Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Application of an ideal model to the scaling up of a laboratory

extruder
Rolando Jose Gonzalez *, Roberto Luis Torres, Dardo Mario De Greef
Facultad de Ingenierõa Quõmica, Instituto de Tecnologõa de Alimentos, UNL, CC 266, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina
Received 4 May 2000; accepted 14 August 2000

Abstract
The application of an ideal model to the scaling up of a laboratory single screw food extruder is analysed. The method proposed
by Harper (case 3) with a scale up factor of 2.25 was used. Experiments were carried out using a commercial corn grits sample. To
compare the extruders performance, the following parameters were measured in each experiment: output (Q), measured as the solids
(at feeding moisture level basis) coming out from the extruder; the die pressure (P), measured at the cylindrical head which supports
the die and degree of cooking (DC), which is taken as product characteristic. DC was estimated by two parameters, the water
solubility (S) and the amylographic retrogradation (R). Two grits feeding moisture levels were selected for the extrusion (15% and 30
%) in order to produce products having two di€erent degrees of cooking levels, high and low, respectively. Three screw speeds for
each extruder and two di€erent die l=d ratio: l=d ˆ 10 and l=d ˆ 20. were used in the experiments.
The results show that the scaled up extruder (SE) gives lower Q values than the predicted by the model. This is due, mainly
because a higher DC is obtained with the SE. The di€erences in DC are more signi®cant in the case of 15% moisture and even more
noticeable for the longer die and higher rpm. We conclude that, considering the simplicity of the model used, it could be applied to
the scaling up of a single food extruder providing that a new set of processing condition are found for the SE so as to obtain the
same DC as that of the small one. Among the di€erent alternatives used (change of the die l/d ratio or adjusting moisture level or the
change of rpm), the decrease in the die l/d ratio seems to be the best, because the higher cooking capacity of the SE allows to increase
the output by reducing the die ¯ow restriction (l/d). Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction all the auxiliary equipment needed for a plant, the

Food extrusion technology has been used, during the
last three decades, to produce a wide range of cereal
foods (Harper, 1981; Asp & Bjorck, 1989; Fast, 1991;
Gonzalez, Torres, & Greef, 1998).
There exist a great variety of extruder designs. These
are characterized by investment level, design complexity
and operation control. The extremes are the so called
low cost cookers like the Brady design and the double
screw extruders (Harper, 1981b).
Although double screw extruders permit a better
operation control and a wider diversity of product types
than single screw extruders, these are still a good alter-
native for cooking and forming cereal products, because
of their lower costs (Harper, 1989).
During the last decade the demand for single screw
cooking extruders has increased in Argentina. Besides
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rolgonza@®qus.unl.edu.ar (R.J. Gonzalez).
0260-8774/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 4 1 - 2
construction of an extruder requires great knowledge
of the extrusion process. This includes the appropriate
model to estimate the production capacity (output),
the power consumption and the product characteris-
tics (Carley & Mc Kelvey, 1953; Middleman, 1977;
Levine, 1982; Janseen, 1989; Valentas, Levine, &
Clark, 1991).
The ideal model which, among other assumptions,
considers the ¯ow as isothermic and Newtonian, has
been used by several authors (with di€erent degree of
success) to scale up both single and double screw food
extruders (Linko, Colonna, & Mercier, 1981). Tsao
(1978) observed the lack of precision of the model for
the output prediction, particularly in the case of high
moisture dough. Singh (1998), working with a double
screw extruder design, showed that the product char-
acteristics cannot be kept with the scaled up extruder.
Yacu (1992), working with double screw, showed that
the ideal model can be used for scaling up, but if the
same product characteristics are desired, some correc-
tions of the process conditions have to be made.
46 R.J. Gonzalez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51

Table 1
Scale up alternatives for food extruders using scale up factor /a

Dimensions Output variables

Case e D W H d L N Q E cH cd q

1 / / / / / / 1 /3 /3 1 1  /2
2 / / / / / / 1=/ /2 / 1=/ 1=/ /2
3 / / / /1=2 /1=2 / 1=/1=2 /2  /2:5 1 1  /2
a
e ˆ flight width, D ˆ screw diameter, W ˆ channel width, H ˆ flight height, d ˆ clearance over land of screw, L ˆ length of metering section,
N ˆ speed of rotation of screw, Q ˆ flow rate, E ˆ energy input into metering section, cH ˆ shear rate in screw channel, cd ˆ shear rate in
clearance, q ˆ rate of heat transfer.

