Rheology and Fluid Dynamic of Egg White: Effect of Thixotropy on Engineering Design

Abstract

AbstractThe wide application of egg products by food industries reinforces the importance of dealing with egg white properties, such as thermophysical ones, for correct processing and equipment design. Therefore, rheological properties, density and pressure drops were studied from 0.5 to 53.4C, as well as their influence on the energy pump required in a hypothetical pipeline configuration. Egg white presented Power–Law behavior, with thixotropy. Consistency coefficient and apparent viscosity were estimated by an Arrhenius‐type equation for downward and upward curves. Densities were obtained as a linear function of temperature. Fanning friction factors could be calculated and correlated with generalized Reynolds number. The use of Rabinowitsch–Mooney equation resulted in good similarity with the rheological behavior obtained using the rheometer. Different cases of pipeline simulation showed a deviation of until 2.8% in the required energy pump.Practical ApplicationsEgg white is a very useful product of food industry, but its processing requires the knowledge of some thermophysical properties. Among them, there are rheological properties and flow behavior which could present thixotropy. Studying how transport properties are affected by shear rate is valid for the correct equipment design. In order to evaluate this behavior deviation on industrial plant designs, thixotropy and friction factors of egg white are discussed in this work through the aid of a hypothetical pipeline. Rheograms obtained from pressure drops (along a pipe) and shear stress (by rheometer) were compared to provide information about the similarity between different ways for data acquisition.