A Multiphase Model to Analyze Transport Phenomena in Food Drying Processes

Abstract

The aim of the present work is the development of a theoretical model describing the transport phenomena involved in food drying. A fundamental multiphase approach was utilized to account for the simultaneous presence of both liquid water and vapor within the sample undergoing drying. The transport equations referred to the food were coupled, by a proper set of boundary conditions, to momentum and heat and mass transfer equations referred to the drying air, thus obtaining a general model that did not rely on the specification of any heat and mass transfer coefficient at the food/air interfaces.

Keywords:

• Finite elements method
• Heat and mass transfer
• k-ω Turbulence model

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My special thanks to Dr. Maria Aversa for providing some of the experimental results used in the article.