Thermal Behavior Prediction of Food Particulates Under Ambient and Cryogenic Conditions

This article describes experiments to quantitatively characterize the
thermal effects of solid food particulates in terms of temperature increment
as a function of particle size under ambient and cryogenic conditions using
turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) as a model material. The log-normal function
was used to characterize the thermal behavior. Cylindrical specimens of
turmeric were impacted diametrally, and the resulting particle size distributions
and cumulative volume fraction were measured by computerized
inspection particle size analyzer. The various model parameters estimated
under the said conditions, such as surface-volume ratio, energy density and
combined strength parameter, were found to be in the range of 3.5 ¥ 103–
1.14 ¥ 106 (m-1), 2.4 ¥ 105–6.6 ¥ 107 J/m3 and 174.1–229.5 J/m2, respectively.
The temperature change DT (C) was calculated in terms of log-normal
parameters and material properties such as the specific heat and local energy
density. The calculated DT was plotted as a function of size of particles. Local
temperature rise up to 114.5 and 67.2C was found for the particle size of 12 mm
or lower for ambient and cryogenic conditions, respectively. A novel mathematical
model has been proposed to correlate the size distributions of solid
particles under fracture to the temperature changes.