International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.

2, Issue 3, July, 2012

An Experimental Study on Open Sun Drying of Vermicelli

Ravinder Kumar Sahdev
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
University Institute of
Engineering & Technology,
Rohtak, India

Praveen Sehrawat
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
University Institute of
Engineering & Technology,
Rohtak, India

ravinder_sehdev@yahoo.co.in

praveensehrawat006@gmail.com

Abstract In this research paper, an attempt has

been made to determine the convective heat
transfer coefficients of vermicelli for different
thicknesses under open sun drying mode. Various
experiments were conducted in the months of
March and April 2012 for open sun drying of
vermicelli in the climatic conditions of Rohtak (28 o
40: 29 05N 76o 13: 76o 51E). Experimental data
were used to evaluate the values of constants (C
and n) in the Nusselt number expression by using
linear regression analysis and consequently
convective heat transfer coefficients were
determined. The average values of convective heat
transfer coefficients were found to be 5.61 W/m2
o
C and 4.13 W/m2 oC for vermicelli of diameters 2
mm and 1.25 mm respectively. The experimental
errors in terms of percent uncertainty have also
been evaluated.
Keywords-Vermicelli; Convective heat transfer
coefficient; Open sun drying.
Nomenclature

At
C
Cv
g

area of rectangular wire mesh tray, m2

constant
specific heat of humid air, J/kg oC
acceleration due to gravity, m/s2

3 2
2
Grashof number g X v T / v
Gr
h c convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 oC
hc , av
average convective heat transfer coefficient,

Kv

W/m2 oC
thermal conductivity of humid air, W/m oC

mev
n
Nu

constant

Pr

Prandtl number

moisture evaporated, kg
Nusselt number hc X / K v

v Cv / K v

Print-ISSN: 2231-2013 e-ISSN: 2231-0347

RG Education Society (INDIA)

P (T )
Qe

t
Tv
Te

Mahesh Kumar
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
Guru Jambheshwar University of
Sciences & Technology,
Hissar, India
mk_shandilya@yahoo.com

partial vapor pressure at temperature T,

N/m2
rate of heat utilized to evaporate moisture,
J/m2 s
time, s
vermicelli surface temperature, oC
temperature just above vermicelli surface,
o

Tv

average vermicelli surface temperature, oC

Te

average temperature of humid air, oC

Ti

average of vermicelli surface and humid air

temperature, oC
T effective temperature difference, oC
characteristic dimension, m
X
Greek symbols
coefficient of volumetric expansion, 1/ oC

relative humidity, %

v
v

average relative humidity, %

latent heat of vaporization, J/kg
dynamic viscosity of humid air, kg/m.s
density of humid air, kg/m3
I.

INTRODUCTION

Vermicelli is a popular food item prepared on the

occasion of any festival mainly in the Asian
countries. It is prepared in household level by
extruding the dough (semolina with suitable quantity
of water content generally varying from 27% to 30 %
per kg of vermicelli weight) with a cylindrical hand
extruder. The extruded product is dried by different
means. Open sun drying is the most primitive
methods of vermicelli drying. Vermicelli drying
involves a heat and mass transfer phenomenon in
which heat energy supplied to the vermicelli surface

