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AbstractDue to the perishable nature of food, especially vegetables, and the need for long-term storage, freezing is one of the best methods to preserve food, and thawing is often required to use frozen products. The purpose of this study was to use the combined method of defrosting using hot air-infrared radiation on the quality characteristics of defrosted cooked carrot samples. At first, after cutting, the carrot samples were cooked at 75 °C for 30 minutes, and after placing the thermocouple inside the samples, they were frozen at -18°C for 48 hours. Then, the effect of defrosting parameters including air temperature (30 and 40 °C), air velocity (0.5 and 5 ms-1) and infrared power (100 and 300 W) on the quality characteristics of defrosted cooked carrots was investigated and the sample thawed at 25 °C was considered as a control samples. Using this method, the thawing time for the control sample was reduced from 47 min to 6.11 min in the optimal conditions, The minimum amount of ascorbic acid was 2.63 mg100 g-1 for treatment 1 and the maximum for treatment 6 was 5.78 mg100 g-1 . The amount of beta-carotene in the control sample was 29.21 mg100 g-1 in the minimum condition and 49.33 mg100 g-1 in the optimal condition. The highest amount of loss due to defrosting belonged to treatment 8 by 18.32% and the lowest amount belonged to the control sample by 44.7%. The use of combined infrared-hot air method is very suitable for defrosting cooked carrots and in addition to reducing the duration of defrosting, it maintains the quality of the product to a great extent. This method is very cost-effective and its investment and setup costs are small and can be used for various products.

Introduction: Due to the perishable nature of food, especially vegetables, and the need for long-term storage, freezing is one of the best methods to preserve food, and thawing is often required to use frozen products. The purpose of this study was to use the combined method of defrosting using hot air-infrared radiation and the interaction effect of temperature, air velocity and infrared radiation source power on the quality characteristics of defrosted cooked carrot samples. Materials and Methods: At first, after cutting, the carrot samples were cooked at 75 °C for 30 minutes, and after placing the thermocouple inside the samples, they were frozen at -18°C for 48 hours. Then, the effect of defrosting parameters including air temperature (30 and 40 °C), air velocity (0.5 and 5 ms-1 ) and infrared power (100 and 300 W) on the quality characteristics of defrosted cooked carrots was investigated and the sample thawed at 25 °C was considered as a control sample. Increasing temperature, power of radiation and air velocity had a significant effect on thawing time, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene and thawing lost and pH (P≤0.05). Results and Discussion: Using this method, the thawing time for the control sample was reduced from 47 min to 6.11 min in the optimal conditions. The minimum pH was 5.49 for treatment 1 and the maximum for treatment 6 was 6.28. The minimum amount of ascorbic acid was 2.63 mg100 g-1 for treatment 1 and the maximum for treatment 6 was 5.78 mg100 g-1 . The amount of beta-carotene in the control sample was 29.21 mg100 g-1 in the minimum condition and 49.33 mg100 g-1 in the optimal condition. The highest amount of loss due to defrosting belonged to treatment 8 by 18.32% and the lowest amount belonged to the control sample by 44.7%. Conclusion: The use of combined infrared-hot air method is very suitable for defrosting cooked carrots. In addition to reducing the duration of defrosting, it maintains the quality of the product to a great extent. This method is very cost-effective and its investment and setup costs are small and can be used for various products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, different aspects of making ZnS and ZnS-Mg thin films coated on germanium (Ge) substrate are studied by the sol-gel method. The main goal is to preserve the optical window property of ZnS-Mg thin films that can be used in infrared thermal imaging systems. First, the method of synthesizing transparent and stable sols of ZnS and ZnS-Mg is studied. In this regard, the best molar ratio of materials, the best temperature, and the best conditions for the preparation of ZnS and ZnS-Mg sols are presented. Subsequently, the essential aspects of the spin coating of thin films on the germanium (Ge) substrate are evaluated. These components include; the best rotation speed, best drying temperature, and the best annealing temperature under Argon gas. Furthermore, according to Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-VIS transmission spectroscopy, we characterized the chemical bond, crystal structure, and the optical window property of infrared spectrum transmission for the ZnS-Mg thin films which deposited on Germanium substrate. Finally, the preservation and existence of the optical window property of the infrared transmission spectrum in ZnS-Mg thin films are shown.

