MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF THE SOLAR DRYING OF APRICOT

Agricultural products provide significant growth in export earnings for many countries and provide food globally. Fruits and vegetables are perishable foods due to their high moisture content. Therefore, most agricultural products require post-harvest processing such as drying to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and maintain nutrient quality. Solar drying is widely used for this purpose. Ambient temperature, humidity and solar radiation affect the drying time and quality of agricultural products, especially apricots, in solar dryers. The experiments were carried out in the same place (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and in the same time interval. When the mass of apricots decreased from 424 g to 255 g, the water activity in the indirect forced solar drying (IFCSD) system simultaneously decreased from 0.93 to 0.62. The average solar radiation on the day of the experiment was recorded at 625 W/m2. The constant values and coefficients of the empirical mathematical models corresponding to the experimental results obtained in this research work were calculated and analyzed. Mathematical models were evaluated by comparing correlation coefficients (R2), reduced chi-square (X2), and root mean square error (RMSE) coefficients. As a result, the Midilli and Kuchuk model was accepted as the closest to the experimental result, and the coefficients turned out to be R2=0.987727, X2=0.000935 and RMSE=0.025437.