Toward a generic approach to build up air drying models

ABSTRACT

Few versatile software programs allowing for the precise simulation of drying processes in a whole industrial plant are available. This work was done during the creation of a generic convective drying simulator for food solid particle in ProSimPlus, a chemical engineering software. Modeling approaches are discussed, and among them a compromise between first-principle modeling, reduced lab work, ability to accurately predict kinetics for a wide range of drying conditions, and low simulation time is presented. Predictive models of some required food product properties are examined. Two toolboxes were created: one estimating physical properties of foodstuffs and another simulating transfers in air and in the product. This approach is validated on four food products (with various formulations and shapes).

KEYWORDS:

• Food drying
• generic
• mathematical modeling
• physical properties
• simulation

Acknowledgments

The authors thank several master's and PhD students (Perrine Leclercq, Analia Aparecida Vanzo, Abir Hosni, Azziz Zemmouri, Monica Pinto, Benoit Hareng) and our colleagues Giana Perré and Julien Cartailler for their valuable help in acquiring experimental data supporting the modeling and simulation work. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.