Computational fluid dynamics combined with discrete element method and discrete phase model for studying a food hydrofluidization system

ORONA JD; ZORRILLA, SE; PERALTA, JM

FOOD AND BIOPRODUCTS PROCESSING

INST CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

Año: 2017 vol. 102 p. 278 - 288

0960-3085

A food hydrofluidization system composed by multiple fluid immersed jetsand multiple moving food spheres was modelled using Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) coupled with Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Discrete PhaseModel (DPM). The model proposed consists in studying the fluid and food domainsseparately and connecting both through the information carries by surface heattransfer coefficients. The fluid flow was solved considering Navier-Stokesassumptions for a Newtonian fluid, the movement of food spheres was followed byDPM while the interactions of spheres between them and with the wall domainwere considered through DEM. Specific parameters were determined for a studycase of potato spheres when a concentrated NaCl solution was used as refrigeratingmedium. The proposed model was partially validated with information obtainedfrom literature for similar systems and good agreement was found. This studyshows, as a proof of concept, that CFD-DPM-DEM can be a powerful tool tosimulate food processing systems where particles of food solid move within thefluid domain with a minimum computational requirement.