Thermal properties of gros michel banana grown in Ghana

摘要: Thermal properties such as specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of tropical fruits provide critical information and data for the design and manufacture of equipment and machines for their processing. Literature generally abounds in information on subtropical fruits but not on tropical fruits like banana. Banana was selected because currently it is not widely processed in the dried form in Ghana. The purpose of the study was thus to provide information on the thermal properties of locally grown banana to aid in the design and manufacture of equipment for processing, handling and transportation. The selected variety for the study was dried to moisture contents (MC) ranging from 18.5-50.0% wb. Specific heat was measured by the method of mixtures while the thermal conductivity was measured by the line heat source probe method. Thermal diffusivity was calculated from the experimental results obtained from specific heat, thermal conductivity and bulk density. Bulk density was measured by mass per unit change in volume of the sample. The bulk density was found to be in a range of 1376.2-1130.0 kg m-3. The bulk density decreased with increasing MC. The specific heat ranged from 1574.0-2506.8 Jkg-1 oC-1. The thermal conductivity of the banana varied from 0.249-0.458 Wm-1 oC-1 whiles the thermal diffusivity ranged from 1.15 х10-7-1.62 х10-7m2s-1. Specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity were found to increase with increasing MC. The effects of MC on all parameters studied were highly significant at (p< 0.05). Regression equations were established which could be used to reasonably estimate thermal …