Effect of Air Temperature and Velocity on Drying Characteristics of Jamun (Indian Blackberry) Slices Using Convective Drying Method: An Experimental Analysis Simit Prajapati, Mitesh Shah, and Shivamurti Srivastava Abstract To analyze the drying characteristics of Jamun (Indian Blackberry) slices experimentally, the experimentations have been conducted on a small-scale convec- tive hot air dryer available at Energy Section, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, Anand, Gujarat, India. Convective drying characteristics for Jamun slices were analyzed at 60–80 °C air drying temperatures with an interval of 10 °C with air velocity (1 and 1.5 m/s). The sample’s initial moisture content has been found using a hot air oven available at the Chemistry Laboratory, A. D. Patel Institute of Technology, Anand, Gujarat, India. During the drying investigation, it was found that it occurred only in a range of falling periods of drying. Air temperature plays a very important role in drying. Air velocity also shows a significant effect in the drying rate and drying time. Moisture removal took place from initially at 83.68 (% wb) to finally around 4 (% wb) in the tray dryer. The experimental results were verified with various theoretical results published by previous researchers. Keywords Jamun · Drying rate · Drying time · Moisture content · Convective drying Nomenclatures wb Wet basis (%) db Dry basis (%) M C(wb) Moisture content (wet basis) (%) M w Mass of water (g) S. Prajapati · M. Shah (B) · S. Srivastava Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 382424, India e-mail: me.mitesh@adit.ac.in M. Shah · S. Srivastava A. D. Patel Institute of Technology, CVM University, Anand, Gujarat 388120, India © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025 H. Kothadia et al. (eds.), Proceedings of Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power (FMFP) 2023, Vol. 4, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-7388-6_38 459