Background and objectives: In the food drying industry, it is especially important to use various pretreatments to reduce drying time and improve nutritional properties. As a fast and effective heating source with together thermal and non-thermal impacts, microwave can directly affect the food material, thereby speed upping physicochemical reactions, and drying rate, and produce high-quality dried products. Using new methods such as infrared reduces drying time and improves the quality of the dried product. Sprouting is one of the most traditional methods used for reducing most of the antinutritional constituents in legumes. In addition, sprouting is considered to enhance the nutritional and quality characteristics of legumes. Materials and methods: For the preparation of sprouts, lentils were purchased from a market, cleaned, soaked for 24 hours, and then germinated at 25°C for 48 hours. In this study, the effects of microwave time and dryer type (hot-air and infrared) on drying time, effective moisture diffusivity coefficient and rehydration of sprouted lentils were studied to model drying kinetics. To apply microwave pretreatment, sprouted lentils were placed in a microwave oven for 0, 20, 40, and 60 seconds, and after exiting from device, they were placed in a hot-air (with a temperature of 70°C) and an infrared (power of 250 W) dryers in a thin layer. Results: The results of this research showed that microwave pretreatment increases the outflow rate of moisture from the sprouts, increases the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient, and shortens the drying time. By increasing the microwave treatment time from 0 to 60 s, the sprouts drying time in hot-air and infrared dryers decreased by 38.46% and 25.53%, respectively. The average drying time for the samples was 130.8 minutes for the hot air dryer and 26.3 minutes for the infrared dryer. The average effective moisture diffusivity coefficient calculated for the samples placed in the hot air dryer was 2.82×10-10 m²s-1 and for the infrared dryer it was 1.76×10-9 m²s-1. Microwave exposure time and drying method had a significant effect on samples rehydration, with higher values for this parameter in microwave-treated and hot-air dried samples. To study the drying kinetics of sprouted lentils, the Page model was selected as the best model because a mathematical model was fitted to the laboratory data and had the highest accuracy. Conclusion: In general, the optimal conditions for drying sprouted lentils were pretreatment in a microwave oven for 60 seconds followed by the use of an infrared dryer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study, the effect of infrared (IR) on popcorn produced at IR power 550, 450 and 350 W and sample distance from the radiation source of 10, 20 and 30 cm on changing some physical and sensory properties of popcorn (papping properties, sensory evaluation, surface morphology (SEM) and temperature profile) was investigated. It was observed that typically with increasing IR power and decreasing the distance of the samples from the infrared radiation source, the popping yield, volume expansion rate and popping percentage increased significantly (P

In this research, the effect of ultrasound time and dryer type (hot -air and infrared) on the drying time, effective moisture diffusivity coefficient and rehydration of wheat sprouts were investigated and drying kinetics were modeled. To apply ultrasound pre - treatment, the sprouts were placed inside the ultrasonic bath machine for 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes, and after leaving the machine and removing extra moisture, the samples in thin layers were placed in the hot -air (with a temperature of 70°C) and infrared (power of 250 W) dryers. The results showed that sonication up to 5 minutes, causes an increase in moisture removal rate from the sprouts, an increase in the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient, and as a result, reduces the drying time. By increasing sonication time from zero to 5 min, the average drying time of sprouts in the hot -air and infrared dryers decreased from 126.7 min to 120.0 min, and from 25.7 min to 21.3 min, respectively. The average drying time of the samples in the hot -air dryer was 150.8 min and in the infrared dryer was 28.0 min. Also, the average effective moisture diffusivity coefficient calculated for the samples placed in the hot - air dryer was equal to 1.65×10 -10 m²S-1 and for the infrared dryer it was equal to 8.59×10-10m² s-1 . The time of ultrasound and drying treatment had significant effects on the rehydration of samples, and the value of this parameter was higher for samples dried in the hot -air dryer. In order to investigate the drying kinetics of wheat sprouts, mathematical models were fitted to the experimental data, and the Page model with two parameters (k and n) was chosen as the best model based on the highest accuracy. Generally, 5 minutes pre -treatment by ultrasound and then using an infrared dryer is the best condition for drying wheat sprouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is an optimization of high reflection mirrors in the infrared wavelength. Infrared mirrors, in addition to being one of the main components of carbon dioxide lasers, are widely used in the flexible optical path or beam conduction. In the structure of these high reflection infrared mirrors, metal, dielectric and quasi-metal are used as Glass / Metal / Dielectric / Quasi metal / Air. Separately the design of the high reflection mirror was investigated for each of the metals, dielectric and quasi-metal layers with different materials. In each step, the best type of material is selected based on the highest percentage of reflection. These layers are Silver (with a reflection of 99.87% in the structure of Glass / Metal / Air), magnesium fluoride (with a reflection of 98.31% in the structure of Glass / Ag / MgF 2/ Air), and Germanium (with a reflection of 99.88% in Structure Glass / Ag / MgF 2 / Ge / Air) for metal, dielectric and quasi-metal, respectively. Then, by changing the thickness of each layer, the optimal thicknesses for silver, magnesium fluoride, and germanium were determined to be 100, 550, and 200 nm, respectively. Examining the effect of angles of light incidence, it was observed that the highest average reflection is related to the angle of zero and 99.88%. The coating designs were done by McLeod coating software.

The present study was conducted to investigate the influence of drying methods on the amount of some effective compounds in fruit Ecballium elaterium M. Bieb extract based on a completely randomized statistical design with 15 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments included different drying methods (1 - Shade drying at room temperature (25±3°C) with suitable ventilation, 2 - Sun drying, 3 - Oven drying at 35°C, 4 - Oven drying at 45°C, 5 - Oven drying at 55°C, 6 - Vacuum oven drying at 35°C, 7 - Vacuum oven drying at 45°C, 8 - Vacuum oven drying at 55°C, 9 - Infrared drying at 0.2w, 10 - Infrared drying at 0.3w, 11 - Infrared drying at 0.4w, 12 - Microwave drying at 200w, 13 - Microwave drying at 500w, 14 - Microwave drying at 800w) which were compared with the fresh fruit of the plant (as a control) . The studied traits were total phenols content, total flavonoids content, radical scavenging activity assay, soluble tannin, total amino acids, total soluble protein, total alkaloids, and total cucurbitacin. The results showed that different drying methods had a significant effect on soluble tannin and cucurbitacin content (P≤0.05) and also on other traits (P≤0.01). The highest amount of total phenol and flavonoids was related to fresh plants and then vacuum oven drying at 45°C, and the highest amount of antioxidant activity and soluble tannin was found in fresh plants and then the vacuum oven drying at 55°C. The highest amount of amino acids was related to fresh plant and then 200 watt microwave treatment and the highest amount of total protein, alkaloids and cucurbitacin was related to fresh plant and then shade treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: Among the various hot air drying methods, fluidized bed drying has significant advantages such as high heat and mass transfer, uniform moisture reduction of products with a short time and high drying rate and uniform process at the entire surface of the product due to efficient mixing with the drying air and high efficiency of the process. In recent years, the application of infrared drying to dry food products has increased over conventional drying methods due to its higher product quality, more uniform heat distribution, higher energy efficiency and heat transfer rate and less processing time. Moreover, infrared heating offers better control over temperature and other process parameters, along with reduced air demand to flow through the product. In this study, the drying kinetics of carrot cubes by an infrared-fluidized bed dryer was investigated. Materials and methods: Fresh carrots were washed with tap water, peeled manually, and diced. Then, carrot cubes (0.5 and 1 cm³) were dried by a combined infrared-fluidized bed dryer, using air temperatures of 50, 60 and 70°C and three levels of infrared power (200, 400 and 600 W). Finally, five mathematical models (Page, Modified Page, Henderson & Pabis, Midilli and Logarithmic) were evaluated to describe the infrared-fluidized bed drying behavior of carrot cubes. Results: The results demonstrated that the change in inlet air temperature, size of carrot cubes and infrared power had a significant effect (P <0.05) on water removal from the sample. Also, drying time decreased with a reduction in carrot cubes size and increasing both air temperature and infrared power. Therefore, the energy consumption was considerably reduced, decreasing from 12.63 Kwh/kg in the bed fluidized method (without infrared power) to 2.28 Kwh/kg using infrared-fluidized bed drying. The Page model was best fitted to the experimental data to describe the drying kinetics of carrot cubes by an infrared-fluidized bed