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

is utilized in two different ways: (i) to increase the
vermicelli temperature in the form of sensible heat
and (i) to vaporize the moisture present in vermicelli
through provision of the latent heat of vaporization.
The removal of moisture from the interior of the
vermicelli takes place due to induced vapor pressure
difference between the vermicelli and surrounding
medium. The moisture from the interior diffuses to
the vermicelli surface to replenish the evaporated
surface moisture.
The convective heat transfer coefficient is an
important parameter in drying rate simulation since
the temperature difference between the air and
vermicelli varies with this coefficient. Sodha et al. [1]
presented a simple analytical model based on
simultaneous heat and mass transfer at the product
surface and included the effect of wind speed,
relative humidity, product thickness, and heat
conducted to the ground for open sun drying and for
a cabinet dryer. Miketinac et al. [2] studied the drying
of thin layer of barley and formulated five models
simulating the process of simultaneous heat and mass
transfer. Depending upon the form of drying model
the heat transfer coefficient was found to vary
between 43 and 59 W/m2 oC. Goyal and Tiwari [3]
have studied heat and mass transfer in product drying
systems and have reported the values of convective
heat transfer coefficient for wheat and gram as 12.68
and 9.62 W/m2 oC, respectively, by using the simple
regression and 9.67 and 10.85 W/m2 oC respectively,
for same products while using the multiple regression
technique. The convective heat transfer coefficients
for some crops (green chilies, green peas, white
gram, onion flakes, potato slices and cauliflower)
under open sun drying were calculated and the values
of convective heat transfer coefficients were found to
vary from 3.71 25.98 W/m2oC[4]. Togrul [5] have
determined the convective heat transfer coefficients
of some crops dried under open sun conditions which
were found to vary with a range of 0.768 to 3.292
W/m2 oC. Akpinar [6] determined the convective
heat transfer coefficient of various agricultural
products, namely, mulberry, strawberry, apple, garlic,
potato, pumpkin, eggplant, and onion under open sun
drying. The convective heat transfer coefficient of
these crops was found to vary from crop to crop with
a range of 1.136 11.323 W/m2oC. Togrul [7]
determined the convective heat transfer coefficient of
apricots in open sun drying conditions which were
found to vary from 0.0374 to 2.046 W/m2oC. Kumar
et al. [8] studied the drying of papad in open sun and
indoor forced convection drying modes. The
convective heat transfer coefficients of papad were
found to be 3.54 and 1.56 W/m2 oC under open sun

drying and indoor forced convection drying modes

respectively.
In the present research paper, the convective heat
transfer coefficients have been found by determining
the values of the constants (C and n) in the Nusselt
number expression for vermicelli of different
diameters (2mm and 1.25mm) dried under open sun
drying mode. These values would be helpful in
designing a dryer to dry vermicelli to its optimum
storage moisture level of about 9%.
II. MATERIAL & METHODS
A. Experimental set-up and Procedure
A rectangular shaped wire mesh tray of
dimension 196 155 mm2 was used to accommodate
the vermicelli. A digital weighing balance (Smart,
Aqua Series) of 6 kg capacity having a least count of
0.1g was used to measure the mass of moisture
evaporated. A non-contact (infra-red thermometer)
thermometer (Raytek-MT4) having a least count of
0.2 oC with an accuracy of 2% on a full scale range
of -1 to 400 oC was used to measure the vermicelli
surface temperature. An eight channel digital
temperature indicator (0-200oC, least count of 0.1 oC)
with a calibrated thermocouple was used to measure
the ambient temperature. A digital hygrometer
(model Lutron HT-315) was used to measure the
relative humidity and temperature of air just above
the vermicelli surface.
Experiments were conducted in the months of
March and April 2012 for open sun drying mode in
the climatic conditions of Rohtak (28o 40: 29 05N
76o 13: 76o 51E). The vermicelli was kept on the
weighing balance using the wire mesh tray. A digital
hygrometer was kept just above the vermicelli
surface with its probe facing downwards towards the
vermicelli surface to measure the humidity and
temperature of the air. Every time it was kept on 1
minute before reading the observations. All the
observations were recorded at every 5 minute time
intervals. The whole unit was kept in open sun at a
place with negligible wind velocity. The difference in
weight directly gave the quantity of water evaporated
during that time interval. Average values of
vermicelli
temperature

surface

temperature

T ,
v

exit

air

T and relative humidity were

e

calculated from the two consecutive values for that

time interval and were used in the calculations. The
photograph of the experimental set up under open sun
drying mode is shown in Fig. 1.

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

Figure 1: A photograph of experimental set-up for open sun drying mode.

B. Sample Preparation
Vermicelli was freshly prepared by taking
semolina flour mixed with 30% of water content
per kg of vermicelli weight. The flour was
purchased locally, and that fraction of flour
which passes through a 40-mesh sieve (610
microns) was used for making vermicelli. Dough
was made and extruded in cylindrical hand
extruder of 59 mm diameter and 118 mm height
(Fig. 2). The bottom of extruder is attached with
steel die plates of 57 mm diameter having holes
of 2 mm and 1.25 mm diameters respectively
(Fig. 3). The freshly prepared vermicelli of 25.3
grams of 2 mm and 7.2 gram of 1.25 mm
diameter respectively were used for open sun
drying mode.

