ABSTRACT

 Fresh cassava (Manihot Spp.) roots were obtained and used in this study. They were peeled and diced into cubes of size thickness of 5 and 10mm. The cubes were dried in thin layers in an oven drier. The input variables were thickness (x = 5 and 10mm), drying temperatures of the air (70 and 80°C) and drying time (from 0 minute until the samples attained equilibrium, at intervals of 10 minutes). The response variable was the moisture content of the cassava slices. The result indicated that the average moisture content of fresh cassava roots was about 53.90 + 0.56% (w.b.). Both temperature and thickness of slices were found to affect the slices of 5mm and higher drying temperature giving faster approaches to equilibrium moisture content. Two generally accepted thin layer drying equations, the exponential and page models were fitted to the drying data of cassava slices, and the page model was found to agree with the drying data of 5 and 10mm thick slices with high accuracy for artificial drying (R2 > 0.9). A simplified model designing the drying constant (Kr) was coupled to the page model and simulated. Comparison between predicted and experimented results provided satisfactory agreement