NONDESTRUCTIVE MEASUREMENT of TRANSIENT MOISTURE PROFILES and the MOISTURE DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT IN A POTATO DURING DRYING and ABSORPTION BY NMR IMAGING

Abstract

ABSTRACT A nondestructive method to measure the internal moisture distribution and to determine the effective moisture diffusion coefficient for a potato during drying and absorption was developed using NMR imaging and numerical modeling techniques. the coefficients obtained were 1.04 to 7.28 × 10 −10 m 2 /s, for moisture contents between 40% and 55% (wb), during drying with a sample temperature of 40°C; and were 9.78 × 10 −12 to 2.33 × 10 −11 m 2 /s, for moisture contents between 56% and 60%, during absorption at 23°C.