Application of Statistical Physics on the Modeling of Water Vapor Desorption Isotherms |
| |
Authors: | F. Aouaini S. Knani M. Ben Yahia N. Bahloul N. Kechaou |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Unité de Recherche de Physique quantique, 11 ES 54, Faculté des Sciences de Monastir, Université de Monastir , Tunisie;2. Groupe de Recherche en Génie des Procédés Agroalimentaires, Laboratoire de Recherche en Mécanique des Fluides Appliquée–Génie des Procédés–Environnement , Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Sfax, Université de Sfax , Sfax , Tunisie |
| |
Abstract: | The sorption isotherms give information about the interaction of biopolymers with water vapor. These isotherms are extremely important in the modeling of the drying processes and in the prediction of the humidity changes during the product storage. An analytical expression for modeling of water vapor sorption isotherms of agricultural products was developed using the statistical physics formalism. The statistical model was further used to fit and interpret desorption isotherms of Tunisian olive leaves and some food products. In this model, five parameters in relation to the desorption process intervene, such as the number of water molecules per site n, the receptor sites density N M , the energetic parameters a 1 and a 2, and the number of multilayers N 2. The fitting results are discussed to explain the behavior of different parameters versus temperature. The statistical model was used to investigate thermodynamics functions that govern in the desorption mechanism, such as entropy, internal energy, and Gibbs free enthalpy. |
| |
Keywords: | Desorption isotherm Modeling Statistical physics Thermodynamics functions |
|
|