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A FEM Analysis of Transport Phenomena Occurring During Vegetables Drying

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Stefano Curcio
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 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano
A FEM Analysis of Transport Phenomena Occurring During
Vegetables Drying
S. Curcio1
1
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials – University of Calabria
*Corresponding author: Ponte P. Bucci – cubo 45/a – 87030 Rende (CS) – ITALY.
E-mail: stefano.curcio@unical.it
Abstract: The aim of the present work is the
formulation of a theoretical model describing
the transport phenomena involved in food
drying process. The attention has been,
specifically, focused on the simultaneous
transfer of momentum, heat and mass
occurring in a convective oven where dry and
hot air flows about a wet and cold food
sample. The proposed model represents a
general and predictive tool capable to describe
the real ovens behavior over a wide range of
process and fluid-dynamic conditions. In fact,
it receives, as inputs, only the initial
conditions, the geometrical characteristics of
either the food or the drying chamber and the
expressions of physical and transport
properties (of both air and food) formulated as
functions of the local values of temperature
and moisture content. The resulting system of
non-linear unsteady-state partial differential
equations has been solved by means of Comsol
Multiphysics with reference to a symmetrical
system consisting of a cylindrical-shaped
vegetable placed in a cylindrical oven.
Keywords: Food Drying, Transport
Phenomena, Finite Elements Method, Comsol
Multiphysics
1. Introduction
The main objective of food drying process
is water removal up to a particular moisture
content in order to prevent food from microbial
spoilage and deterioration reactions and to
increase the product shelf life and its safety.
Forced convection by hot and dry air that
flows about a wet and cold food sample is the
most common industrial technique to perform
food drying. Typical values of air temperature
range between 40°C and 80°C, whereas air
velocity generally ranges from 0.5 to 5 m/sec,
reaching, in some cases, the value of 10
m/sec; drying time depends on these and other
parameters, i.e. air humidity and food
characteristics, and it can last up to nearly 20
hours. The difference either in temperature or
in water content promotes a simultaneous
transfer of heat and water between food and air
that determines a progressive decrease of food
moisture content and an increase of its
temperature. The design and the operation of
industrial drying ovens are, in most cases,
based on the utilization of semi-empirical
correlations, necessary to calculate – by means
of a set of estimated transport coefficients –
heat and moisture fluxes between food and air.
Different physical, mathematical and
numerical methods have been proposed to
describe the drying process. Nevertheless,
many different aspects can be still improved
with respect to the available literature data.
These aspects regard the theoretical
formulation of the transport model, the
numerical procedures used to solve the
governing equations, a proper definition of the
transport properties of both air and food
material and the evaluation of heat and mass
transfer coefficients performed on the basis of
suitable and accurate experimental procedures.
An exhaustive analysis is, however, too
onerous in terms to properly analyze the
complex transport phenomena involved in food
drying. Therefore, simplified approaches have
been proposed and are still used by process
designers.
Hernàndez, et al. considered the fruits
drying process as isothermal assuming drying
temperature equal to air temperature and
accounting for mass transfer only [1]. This
approach was chosen also by Simal, et al. on
Aloe Vera [2] and by Ben-Yoseph et al. for
sugar films [3]. Wu & Irudayaraj
experimentally verified that drying can be
actually supposed as an isothermal process
only if the Biot number is very low. When Biot
number is, instead, high, internal transport
resistances are also to be considered [4].
Ikediala et al. developed more precise and
rigorous models that take into account the
simultaneous heat and mass transfer within the
food; their model were, for instance, applied to
simulate the cooking process of chicken patties
[5]. Ahmad et al. modeled the transport
phenomena involved in biscuit drying by
microwaves ovens accounting for both the
transfers [6]. Wang & Brennan developed a
mono-dimensional model for the simultaneous
heat and mass transfer within potatoes slices
[7]. The hypothesis of mono-dimensional
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano
transport was experimentally verified in the
same study and used by other authors, too [8],
[9], [10]. The influence of some of the most
important operating variables, i.e. humidity
and temperature of the drying air, on the
performance of vegetables drying process has
been analyzed by means of a transport model
describing the simultaneous bi-dimensional
heat and moisture transfer in the food [11]. The
authors solved the resulting system of
unsteady-state partial differential equations by
FEMLAB. Since air and food physical
properties may be expressed as functions of
temperature and moisture content, being heat
and mass fluxes coupled together in the
boundary conditions, the equations describing
heat and mass transfer form a set of non linear,
partial differential equations that can be solved
only by numerical procedures. Both finite
difference (FD) and finite element (FEM)
methods have been widely used for this
purpose. FEM is particularly suitable for
investigation on domains characterized by
irregular geometries in presence of complex
boundary conditions and for heterogeneous
materials. Nevertheless, it is more complex
and computationally expensive than FD [12].
In the present work, the attention has been,
specifically, focused on the simultaneous
transfer of momentum (for air only), heat and
mass (for both air and food) occurring in a
cylindrical-shaped convective oven. The
proposed model represents a general and
predictive tool capable to describe the real
ovens behavior over a wide range of process
and fluid-dynamic conditions, since it is not
based on any semi-empirical correlations for
the estimation of heat and mass fluxes at food-
air interface. The main objective of this work
is to develop an accurate transport model that
can be used to define, for different types of
foods, the “optimal” set of operating
conditions in each particular situation. In this
way, it might be possible to minimize
expensive pilot test-runs and to have good
indications on the characteristics and the
quality of dried products.
2. Theoretical background
When a moist and cold food is put in
contact with dry and warm air, two different
transport mechanisms simultaneously occur:
the heat transfer from air to the material and
the transfer of water from food to air. Within
the solid material, heat transfer by conduction
and water transfer by diffusion take place. In
the air, also the convective contributions to
heat and mass transfer have to be considered.
This effect is caused by air circulation velocity
that has to be calculated solving the
momentum transport coupled to the continuity
equation. Actually, water vapor transfer by
diffusion within dehydrated material to the
external food surface should also be
considered. However, this mechanism is
significant especially for highly porous media,
whereas for vegetables, typically characterized
by void fraction lower than 0.3, can be
neglected [13].
In this study paper, air velocity field, water
and heat transfers (for both air and food) were
modeled by transient momentum, mass and
energy balances, with reference to the drying
process of cylindrical vegetables. Evaporation/
condensation effects at the air-food interface
were, instead, considered by a set of proper
boundary conditions expressing the continuity
of temperature, heat and mass fluxes, whereas
a thermodynamic equilibrium relationship was
needed to relate the water concentration in the
gas phase and the moisture content on food
external surfaces. No empirical correlation
was, therefore, necessary to estimate heat and
mass transfers at the food-air interface.
The model is based on the following
hypotheses:
• Heat and mass transfer in the food occur,
respectively, by conduction and diffusion
only;
• Heat and mass transfer in the air occur also
by convection;
• Air is considered as an ideal gas and heat
generation due to friction is negligible;
• The drying air is supplied continuously to the
oven and flows in the axial direction;
• Transport of water vapor within dehydrated
material is negligible;
• The effects of food shrinkage were not
considered;
• Heat and mass transfer resistance are
insignificant across the net on which food is
placed [14], [15].
A symmetric system (Fig. 1) was
considered for the analysis of the transport
phenomena involved in food drying process.
Figure 1. Schematic of the convective oven under
consideration.
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano

