracticals level to replicate surface roughness. The use of mean
SD behavior data in the modeling and simulation of drying process
will be demonstrated in the second part of this study.
3.3. Moisture diffusivity and process simulation
Drying curves from the first experiment set are presented, in
both linear and semi logarithmic representations, in Fig. 13. These
data were used to evaluate moisture diffusivities plotted in Fig. 14.
As expected, the use of higher drying temperatures caused a signif-
icant increase in water diffusivity values (p < 0.05). Water diffusiv-
ity behavior can be divided in three sections. In the first region, the
gradual increase of water mobility from the beginning of the
drying process up to W  0.6 indicates that product temperature
is in a transitory state (preheating period) from initial product
temperature to air temperature. This unsteady-thermal state is fol-
lowed by an approximately constant water diffusivity period for
0.2 6 W 6 0.6. From then on, deceleration in water mobility might
be caused by cell structure collapse as suggested by the severe
product deformation observed at these moisture levels. Similar
trends have been previously reported during convective drying of
several foodstuffs including chayote, fish muscle, grapes and fresh
and pre-osmosed carrot cubes (Azzouz et al., 2002; Pinto and
Tobinaga, 2006; Singh and Gupta, 2007; Ruiz-López et al., 2012).
Consequently, any constant diffusivity model would fail to repro-
duce the whole experimental behavior when product preheating
or severe shrinkage/deformation cannot be neglected. In this case,
the suggested procedure allows the objective identification of
these three regions. Regression parameters for moisture diffusivity
equation (26) are shown in Table 2. A good reproduction of exper-
imental behavior was achieved with proposed model (R2 = 0.9404).
Statistical analysis revealed that all constants were significant
(p < 0.05), thus the model is structurally identifiable with current
data (i.e., its parameters can be uniquely estimated).
 B. Ortiz-García-Carrasco et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 144 (2015) 138–147
Fig. 14. Water diffusivities as a function of moisture content during drying of
potato strips.
Table 2
Regression parameters for water diffusivity modela.
Parameter Value 95% CI
10 2
d0  10 (m /s) 1.2333 2.0408/0.0426
d1  1011 (m2/s°C) 1.0246 0.8903/1.1590
k1(dimensionless) 7.8981 4.0639/11.7323
n1(dimensionless) 0.6046 0.4932/0.7161
k2(dimensionless) 2.9294 2.4228/3.4361
n2(dimensionless) 7.1208 5.9278/8.3138
a
D ¼ ðd0 þ d1 TÞ½1  expðk1 Wn1 Þ expðk2 Wn2 Þ.
Mean water diffusivities were estimated as 3.04  1010,
3.61  1010, 4.57  1010 and 5.36  1010 m2/s for drying
processes at 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C, respectively. Moisture diffusivi-
ties are comparable to those reported by other authors where
values have been also corrected for product shrinkage. For potato,
Hassini et al. (2007) reported diffusivity values ranging from
3.55  1010 to 1.92  109 m2/s (40–85 °C). For other vegetable
products, such as carrot, chayote and mango, values were between
2.58  1010–1.72  109 m2/s (60–90 °C), 4.44  1010–8.60 
1010 m2/s (40–70 °C) and 2.61  1010–1.30  109 m2/s (40–
70 °C), respectively (Dissa et al., 2008; Zielinska and Markowski,
2010; Ruiz-López et al., 2012). As shown in Fig. 13, identified diffu-
sivities jointly with shrinkage data allowed for an excellent repro-
duction of drying curves at all moisture contents (R2 > 0.99).
4. Conclusions
The proposed image analysis methodology allowed estimating
representative shrinkage-deformation characteristics of dried
potato strips along dominant mass transfer directions. Shrinkage-
deformation characteristics determined by current protocols were
successfully applied in the estimation of water diffusivities and
drying simulation and results were comparable with other studies
where different methodologies have been used. A previously
reported one-dimensional drying model for shrinkable solids was
extended to consider two- or three-dimensional mass transfer,
with a remarkable reproduction of drying curves. It was demon-
strated that individual shrinkage-deformation characteristics of
dried products could be combined in a single representative profile
which could be used in detailed simulations, as will be presented
in a following document currently in preparation.
147
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y
Tecnología (CONACYT) for providing financial support through
project 130011. Betzabeth Ortiz-García-Carrasco and Estefanía
Yañez-Mota acknowledge their undergraduate scholarship from
CONACYT. Francisco Manuel Pacheco-Aguirre acknowledges his
doctoral scholarship from CONACYT.
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