Modeling of electrohydrodynamic drying process using response surface methodology.

Energy consumption index is one of the most important criteria for judging about new, and emerging drying technologies. One of such novel and promising alternative of drying process is called electrohydrodynamic (EHD) drying. In this work, a solar energy was used to maintain required energy of EHD drying process. Moreover, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to build a predictive model in order to investigate the combined effects of independent variables such as applied voltage, field strength, number of discharge electrode (needle), and air velocity on moisture ratio, energy efficiency, and energy consumption as responses of EHD drying process. Three-levels and four-factor Box-Behnken design was employed to evaluate the effects of independent variables on system responses. A stepwise approach was followed to build up a model that can map the entire response surface. The interior relationships between parameters were well defined by RSM.