The mechanism responsible for unusual mechanical properties of tension wood gelatinous fiber (Gfiber) was investigated. We discussed origins of high tensile growth stress, high drying shrinkage, and rapid increase of Young’s modulus due to drying, in association with microscopic structure of gelatinous layer (G-layer). Anatomical, crystallographic, and micromechanical approaches were employed. ...

Osmotic drying is a process of partial removal of water by submersing fruits in sucrose solution. Th e goal of this paper is to examine kinetic features of osmotic drying of apricot halves in sucrose solution. For osmotic drying of apricot halves in a thick immovable layer, a planned experiment was conducted. Experimental results were used to create an empirical model of osmotic drying kinetics...

In the present work, the effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy were calculated using an infinite series solution of Fick’s diffusion equation. The results showed that increasing drying temperature accelerated the drying process. All drying experiments had only falling rate period. The average effective moisture diffusivity values varied from 2.807x10 to 6.977x10m s over the tempe...

Animal and poultry manures have been recognized for centuries as organic fertilizers providing essential nutrients to crops and improving soil structure due to their large input of organic matter. Increasing demand for poultry and egg products has led to intensification of the poultry rearing process, resulting in large amounts of poultry manure. Drying can be used to reduce the environmental i...

A wetness duration experiment was carried out within a lily field situated adjacent to coastal dunes in the Netherlands. A within-canopy model was applied to simulate leaf wetness in three layers, with equal leaf area indices, within the canopy. This simulation model is an extension of an existing model. It appeared that in most cases leaf wetness started in the uppermost layer followed by the ...

Wet starch cracks when it dries inhomogeneously, while hot glass cracks when it cools non-uniformly. In both cases, differential shrinkage induced by drying/cooling from the surface causes superficial cracks to grow perpendicular to the surface in different patterns. In contrast with these observations of bulk cracking in brittle materials, when a soft and homogeneously swollen polymer gel drie...