The influence of variables such as cultivar, shape (cylinder and disc), blanching, and heated air conditions (temperatures of 50 and 70 ºC and velocities of 0.14 and 0.42 m/s) on convective drying behavior of bananas using mathematical modeling. The bananas were dehydrated in a tray dryer and were weighed in predetermined periods of time. The exponential model showed good agreement with the drying curves (R²: 0.98-0.99) indicating that the factors that influenced the drying rate the most were temperature, air velocity, and blanching. According to the kinetics constants obtained with the model, the drying of bananas is recommended, including all shapes investigated under the following conditions: banana prata, blanching and drying at 50 ºC/0.42 m/s; and banana d'água, no blanching and drying at 70 ºC/0.42 m/s.
dehydrated fruits; drying kinetics; blanching
