To avoid the damage to seed quality and the extra energy consumption due to long time application of ultrasound, the feasibility of ultrasound‐assisted heat pump intermittent drying was studied. The effects of temperature, ultrasound power and intermittency ratio on the drying characteristics of adzuki bean seeds was investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the three parameters to evaluate their combined influence on effective moisture diffusivity (D_eff), specific energy consumption, and germination percentage (GP). The results showed the introduction of intermittent process was of great significance to reduce energy consumption, but its influence on seed germination was not as good as expected. High GP could be obtained at low‐temperature drying with a proper fixed ultrasound power assisted. Proper ultrasound application had significant enhancing of drying characteristics of adzuki bean seeds. However, high power ultrasound would cause structural damage and weaken the seed viability through scanning electron microscopy analysis. Additionally, the optimum drying parameters determined by RSM were 37.10°C of temperature, 102.80 W of ultrasound power, and 0.59 of intermittency ratio. The results of verification experiments all performed better than the predicted values, proving the optimality of the combined drying strategy.

中文翻译：

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超声辅助热泵小豆种子间歇干燥：干燥特性及参数优化

为了避免长时间使用超声波对种子质量造成损害以及额外的能量消耗，研究了超声波辅助热泵间歇干燥的可行性。研究了温度，超声功率和间歇比对小豆种子干燥特性的影响。响应面方法（RSM）用于优化这三个参数，以评估它们对有效水分扩散率（D _eff），比能耗和发芽率（GP）。结果表明，引入间歇过程对降低能耗具有重要意义，但对种子萌发的影响不如预期。在低温干燥下，借助适当的固定超声功率，可以获得较高的GP。适当的超声处理可以显着增强红豆种子的干燥特性。然而，高功率超声将通过扫描电子显微镜分析导致结构破坏并削弱种子活力。此外，由RSM确定的最佳干燥参数为温度37.10°C，超声功率102.80 W和间歇比0.59。验证实验的结果均优于预期值，