Computational fluid dynamics combined with discrete element method and discrete phase model for studying a food hydrofluidization system

Abstract

A food hydrofluidization system composed by multiple fluid immersed jets and multiple moving food spheres was modeled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with discrete element method (DEM) and discrete phase model (DPM). The model proposed consists in studying the fluid and food domains separately and connecting both through the information carries by surface heat transfer coefficients. The fluid flow was solved considering Navier–Stokes assumptions for a Newtonian fluid, the movement of food spheres was followed by DPM while the interactions of spheres between them and with the wall domain were considered through DEM. Specific parameters were determined for a study case of potato spheres when a concentrated NaCl solution was used as refrigerating medium. The proposed model was partially validated with information obtained from literature for similar systems and good agreement was found. This study shows, as a proof of concept, that CFD–DPM–DEM can be a powerful tool to simulate food processing systems where particles of food solid move within the fluid domain with a minimum computational requirement.