5. Results and discussion

For the numerical evaluation of the thermal performance of the model developed for the tunnel dryer, the calculations were performed using the system parameters (Table 1). The [20-sim] software has been used for all simulations and is dedicated to bond graph simulation. Its use is quite simple and straightforward.

The measurements made were recorded in different operating variables following a series of experiments carried out in order to determine the performance of the studied tunnel dryer. This section presents the experimental results for several tomato drying operations and also a comparison with the theoretical results.


#### Table 1.

Values of parameters used in numerical simulation.

The interpretation of the results depends on the influence of the aerothermal parameters (velocity and temperature of drying air).
