Abstract
Volume change and large deformation occur in different solid and semi-solid foods during processing, e.g., shrinkage of fruits and vegetables during drying and of meat during cooking, swelling of grains during hydration, and expansion of dough during baking and of snacks during extrusion and puffing. In addition, food is broken down during oral processing. Such phenomena are the result of complex and dynamic relationships between composition and structure of foods, and driving forces established by processes and operating conditions. In particular, water plays a key role as plasticizer, strongly influencing the state of amorphous materials via the glass transition and, thus, their mechanical properties. Therefore, it is important to improve the understanding about these complex phenomena and to develop useful prediction tools. For this aim, different modelling approaches have been applied in the food engineering field. The objective of this article is to provide a general (non-systematic) review of recent (2005–2021) and relevant works regarding the modelling and simulation of volume change and large deformation in various food products/processes. Empirical- and physics-based models are considered, as well as different driving forces for deformation, in order to identify common bottlenecks and challenges in food engineering applications.
Highlights
There is a need for better understanding the fundamental mechanisms of these phenomena in the context of food engineering, that is, to develop scientific knowledge and useful tools to describe and predict the relationships between processing conditions and behavior of food materials
Foods 2021, 10, 778 not intended to be an extensive and detailed or systematic review of all models and/or numerical methods reported in the literature, but an overview of significant contributions in different applications with focus on large deformation of solid-like materials, which can be taken as reference for further studies and developments
A classification of such models was proposed in this work, based on the prediction capability and hypotheses of each approach: (i) Simple models are able to predict overall volume change and related properties, either from empirical data or from theoretical simplifications; (ii) physics-based models can predict local deformation and porosity evolution, and stress field and related magnitudes via mechanical modelling
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Volume change and deformation imply the variation of food geometry and movement of solid skeleton, and need to be taken into account when modelling transport processes for a correct calculation of gradients, fluxes and average values of dependent variables [20] This represents an additional challenge for modelling and simulation of food processes, besides the availability of thermophysical properties and experimental validation of numerical predictions [21]. Foods 2021, 10, 778 not intended to be an extensive and detailed or systematic review of all models and/or numerical methods reported in the literature, but an overview of significant contributions in different applications with focus on large deformation of solid-like materials, which can be taken as reference for further studies and developments By taking this transversal and comprehensive perspective, we aim at condensing the common bottlenecks and challenges shared by main applications, since most of available review articles are rather focused either on a single product/process or on a specific modelling approach. The review is organized as follows: In Section 2, different modelling approaches are described upon an ad hoc classification, including both empirical- and physics-based, as well as hybrid formulations; in Section 3, the mechanisms and modelling of volume change and deformation of different common products/processes are discussed; in Section 4, conclusions and perspectives are given to finalize
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