Figure 2: A photograph of cylindrical hand extruder

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

Let 0.016

Kv
PTv PTe t At Z
X

mev
n
C Gr Pr
Z
(5)
Taking logarithm on both sides of equation (5)

m
ln ev ln C n ln Gr Pr
Z
(6)

Figure 3: A photograph of steel die plates of 2mm

and 1.25 mm holes

This is the form of a linear equation,

C. Thermal modeling
The convective heat transfer coefficient for open sun
drying mode can be calculated using the expression
for Nusselt number as [9, 8]:

Nu

Y mX 0 C 0
Where

hc X
n
C Gr Pr
Kv

or

K
n
hc v C Gr Pr
X

On substituting hc from equation (1), equation (2)

becomes

Y and X 0

were evaluated for different

viscosity v and partial vapor pressure were

Kv
n
C Gr Pr PTv PTe
X

calculated using the following expressions [4, 8]:

(3)

Cv 999.2 0.1434Ti 1.101104 Ti 6.7581108 Ti

(7)

The moisture evaporated is determined by dividing

equation (3) by the latent heat of vaporization () and
multiplying by the area of the tray (At) and time
interval (t)

C0

time intervals and then the constants C and n were

obtained from the above equations. The values of
constants C and n were further used to evaluate
convective heat transfer coefficient from Equation
(1). The physical properties of humid air, i.e., specific
heat C v , thermal conductivity K v , density v ,

(2)

t At 0.016

C 0 ln C

values of

Qe 0.016 hc PTv P Te

Qe

X 0 ln Gr Pr ,

By using the data of Table 1 and Table 2, the

The rate of heat utilized to evaporate moisture is

given as [10]:

mev

m n,

Thus, C e
(1)

Qe 0.016

m
Y ln ev ,
Z

K v 0.0244 0.7673 10 4 Ti
(8)

Kv
n
C Gr Pr PTv PTe t At
X
(4)

353 .44
Ti 273 .15
(9)

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

v 1.718 10 5 4.620 10 8 Ti

(10)

5144
PT exp25.317
T 273.15

(15)
Where X i

(11)

is

the

moisture

evaporated

and

( X i X i ) is the deviation of the observations from

Where

the mean.

T Te
Ti v
2

N and N o are the number of sets and

number of observations in each set, respectively.

The % uncertainty was determined using the
following expression.

The values of constants C and n have been

determined by linear regression analysis by using
measured data of the vermicelli and exit air
temperature, exit air relative humidity and moisture
evaporated during a certain time period. The
following linear regression formulae have been used
to calculate C and n

X i X i
N0

% internal uncertainty

U
100
Average of total number of observations
(16)

N o X 0Y X 0 Y
N o X 0 X 0
2

III.
(12)

The values of observations recorded for open sun

drying mode are recorded in Tables 1 and 2 for
vermicelli of 2 mm diameter and 1.25 mm diameter
respectively.

and
2

C0

X 0 Y X 0 X 0Y
N o X 0 X 0
2

(13)
The experimental error were also calculated in terms
of % uncertainty (internal + external).The following
equations were used to evaluate % uncertainty [11].

1 2 2 2 32 .... n 2
N
(14)

Where

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION

is the standard deviation and is given as

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

TABLE 1: Observations for vermicelli of 2 mm diameter under open sun drying mode
Drying
time(min.)

Wt (gms)

Tv o C

Te o C

mev(gm)