dryer. Conclusion: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that air temperature, sample size and infrared power had significant effects on the water removal rate of samples and therefore drying time. According to the results, using infrared-fluidized bed drying as a combined method in comparison with conventional hot air drying methods can reduce drying time and energy consumption, considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prolonged labor leads to adverse birth outcomes. Thermotherapy is a new non-pharmacological method to reduce duration of labor. Hot water bags and infrared are the methods of thermotherapy. Due to the different mechanism of these two methods and lack of study regarding their comparison, this study was conducted with aim to compare the effect of infrared belt and hot water bag on the duration of the first stage of labor in primiparous women. Methods: This parallel three-group randomized clinical trial was conducted on 150 primiparous women referred to Mashhad Um Al-Benin Hospital in 2019. At first stage of labor, two 20-minute cycles of thermotherapy was performed in the intervention groups by the infrared belt and hot water bag at dilation of 4-5 cm and of 6-7 cm of the cervix. The control group received routine care. Duration of the first stage was assessed from the beginning of 4-5 cm dilation per minute. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 25) and Kruskal-Wallis test and one-way analysis of variance. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Mean duration of the first stage of labor was significantly different in the three groups (p

One of the main goals of drying agricultural crop is reduction of the moisture content and obtain optimum moisture in order to get maximum storage time and reduction of crop losses in the processing stage. Regarding to new science application and different methods of drying, use of new methods such as drying with infrared ray is necessary to be studied. In this study in order to determine effect of air temperature at three levels of 40, 50 and 60 ° C and ultimate paddy moisture at levels of %7-8, % 9-10 and %11-12 (based on dry weight) on drying time and paddy husk percent of Tarom Hashemi was used rotary cylindrical drier of infrared in three replications. Besides, effect in three levels of temperature and moisture and two type crop of paddy and brown rice on some mechanical properties of the dried paddy were determined by instron apparatus in five replications. The results indicated that the studied factors temperature and moisture had a significant effect on drying time. However, temperature and moisture factors hadn’t significant effect on the husk present. Measurement of Mechanical properties of rice paddy after drying indicated that among three factors: type crop (paddy and brown rice), moisture and temperature; two factors of type crop and moisture were more effective on mechanical properties. The obtained results of the research showed that optimum temperature of drying and optimum ultimate moisture (based on dry weight) are 58/80 ° C degree and %7/5 and under such conditions optimum time of drying was 74/73 minutes so that husk percent, break time and force were %21/53, 4/12 sec and 33/91 N respectively, besides size of displacement up to break point was 0/37 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrared radiation by intermittent heating is a novel method in which the surface temperature of the product is maintained at a constant value. This method is widely used in simultaneous blanching and drying process. The main advantages of intermittent IR-radiation are energy saving and preventing undesirable quality changes in the final product. The calculations of mass transfer in this process can be used to estimate the temperature and time conditions in the process. For this purpose, drying behavior of apples slices (Golden Delicious variety) was investigated with slab shape in three different sizes: thickness of 5, 9 and 13 mm and length and width was 20 mm. Heating operation performed by infrared dryer that was equipped with controller of product surface temperatures at 70, 75 and 80 °C. Kinetic models such as Newton, Page, Modified Page, Henderson-Pabis and parabolic were fitted on experimental data of dimensionless moisture ratio using MATLAB software. The adjusted correlation coefficient (Adj.R2) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to compare the models. The evaluation of effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) performed during drying of slices and its dependency with temperature investigated using Arrhenius equation. The results showed that models of page and parabolic presented a good fit on experimental data, respectively (higher Adj.R2 and lower RMSE). The effective diffusion coefficient significantly elevated with an increase in surface temperature and thickness. This parameter showed higher energy activation for lower thicknesses that indicated a greater irradiation temperature dependence of effective diffusion coefficient through the decreasing of thickness.

