Investigation of the effect of variable heat flux on energy consumption and bread quality in the flat bread baking process by experimental and numerical methods

ABSTRACT

Contrary to the [regular] thick bread, the thin flatbread is consumed in few countries, which explains the scarcity of published research on this type of bread. The present work aims to investigate experimentally and numerically the effect of different heat flux profiles on temperature field and moisture content in the thin flatbread during the baking process, as well as their effect on the quality of the final baked bread. In order to investigate the effect of different heat flux profiles during the baking process, a machine built on a laboratory scale is used to bake the bread pieces used as samples in this experiment. Heat and mass transfer equations are modeled numerically using the finite difference method. The equations are discretized using the finite difference method and solved using the unconditionally stable transient implicit method implemented in MATLAB. Also, the energy required for baking is measured and compared for different heat flux profiles. Reasonable agreement is observed between the experimental and numerical results. Three different heat flux profiles, namely constant, descending, and ascending profiles, are evaluated experimentally and numerically, and the baked pieces of bread are subjected to sensory evaluation as well as colorimetry. It is observed that the baked bread samples subjected to the ascending profile are of a better quality due to the uniform and proper heating during the baking process. It is also observed that the type of heat flux profile affects the final bread quality and determines the energy consumption of the process.

KEYWORDS:

• Heat and mass transfer
• flatbread
• different heat flux profiles
• bread quality
• thermal energy

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.