Heat and moisture diffusion in slab products due to convective boundary condition

In the present study, a closed form solution for the temperature distributions inside the solid substrate due to convective boundary condition at the surface is presented, particularly for drying applications. The analytical solution for the diffusion equation is introduced with constant concentration at the surface case. Temperature and moisture distributions inside apple slab are computed in this regard. It is found that temperature rises rapidly in the surface region of the substrate material during the early heating period and as the heating period progresses, temperature gradient attains almost steady value with advancing time. Moisture content variation in the surface region is considerably high in the early period and as time progresses, the rate of change of concentration in the substrate reduces. The present model is verified with actual data for heat conduction and moisture diffusion and a considerably high agreement is found.