In the present study, an infrared-assisted solar dryer was used to determine the drying kinetics, energy consumption and quality parameters evaluation of Echiumamoenum. Experiments were conducted with two levels of drying air flow rate (0.0025 and 0.005 m3 s-1) and three levels of IR lamp power (100, 150 and 213 W). Drying time, energy consumption and evaluation of quality properties in different air flow rates and lamp powers were compared to the conventional method (shade drying). Five empirical models were fitted on the experimental data and the goodness of regression models were evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), and Chi square (χ2 ). Results of drying time in the different experiments showed highly significant differences respect to the conventional method (p-value<0.01).Also results showed that increasing the air flow rate and IR power caused a reduction of 37% and 17% in drying time, respectively. Best empirical model to describe the drying behavior was the Page model. The lowest specific energy consumptions (SEC) was 4.63 MJ kg-1, which was occurred at the air flow rate and IR power of 0.005 m3 s-1 and 150 W and the highest SEC was 5.26 MJ kg-1 and occurred at 0.0025 m3 s-1 of air flow rate and 213 W of IR lamp, respectively. Finally, the air flow rate of 0.005 m3 s-1 and the IR power of 150 W was recommended for Echiumamoenumdrying in the IR-ASD because of the fair energy consumption and the suitable product color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chicken nugget is one of the most popular convenience food in the world. Because of high-fat content in preparation of nuggets with regular methods that causes obesity and other related diseases, other techniques like pretreatment using gum and drying came into attention. In this study, chicken nuggets coated with batter containing Balangu gum (0.25 and 0.5%) were cooked by infrared-frying method in three heat fluxes of 18.5, 21.6, 24.7 kW/m2 for 12 minutes. The effects of the process and gum concentration on moisture content, fat, total weight loss, color parameters (a*, b* and L*) and texture properties of this product were investigated. The sample containing 0.5% gum had the highest moisture content (51.80%) and by increasing the power of the infrared radiation, moisture content decreased. The lowest fat content was related to the sample with a heat flux of 24.7kW/m2 containing 0.5% Balangu gum. By decreasing gum concentration and decreasing the power of the infrared radiation, fat content of samples increased. Also, Color attribute L* which shows lightness had the lowest amount in the control sample because of higher heat during the cooking process. The hardness of chicken nugget in various treatments did not change significantly, which can be important in consumer acceptance, but cohesiveness of samples treated using infrared-gum treatment showed significant difference compared to the control sample (P<0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drying is one of the ways of storing of persimmon. In this study, to increasing shelf life of persimmon and producing high-quality products, infrared dryer was used and mass transfer kinetics, density, rehydration and color of samples were measured. The results showed that radiation lamp power and distance of lamp from sample had significant effect on the moisture loss kinetics and drying time (P<0.05). With increasing in radiation power, as well as reducing the distance of samples from the source of radiation, drying time decreased. The average density and rehydration for the dried samples in infrared were 639 kg /m3 and 270 %, respectively. The average calculated color changes (ΔE) for the power of 200, 300 and 400 w were 14.43, 10.09 and 20.04, respectively. The results of modeling by genetic algorithm-artificial neural network showed that artificial neural network combined with genetic algorithm provides better results and with combine them the speed of analysis and accuracy of modeling process increases. Using a network with 15 neurons in the hidden layer and using the hyperbolic tangent activation function and percentage data used to training/validation/testing equal 20/20/60 may be predicted drying kinetics of persimmon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Despite growing use of energy-saving lamps or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), there are concerns about ultraviolet radiation in their output. In this study, the output of CFLs available in Iranian market in the range of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet were measured and the possibility of hydroxyl radical production by their radiation was evaluated. Materials and methods: The spectrum and light intensity of 33 CFLs were recorded by a spectrometer and radiometers equipped with special infrared, visible, and ultraviolet sensors. The possibility of hydroxyl radical production by three lamps with highest ultraviolet emission intensity was examined and fluorimetric signal of the terephthalic acid dosimeters was evaluated. Parameters such as luminescence efficiency, spectrum integral and the output percentage of lamps were determined in different areas of the spectrum and compared with photopeak curve of human vision. Results: In lamps with identical powers, there was no significant difference between the intensity of visible and infrared lights. In ultraviolet radiation, the intensity of daylight CFLs was twice as much as soft white CFLs, which had greater intensity compared to incandescent lights. The infrared intensity in incandescent lamps is ten times more than CFLs. The chemical dosimetry showed that lamps produced by three manufacturers were able to generate hydroxyl radicals in short distances and during long radiations. Conclusion: CFLs’ radiation is considered to be safe at more than one meter distance. However, at shorter distances and long exposures, some lamps may cause damage to eyes and skin due to ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, it is recommended to monitor specifications of CFLs released into the market.

