Numerical investigation of case hardening of plant tissue during drying and its influence on the cellular-level shrinkage
Article
Article Title | Numerical investigation of case hardening of plant tissue during drying and its influence on the cellular-level shrinkage |
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ERA Journal ID | 3877 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Karunasena, H. C. P. (Author), Gu, Y.T. (Author), Brown, R. J. (Author) and Senadeera, W. (Author) |
Journal Title | Drying Technology: an international journal |
Journal Citation | 33 (6), pp. 713-734 |
Number of Pages | 22 |
Year | 2015 |
Place of Publication | United States |
ISSN | 0737-3937 |
1532-2300 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/07373937.2014.982759 |
Web Address (URL) | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07373937.2014.982759 |
Abstract | Dried plant food materials are one of the major contributors to the global food industry. Widening the fundamental understanding of different mechanisms of food material alterations during drying assists the development of novel dried food products and processing techniques. In this regard, case hardening is an important phenomenon, commonly observed during the drying processes of plant food materials, which significantly influences the product quality and process performance. In this work, a mesh-free-based 2D numerical model developed by the authors is further improved and used to simulate the influence of case hardening on shrinkage characteristics of plant tissues during drying. In order to model the fluid mechanisms of plant cells, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which is a popular mesh-free technique used to solve hydrodynamics problems, is used. The cell wall mechanisms are modeled using the discrete element method (DEM). The model is fundamentally more capable of simulating large deformations of multiphase materials compared to conventional grid-based modeling techniques such as finite element methods (FEM) or finite difference methods (FDM). Case hardening is implemented by maintaining distinct moisture levels in the different cell layers of a given tissue. In order to compare and investigate different factors influencing tissue deformation under case hardening, four different plant tissue varieties (apple, potato, carrot, and grape) are studied. The simulation results indicate that the inner cells of any given tissue undergo limited shrinkage and cell wall wrinkling, compared to the case-hardened outer cell layers of the tissues. For a given dried tissue condition, the case-hardened cellular deformations are highly influenced by the unique characteristics of the different tissues, such as cell size, cell fluid turgor pressure, and cell wall properties. |
Keywords | case hardening; DEM; food drying; mesh-free methods; microscale models; numerical modeling; plant tissue; shrinkage; SPH |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 400405. Food engineering |
Public Notes | Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions. |
Byline Affiliations | University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka |
Queensland University of Technology | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q3wy6/numerical-investigation-of-case-hardening-of-plant-tissue-during-drying-and-its-influence-on-the-cellular-level-shrinkage
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