Articles techniques et présentations

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 focused on the simultaneous transfer of momentum, heat and mass occurring in a convective drier where hot dry air flows, in turbulent conditions, around the food sample. The proposed model does not rely on the specification of interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients and, therefore, represents a general tool capable of describing the behavior of real driers over a wide range of process and fluid dynamic conditions. The system of non-linear unsteady-state partial differential equations modeling the process has been solved by means of the Finite Elements Method coupled to the Moving Mesh ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) procedure.