ABSTRACT
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 519
Materials and Methods ..................................................................................... 520
Results and Discussion ..................................................................................... 521
Conclusions......................................................................................................... 523
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. 523
References ........................................................................................................... 523
Fractal analysis could be an alternative tool for describing the shape and
microstructure of dehydrated products and for evaluating structural
changes during drying processes (Belloutio et al., 1997; Pedreschi and
Aguilera, 2001; Quevedo et al., 2002; Chanona-Pe
´
rez et al., 2003; Alamilla-
Beltra
´
n et al., 2005). The microstructural changes of materials with drying
conditions can be correlated to fractal analysis parameters, and may help to
improve the product quality in the manufacture and processing of foods.
Aspects related to moisture transport in biological models could be
explained by fractal analysis, thus allowing the finding of a descriptive
model for the drying of spheres and powders based on the different
correlations observed between morphology evolution and apparent fractal
dimension. The objective of this work was to study morphology and
microstructure development, including evaluation of particle size and
parameters related to transport phenomena such as drying kinetics and
effective diffusion coefficients during the air drying of spheres and the spray
drying of particles.