Food Cooking Process. Numerical Simulation of the Transport Phenomena

B. Bisceglia[1], A. Brasiello[1], R. Pappacena[1], R. Vietri[1]
[1]University of Salerno, Department of Industrial Engineering, Fisciano (SA), Italy
Published in 2013

Aim of the study is to determine the influence of some of the most important operating variables, especially humidity and temperature, of drying air on the performance of cooking process of pork meat. The process is simulated using finite elements software COMSOL Multiphysics®. The proposed model considers two geometries: cylindrical and parallelepiped, with fixed physical properties and convective boundary conditions. The model was used to predict transient temperature and moisture distributions inside the product, as well as transient cooking yield of meat samples during cooking. It is expected in the future to create a model for cooking pork meat in a microwave oven and compare it with the results obtained for the classical convection oven.