Experimental investigation of fish drying in a tray drier

In this study, the behavior of drying of fish were experimentally investigated in a new developed rectangle sectioned type dryer, for different air velocities, different air temperatures and different drying areas. In the experiments interior temperature values, moisture lose and time depended on drying velocity of fishes were investigated. In the experiments inlet temperature values and air velocities were selected 38, 46, 53 °C and 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 m/s, respectively. Air inlet velocity was kept constant during investigation of affect of temperature on drying. Air inlet temperature was kept constant during investigation of affect of air velocity on drying. Then, both temperature and velocity were kept constant and experiments were carried out on different surface areas. Initially moisture content (wet basic) is determined as 75% and aimed to decrease to 20%. In the experiments, approximately 200 gram fishes were chosen.Eventually, it is concluded that moisture content of fish has decreased with time. In working parameters, it is seen that air velocity is more effective than air temperature in drying process. It is observed that so long as drying area increasing, the velocity of drying gets faster.