This article, introduces a new pixel which can emit infrared wavelengths from its surface and can be used for the purpose of cloaking objects from thermal cameras. This pixel can simulate the temperatures between 0 and 100ºC emited from an infrared radiation in LWIR (8-12 micrometres) region. Nanocomposite material is used in the pixel structure and this has increased its capacities like ZT factor %40-50 better than the commercial material like Bi2Te3. Technical aspects of the pixel such as the emission wavelengths, rate of temperature changing, thermal contrast, ZT factor and so on are discussed in this paper and were determined by using thermography, non-contact thermometry, radiometry, four probe ac method and temperature differential

In this study, drying kinetic of tomato slice in a combined infrared-vacuum dryer was investigated. The effects of infrared lamp power at three levels (300, 350 and 400 W) and pressure of vacuum oven at three levels (6, 16 and 26 kPa) on drying time and moisture diffusion coefficients during drying process of tomato were evaluated. The results showed that the effects of infrared lamp power and pressure on the drying process of tomato were significant (p<0.05). With increase in infrared lamp power from 300 to 400 W, drying time of tomato 42.86 percent reduced. In addition, decreasing in vacuum oven pressure from 26 to 6 kPa reduced 40.00 percent of drying time. The effects of infrared heat power and vacuum oven pressure on effective diffusivity coefficient of tomato were investigated and the results showed that the effective diffusivity coefficient was increased with increasing heat source power and decreasing of pressure. Moisture effective diffusivity coefficient of tomato was between 5.00×10-10 - 2.38×10-9 m2/s. In fitting of tomato drying process data, the quadratic model, compared to other models, with the highest R2 and the lowest error, had closer results to the experimental data. According to the results obtained in this study, the use of this dryer is recommended for the drying of tomato slice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Despite growing use of energy-saving lamps or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), there are concerns about ultraviolet radiation in their output. In this study, the output of CFLs available in Iranian market in the range of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet were measured and the possibility of hydroxyl radical production by their radiation was evaluated. Materials and methods: The spectrum and light intensity of 33 CFLs were recorded by a spectrometer and radiometers equipped with special infrared, visible, and ultraviolet sensors. The possibility of hydroxyl radical production by three lamps with highest ultraviolet emission intensity was examined and fluorimetric signal of the terephthalic acid dosimeters was evaluated. Parameters such as luminescence efficiency, spectrum integral and the output percentage of lamps were determined in different areas of the spectrum and compared with photopeak curve of human vision. Results: In lamps with identical powers, there was no significant difference between the intensity of visible and infrared lights. In ultraviolet radiation, the intensity of daylight CFLs was twice as much as soft white CFLs, which had greater intensity compared to incandescent lights. The infrared intensity in incandescent lamps is ten times more than CFLs. The chemical dosimetry showed that lamps produced by three manufacturers were able to generate hydroxyl radicals in short distances and during long radiations. Conclusion: CFLs' radiation is considered to be safe at more than one meter distance. However, at shorter distances and long exposures, some lamps may cause damage to eyes and skin due to ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, it is recommended to monitor specifications of CFLs released into the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drying of button mushroom in a combined infrared-hot air dryer at power of 150, 250 and 375 W, temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C and air flow rates of 1, 2 and 3 m/s was investigated. The effect of lamp power, temperature and air flow rate on time and drying rate, moisture diffusion coefficients and activation energy were evaluated in a completely randomized design. The results showed that the effect of lamp power, temperature and velocity of air displacement on the drying process of button mushroom production is significant (p<0.05). Increase in infrared lamp power from 150 to 375 W, causes an increase in temperature from 50 to 70 ° C, and changes