In this paper it was determined the thin layer drying curves for cowpea grains, always-green variety. It was also determined the effective water diffusivity inside the product and its activation energy. For these purposes, 150 g samples of cowpea grains dried at temperatures of 40; 50 and 60 ºC were used. The drying air velocity was maintained constantly at 1.0 m s-1 during the drying process. The drying air temperature and relative humidity were 29 ºC and 58%, respectively. The effective water diffusivity inside the product was determined, for each drying temperature, by using Fick’s equation assuming a spherical shape for the grains. A mathematical expression for the effective water diffusivity inside the product as a function of temperature was determined by fitting Arrhenius’s equation to the observed data. According to the analysis of the results, it is possible to conclude that the Page equation can be used to satisfactorily represent the cowpea grains drying process for the conditions of this research. The assumption of a spherical shape for the grains was satisfactory, resulting in a water effective diffusivity varying from 7.13x10-11 to 14.00x10-11 m²s-1 and activation energy equal to 26.9 kJ mol-1. It was also observed that for a drying air temperature of 60 ºC a significant amount of grains presented fissures.
Page’s model; Fick’s second law; moisture content; spherical grains
