Fick's model together with Arrhenius relationship were successfully used to evaluate water absorption of chickpea during soaking at a temperature range of 20-97 degrees C with 25 kHz 100W, 40 kHz 100W and 25 kHz 300W ultrasound treatments. Use of ultrasound, increase in ultrasound power and soaking temperature significantly (P < 0.05) increased the water diffusion coefficient (D(eff)) of chickpea during soaking. Average gelatinization temperature of chickpea was found as 61.47 degrees C. Activation energy (E(a)) values of chickpea for below and above gelatinization temperature were found to be 28.69 and 9.34 kJ mol(-1), respectively. Ultrasound treatments significantly decreased the soaking time of chickpea. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.