Variation of density and porosity during drying of pears and pear halves.

• Author(s): Guiné, Raquel
• Date: 2005
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/1335
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
• Subject(s): pear; porosity; porosity model; density; specific volume
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

In the present work the moisture content and density of pears of the variety D. Joaquina were evaluated along drying, for whole pears and pear halves, and the experimental data were fitted to a theoretical model for prediction of bulk porosity. From the results obtained it was possible to conclude that the porosity of pears is very close to zero for high moisture contents and increases as moisture is removed from the pears until it reaches about 11 %, for totally dry sample. From the present study was still possible to verify the strong linearity between specific volume and moisture content, and also the exponential increase of porosity along the drying process.