The research addresses the hydrophilic behaviors of the natural ukam plant fiber material at various studied
conditions. The aim of this work was to reveal the possibilities to model the liquid water absorption
characteristics of untreated ukam fiber which assists in optimizing soaking conditions. Liquid water
absorption of untreated ukam fiber during soaking in liquid water at temperatures of 10, 20, 30, 40,50oC
was simulated using peleg’s model. The weight-gain during soaking process was determined in terms of
moisture content. Peleg’s equation was adequately capable to predict water uptake of untreated ukam fiber
under the experimental conditions. The peleg rate constant, k1, decreased from 102.00*10-2
to 44.87*10-
2
h%-1 while capacity constant, k2, did not with increasing temperature. The effective diffusivity was
evaluated by fitting experimental absorption data to Fick’s second law of diffusion. Effective diffusivity of
water varied from 4.2432*10-9
to 0.8486*10-9
over the temperature range studied with an energy activation
of 29,323.478KJmol-1K
-1
.The temperature dependence of the diffusivity coefficient was described
satisfactorily by Arrhenius-type relationship.
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