Investigation of heat transfer in cereal-based foam from a micro-scale perspective using the lattice Boltzmann method

Simone MacK, Mohamed A. Hussein, Thomas Becker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Foam materials are multicomponent and multiphase systems, where under the influence of heat several temperature-dependent processes occur. In cereal-based foams these processes include protein denaturation, starch gelatinization, phase changes such as water evaporation, and structural changes covering bubble expansion and coalescence. This research focuses on modeling heat transfer processes in cereal foams under thermal treatment from a microstructural point of view. The complex thermo-fluidic processes inside the foam are considered for the solid and the gaseous phase, respectively. Additionally, the microstructural foam characteristics are modified to establish their effect on the overall heat transfer rate, and the micro-scale dynamics are introduced by means of lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM). The objective of this study is to deliver sophisticated insight into the impact of structural properties, due to the fact that optimized parameters would help to improve the bakery industry by means of reduction in baking time, energy, and costs. The results show that altering the porosity and/or the interconnectivity of gas pores in bread crumb influences the overall heat transfer. In comparison to foams having a porosity of 55% and discrete pores, the impact of coalescence exhibits a reduction of baking time of about 2 min. Increasing the porosity about 20% results in reducing the baking time about 7 min.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)311-335
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics
Volume36
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • Bread baking
  • Evaporationcondensation mechanism
  • Foam
  • Heat transfer
  • Lattice Boltzmann modeling
  • Thermo-physics

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