A Three-Stage Solidification Model for Food Particles

Abstract

A three-stage solidification model for food droplets has been implemented in a computational fluid dynamics code. It comprises of an initial cooling stage that is based on the principles of convective heat transfer. This is followed by the solidification period that is initiated once the droplet cools to a phase change temperature. Finally, when the droplet is completely solidified, the tempering phase begins where the droplet cools to the temperature of the ambient air. The model has been validated with respect to the experimental data for cocoa butter. Additional simulations were made in which the crystallization behavior of the cocoa butter droplets in relation to the droplet size, ambient air temperature and the relative drop-gas velocity was investigated. It was found that the crystallization time is exponentially related to the droplet size. Further, it increased with the ambient temperature, but decreased with the relative drop-gas velocity. Overall, the results suggest operating at the extreme values of the process parameters, requiring high amount of energy, to minimize the crystallization time. It was concluded that there is a need for optimizing the operating conditions of the powder production process to minimize the energy requirement of the system while maintaining a reasonable crystallization time.

Application of computational fluid dynamics simulations in food industry

“…It increased with the ambient temperature but decreased with the relative drop-gas velocity. The results suggested operating at the extreme values of the process parameters to minimize the crystallization time [126].…”

“…Modelling is a way of recording physical phenomena using the language of mathematics, so it requires extensive knowledge of the phenomenon, then knowledge of the physical equations that describe them, transforming them into a computer language, writing a programme based on them, examining whether the proposed models describe the phenomenon well or even create your own model to describe reality. An additional problem is Three-stage solidification model Dynamics of the sprays and their interaction with the gas phase KIVA-3 [126] Filling and food packaging 0D/1D modelling 0D/1D simulation refers to simulation model where physical behaviour is treated without spatial dependency (0D) but with time dependency or with dependency on one spatial dimension and time (1D) STAR-CCM + [128] Standard k-ε…”