in the airflow rate from 1 to 3 m/s reduced the drying time of the samples 28.6, 42.7 and 15.5 %, respectively. Effective diffusivity coefficients of moisture and activation energy of button mushroom were between 6.2×10-9 to 19.7×10-9 m2 /s and 23.76 to 30.73 kJ/mol, respectively. For modeling of the drying process, Page, Newton and Logarithmic models with average correlation coefficient equal 0.996, 0.988 and 0.998 and average standard error equal 0.023, 0.042 and 0.015, had lower error compared to the other models, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to low energy efficiency and prolonged drying time of agricultural products by conventional methods, application of the new techniques such as infrared radiation, must be investigated. In this study, to drying and increased shelf life of the strawberry, infrared radiation (IR) method was used. The effect of infrared lamp power (150, 250 and 375 watts), the distance of sample from lamp (5, 7.5 and 10 cm) and time of 110 minute on drying of strawberry were examined. The results of infrared drying of strawberry showed that with increasing in lamp power and decreases in sample distance from the heat source, the drying rate was increased. With increase in infrared power from 150 to 375 watts, drying rate 69.24% increased. By increasing in sample distance from 5 to 10 cm, drying rate 23.55% decreased. Modeling of process was done with the genetic algorithm-artificial neural network (GA-ANN) method with 3 inputs (lamp power, distance and time) and 1 output (weight loss). The GA-ANN modeling results showed a network with 9 neurons in 1 hidden layer with using hyperbolic tangent activation function can be predict the weight loss in strawberry drying by infrared method (R2 =0.999). Sensitivity analysis results by optimum ANN showed the infrared power was the most sensitive factor to controlling the weight loss of strawberry slides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the combination of infrared - hot air dryer was used for drying of button mushroom. The effect of infrared lamp power (150, 250 and 375 W), hot air temperature (50, 60 and 70 °C) and hot air rate (1, 2 and 3 m/s) on drying of button mushroom were investigated. The results of infrared-hot air drying of button mushrooms showed that by increasing of lamp power from 150 to 375, the drying rate increased. With the increase in hot air temperature from 50 to 70 °C, and hot air rate from 1and 3 m/s, weight loss increased 10.3% and 13.9%, respectively. Also process modeling were done with the genetic algorithm-artificial neural network (GA-ANN) method with 4 inputs (lamp power, hot air temperature and rate, drying time) and 1 outputs for prediction of weight loss. Sensitivity analysis results by optimum GA-ANN showed the drying time of mushroom was the most sensitive factor for controlling of weight loss. The results of modeling by GA-ANN showed that a network with 7 neurons in the hidden layer with sigmoid activation function can predicted the weight loss (R=0.99) of button mushrooms dried by infrared system-hot air method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, sewage system is either being installed or has been installed in both developing and developed countries. CCTV cameras and the estimation of pipe age are main sources of inspecting sewer pipeline conditions, although not providing decisive information. Managing sewage installations requires reliable quantitative and geometrical data on the conditions of pipes both in-service and after installation. Measuring the rate of sewage blockage has always been challenging. Various attempts have been done to develop and apply different techniques for the determination of pipe blockage since the 1990s, but most of them were not practical or comprehensive. Pipe profiling could be a novel method in this regard. The method proposed in this paper would be able to measure both the cross-section and profile of sewer pipes. This includes two infrared sensors and a servomotor attached to a measurement device mechanism. The set enters a sewer pipe and measures the coordinates of pipe cross-section points. Then, the collected raw data are transferred outside in order to be processed and later saved in a text file format. The saved data will be depicted as pipe cross-section 2D profile using the suggested and developed API package at SOLIDWORKS environment, which in turn will result in the availability of a 3D model of under-inspection pipes. It should be added that different parameters of every desired pipe cross-section will be measurable as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]