Tv oC

Te oC

25.3

28.8

36.36

0.2917

0.7

27.8

35.13

0.3076

0.4

28.2

33.75

0.3209

24.6

26.8

33.89

0.3235

10

24.2

29.7

33.61

0.3183

15

23.9

29.7

34.00

0.3214

0.3

29.7

33.81

0.3199

20

23.1

31.9

35.44

0.3172

0.8

30.8

34.72

0.3193

25

22.9

29.4

34.97

0.3091

0.2

30.7

35.21

0.3132

30

22.4

31.8

36.79

0.2842

0.5

30.6

35.88

0.2967

35

22.0

32.8

35.46

0.2988

0.4

32.3

36.13

0.2915

40

21.8

34.1

37.08

0.2758

0.2

33.5

36.27

0.2873

45

21.5

36.8

37.30

0.2678

0.3

35.4

37.19

0.2718

50

20.7

34.1

35.98

0.2781

0.8

35.4

36.64

0.2730

55

20.5

35.8

37.48

0.2615

0.2

34.9

36.73

0.2698

60

20.4

34.2

35.38

0.2843

0.1

35.0

36.43

0.2729

65

20.3

36.2

37.44

0.2641

0.1

35.2

36.41

0.2742

70

19.9

34.5

36.75

0.274

0.4

35.3

37.10

0.2691

75

19.5

37.7

38.04

0.2632

0.4

36.1

37.40

0.2686

80

19.4

36.2

37.59

0.2505

0.1

36.9

37.82

0.2569

85

19.3

37.3

39.14

0.2387

0.1

36.8

38.37

0.2446

TABLE 2: Observations for vermicelli of 1.25 mm diameter under open sun drying mode

Tv o C

Te o C

7.2

29.9

31.42

0.3480

6.0

30.2

31.90

0.3440

1.2

30.1

31.66

0.3460

10

5.9

32.2

30.96

0.3420

0.1

31.2

31.43

0.3430

15

5.7

30.4

31.33

0.3400

0.2

31.3

31.15

0.3410

20

5.5

31.3

31.83

0.3328

0.2

30.8

31.58

0.3364

25

5.3

30.9

30.92

0.3198

0.2

31.1

31.38

0.3263

30

5.2

31.4

31.43

0.321

0.1

31.2

31.18

0.3204

35

5.1

32.1

32.27

0.3155
0.1
31.8
31.85
0.3183
and, thus the values of hc were determined as
tabulated in Table 3.

Drying time
(min.)
0

Wt (gms)

The average of vermicelli surface temperature Tv ,

exit air temperature

T
e

and exit air relative

humidity were used to calculate the physical

properties of the humid air which were further used
to evaluate the values of Grashof number and Prandtl
number. The values of C and n in equation (1)
were obtained by simple linear regression analysis,

mev(gm)

Tv oC

Te oC

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

TABLE 3: Values of C, n and the convective heat
transfer coefficients.
C

2mm
1.25mm

0.65
1.01

0.20
0.13

hc
(W/m2oC)
4.31 7.29
4.05 4.23

hcavg
(W/m2oC)
5.61
4.13

4.00
hc, W/m2 oC

Diameter

5.00

hc, W/m2 oC

From Table 3, it has been observed that

convective heat transfer coefficient in the case of
vermicelli of 2 mm diameter has been found more in
comparison to 1.25mm diameter. This could be due
to more thickness of vermicelli. The convective heat
transfer coefficient strongly depends on the thickness
of vermicelli. The average value of convective heat
transfer coefficient is found to increase by 35.8%
when the diameter of vermicelli increases from 1.25
mm to 2 mm. The variation of convective heat
transfer coefficient with respect to time for open sun
drying mode is shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
An estimate of internal uncertainty was carried
out for experimental observations. The external
uncertainty has also been calculated by taking into
account the errors which occurred during
measurements of mass evaporated, temperatures and
relative humidity which were considered by taking
the least count of all the measuring instruments. The
values of percent uncertainty (internal+external) were
found to be within 71 %.

3.00

2.00
1.00
0.00
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Time, mins

Figure 5: hc vs time for vermicelli (diameter 1.25mm)

under open sun drying mode
IV.
CONCLUSION
The convective heat transfer coefficients for
vermicelli of different diameters (2mm and 1.25mm
diameter) under open sun drying mode were
determined using the values of the constants, C and
n in the expression of Nusselt number by using the
linear regression technique. The average values of
convective heat transfer coefficients under open sun
drying mode have been found to be 5.61 W/m2 oC and
4.13 W/m2 oC for vermicelli of 2 mm and 1.25 mm
diameters respectively. From the present study, it has
been observed that the convective heat transfer
coefficient for vermicelli of diameter 2 mm is more
than the diameter of 1.25 mm. The convective heat
transfer coefficient strongly depends on the thickness
of vermicelli. Convective heat transfer coefficient
increased by almost 36% when the diameter of
vermicelli increased from 1.25mm to 2mm. The
experimental errors for open sun drying have been
found to be within 71%.

8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
5 10152025303540455055606570758085
Time, mins

Figure 4: hc vs time for vermicelli (diameter 2mm)

under open sun drying mode.

40

International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences Vol.2, Issue 3, July, 2012

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