It is, actually, a cylindrical domain; the reported, for sake of brevity, in the following
food sample is supposed to have a diameter of fig. 2.
1 cm and a length of 6 cm, the drying chamber,
instead, has a diameter of 20 cm and is 0.25 m
long.

3. Governing equations

In the following, the governing equations

originating from the above hypotheses are
presented. The momentum balance coupled to
the continuity equation in the drying air lead to
[16]:
∂ρ
=−∇⋅ρ u
∂t
∂ρu
= − ∇ ⋅ ρ uu − ∇ p − ∇ τ + ρ g
∂t
where ρ is the density of air, expressed in
terms of the local values of temperature and of
water concentration, p is its pressure, u is the
air velocity vector.
The unsteady-state energy balance
equations for both air and food, based on
Fourier’s law, write – respectively – as [16]:
∂ ρ Cˆ p T
∂t
(
= − ∇ ⋅ − k∇ T + ρ Cˆ p T u + ) Dp
Dt
+ ρT
∂ ρ 2 Cˆ p 2T2 DCˆ p 2
= − ∇ ⋅ (− k2∇T2 ) + ρ 2 T2
∂t Dt
where T is air temperature, Ĉ p is its heat
capacity and k its thermal conductivity, T2 is
food temperature, ρ2 is its density, Cˆ p 2 is food
heat capacity, and k2 its thermal conductivity.
The unsteady-state mass balance equations
referred to the water contained in both air and
food and based on the Fick’s law, write –
respectively – as [16]:
∂c
= − ∇ ⋅ (− D ∇ c + c u )
∂t
∂ c2
= − ∇ ⋅ (− D2 ∇ c 2 )
∂t
where c is the water concentration in the
air and D is the diffusion coefficient of water
in air, c2 is the water concentration in the food
and D2 is the effective diffusion coefficient of
water in the food. It should be observed that
the physical and transport properties for either
air or food are expressed in terms of the local
values of temperature and moisture content.
The initial values, necessary to perform the
numerical simulations, regard the conditions
of: both air (i.e. humidity, temperature,
velocity field and pressure) and food (i.e.
moisture content and temperature) before
drying process takes place. As far as the
boundary conditions are concerned, they are
Figure 2. Boundary conditions for the system of
PDEs modeling drying process.
For some of the above boundary conditions
a deeper and more detailed discussion is
DCˆ p
Dt
needed. At food-air interface, where no
accumulation occurs, the continuity of heat
fluxes actually considers that the heat
transported by convection and conduction from
air to food is partially used to raise sample
temperature by conduction and partially to
allow water evaporation. The latter effect is
described by considering water latent heat of
vaporization that is expressed in terms of the
interfacial food temperature and of its moisture
content. Moreover, a thermodynamic
equilibrium relationship between water
concentration in the gas phase and water
concentration on food external surfaces has
been used to calculate the values of ceq.on
boundaries 7, 8, and 9:
p⋅ys = Ps0⋅aws
where Ps0, ys and aws are the vapor pressure,
the molar fraction, and the activity of water on
food external surfaces, respectively. The above
equation is fundamental to properly describe
the complex steps involved in the drying
process. In fact, water activity aws decreases as
food moisture content decreases so that a unity
value of aws corresponds only to the free water
evaporation. When aws < 1, also bounded water
is removed. Water activity is a distinctive
parameter of each type of food that, as a
function of its own structure, determines how
strong the bonds between food and water are.
The boundary conditions used on boundary 2
for both energy and mass balances are valid
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano

