Numerical Simulation of the Heat, Mass and Momentum Transfer during the Microwave Drying of Osmodehydrated Porous Material

ARBALLO, JAVIER RAMIRO; CAMPAÑONE, LAURA ANALÍA; MASCHERONI, RODOLFO HORACIO

Curitiba, Paraná

Conferencia; International COMSOL Conference 2014 Curitiba; 2014

COMSOL Inc.

Recent studies have been devoted to develop mathematical models to simulate food processing using the porous media approach. The aim of this study is to simulate the microwave drying of osmodehydrated food by means of modeling the mass, energy and momentum transfer using the porous media approach. Microwave drying involves complex physical mechanisms which should be taken into account in the complete mathematical model. Diffusion and convection, Maxwell-Stefan diffusion, Darcy?s flow and conduction and convection were considered in order to model the mass transfer of liquid-water, water-vapor, pressure buildup and heat transfer, respectively. A complete and complex model was obtained and simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software. In this manner, this paper presents a new application in food processing to model the microwave drying of osmodehydrated material using a porous media approach.