Mathematical modeling for cooling process in hard candies

MARÍA AGUSTINA REINHEIMER; SERGIO F. MUSSATI; NICOLÁS J. SCENNA

Antalya, Turkey

Congreso; 1st International Congress on Food Technology; 2010

Ankara University, TURKEY & Gazi University, TURKEY

This paper presents unsteady numerical simulations of the cooling process of hard candies which is one of the most critical factors on the desired product quality because it can lead to hard candies with splinters, broken, misshapen or sticky between them. Precisely, one dimensional mathematical model of the transient heat transfer on hard candies is developed to understand the effect of the main operating conditions (residence time, candy size and cooling air velocity) on the radial temperature distribution. gPROMS (Process Systems Enterprise Ltd.) package is used for the system modeling and simulation. The proposed model involves reliable model parameters to compute the thermal-physical properties of product and therefore it can be used as a useful tool in order to determine the optimal equipment design and operating conditions to ensure a high quality of the final product. Simulation results are presented and the influence of the main model parameters on the cooling process is discussed in detail. The simulation results show that the residence time, the cooling air velocity and the candy radius play an important role on the cooling process and the product quality, revealing an important trade-offs between the heat transfer coefficient, the residence time and the radial temperature difference.