under the hypothesis that the penetration of the drying chamber. It is interesting to observe
either temperature or concentration profiles is, the differences between the front side of food
actually, confined in two very thin regions (the sample, where air impinges and its rear side
boundary layers) that develop close to the where a very wide region characterized by low
food-air interface. The above assumption will values of velocity forms. This phenomenon
be validated or falsified when the simulation affects the drying rate that is, generally,
results will be analyzed more in detail. different for each of the surfaces exposed to air
The above system of non-linear Partial since it depends on the local values of velocity
Differential Equations, together with the that has a strong influence on both heat and
already described set of initial and boundary mass transfer at food-air interface.
conditions, has been solved by Finite Elements
Method implemented by Comsol Multiphysics
3.2. The integration domain has been
discretized into 13193 finite elements (see
Fig.3); the resulting number of degrees of
freedom was equal to about 100000. A drying
process duration of 5 hours was, averagely,
simulated in 4 hours on a AMD Athlon(tm),
1,24 GHz Personal Computer running under
LINUX.

Figure 4. Velocity field [m/s] in the air flowing

about the cylindrical carrot sample (u0 = 1 m/s).

In the following Figs. 5-6 temperature and

Figure 3. Discretization by triangular finite
elements and detail of the mesh.
water concentration profiles in the air, but in a
zone close to the food sample, are shown. The
simulation results confirm that the penetration
of both temperature and concentration profile
is, actually, confined in two thin regions that
develop at the air-food interface.

4. Results and Discussion

In the following, some of the most

interesting results obtained by the proposed
model are presented. All the simulations have
been performed assuming that the food sample
is a carrot whose initial temperature and
moisture content (on a wet basis) are equal to
300 K and 87%, respectively. The physical and
transport properties characteristic for the carrot
were expressed in terms of the local values of
temperature and concentration according to the
relationships proposed by Ruìz-Lopez et al.
[17]. The initial conditions for the air,
supposed stagnant, were a temperature of 343
K, and a relative humidity equal to 9.1%. The
proposed model can describe, at any time, all
the profiles in both domains. The following Figure 5. Temperature [K] profiles in the air (t=
Fig. 4 shows air velocity field that develops in 1200 s)
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano
Figure 6. Water concentration profiles [mol/m3]
in the air (t= 1200 s)
The greatest part of the drying chamber is,
unaffected by the presence of a cold and moist
solid since it is characterized by constant
values of either temperature or humidity.
Moreover, at the rear of the sample, where air
circulation is rather limited, temperature tends
to increase more slowly than, for instance, at
the front side.
The following two figures (Figs. 7 and 8)
show the time evolution of both temperature
and concentration profiles in the food sample.
It can be observed that the carrot front side,
where drying air impingement occurs,
becomes hotter and dryer sooner than the other
exposed surfaces and even much faster than
the inner regions of food sample.
Figure 7. Temperature [K] profiles in the carrot
at different drying times
Figure 8. Water concentration profiles
[mol/m3] in the carrot at different drying times
Moreover, it is interesting to notice the
mobile fronts of both temperature and
concentration in the solid that, as time goes by,
advance either in axial or in radial direction
determining a progressive increase of food
temperature and a continuous decrease of its
humidity.
5. Conclusions
In the present paper a general transport
model, describing the drying process
performed in a convective oven, has been
formulated and solved by Comsol
Multiphysics 3.2. The influence of the most
important operating variables on system
performance has been evaluated without
resorting to any empirical correlation for the
estimation of heat and mass transfer at food-air
interface. The developed model could support
process designers either to evaluate product
quality and its dependence on operating
variables or to estimate process economics.
The model will be improved in the future
by accounting also for the volume variation
(shrinkage effects) that takes place during food
drying process. The work is in progress and a
new model formulation, based on the coupling
of the ALE method to the above-described
transport equations, is currently under
investigation.
6. References
1. Hernàndez, J.A., Pavòn, G., Garcìa, M.A.,
Analytical Solution of Mass Transfer Equation
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Milano

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