The main diculty is not the prediction of output or
power consumption but to obtain the same product,
which in the case of cereal cooking, implies the same
degree of cooking (Levine, 1989).
In order to obtain the same product characteristics,
some of the so-called primary criterium (such as: resi-
dence time, mixing intensity and shear, product tem-
perature and die pressure) have to be kept constant in
the scaling up process. Die pressure is controlled by its
geometry and the number of holes (Levine, 1989; Miller,
1991), so that the ®rst step is the die scaling up which
has to keep the same pressure gradient.
Three di€erent cases (Table 1), for the scaling up of a
a single screw food extruder, have been proposed by
Harper (1981c). The application of each one, depends
on the type of extrusion operation. For example case 3,
is recommended to keep product characteristics, al-
though, as was pointed out by Miller (1991), some
corrections either to design variables (die diameter,
number of ori®ces, die length/diameter ratio) or process
variables (screw speed, ¯our moisture, die and barrel
temperature) have to be made. So, once the criterium are
®xed and the scaled up extruder is tested, a process of
trial and error has to be followed to adjust the operation
in order to obtain the desired result (same product
characteristics).
The objective of this work was to analyze the appli-
cation of the ideal model to the scaling up of a labo-
ratory single screw food extruder and the possible
corrections to be made for keeping product character-
istics.
nitruration and the ®nal surface rugosity was measured
by using a Hommelwerke rugosimeter (Germany), was
in all cases 0.8 Ra (Ra system, 1 Ra ˆ 1 lm). In the
previous works, nothing is said about the surface of the
screw and barrel nor about barrel grooves, both of
which are important factors which a€ect the material
transport. So we have also scaled up the barrel grooves
dimensions.
According to case 3, to get a ®ve fold increase in
output with the SE, a scale up factor / ˆ 2:25, is needed.
This factor is applied to the barrel diameter (D), the
width channel (W), the width ¯ight (e), the screw length
(L) and the width barrel grooves wG , while /1=2 ˆ 1:5 is
used for, the height of screw ¯ight (H), the depth of the
barrel grooves (hG ), the clearance over land of screw (d),
the residence time (RT) and 1=/1=2 ˆ 0:666 is used for
the speed of rotation of screw, in rpm (N). Dimensions
of the two extruders are shown in Table 2.
As was discussed by Yacu (1992), the primary criteria
kept constant in case 3, is the velocity gradient in both,
the barrel channel (pD=H † and annular space (pD=d)
(between barrel and screw).
A commercial corn grits sample (particle size between
1190 and 250 lm, with a main fraction between 1000
and 840 lm which represents 81%) was used for the
model veri®cation experiments.
Two grits feeding moisture levels were selected for the
extrusion (15% and 30%) in order to produce products
having two di€erent degrees of cooking levels, high and
Table 2
Dimensions for both extruders

2. Materials and methods Parameter Brabender (mm) Scaled up (mm)

D 19.0 42.65
Case 3 (Table 1) was taken for scaling up the Brab-
H 1.20 1.80
ender 10 DN laboratory extruder (with a 3:1 compres- d 0.10 0.15
sion ratio screw and 2 mm die diameter), which was L 155.0 367.0
taken as the extruder model design, but using a new set e 3.60 8.08
of screw and barrel, in order to have the same surface W 14.4 32.4
HG 0.80 1.80
treatment in both, the small (B) and the scaled up ex-
WG 3.20 7.20
truder (SE). The barrels and screws were constructed / 17.6° 17.6°
using a SAE 4140 steel. The surfaces were hardened by
 R.J. Gonzalez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51
low, respectively. Moisture was adjusted by adding
water and mixing in a Brabender planetary mixer; the
conditioned samples were kept in plastic bags during
two hours before the extrusion.
Three screw speeds were used, taking into account the
rpm control limitations on the SE machine, which are
limited to: 51, 80 and 115. The corresponding values
with the B are: 77, 120 and 173.
A plate with ®ve holes having the same die diameter
(d) with the same length (l) as in the B dies was used in
the SE. Two di€erent l/d ratio were used in the experi-
ments: l=d ˆ 10 and l=d ˆ 20.
As the isothermal condition is assumed, barrel and
die temperatures (150°C) were kept constant during the
experiments, using electrical heaters on the barrel and
die and by air ¯owing through barrel and die jackets
when cooling was needed.
To compare the extruders performance the following
parameters were measured in each experiment: output
(Q), measured as the solids (at feeding moisture level
basis) coming out from the extruder, in g/min; the die
pressure (P), measured at the cylindrical head which
supports the die, using a DYNISCO transducer (USA)
and degree of cooking (DC), which is taken as product
characteristic. DC was estimated by two parameters, the
water solubility (S) and the amylographic retrogradation
(R), according to previous works (Gonzalez, De Greef,
Torres, & Gordo, 1987; Gonzalez et al., 1998). S is the
percentage of water soluble solids of an extruded sample
and R is the ®nal amylographic consistency (at 30°C) for
a 8.6% solids suspension prepared with the extruded
samples and using a 250 cm
grf sensitivity cartridge.
All experiments were duplicated and the ANOVA
was carried out to compare the results within both ex-
truders.
Fig. 1. Output obtained with both extruders.
47
3. Results and discussion
The ANOVA indicated that the di€erences between
the corresponding values of the two extruders, for each
parameter (Q, P, S and R), are signi®cant, at the 95%
con®dence level.
Fig. 1 shows that the Q values corresponding to the
scaled up extruder (SE) are lower (between 5 and 23%)
than the predicted value (QB  5). The deviation is big-
ger for 15% moisture level and it increases as rpm and
die length increase. As will be seen, the deviation
increases as the DC increases.
Figs. 2 and 3 show the inverse relation between S and
R (high DC is represented by high S and low R values
and inversely, low DC is represented by low S and high
R values) as it was discussed in previous works (Gonz-
alez et al., 1987; Gonzalez et al., 1998; Anderson,
Conway, & Pelinsky, 1970). In all cases the DC obtained
by SE is higher than with B and are directly related to
rpm (in both extruders) in the case of 15%. The opposite
e€ect is found for 30% . The increase in DC with rpm is
more noticeable for the longer die and this e€ect is even
bigger in the case of SE. The e€ects of moisture and rpm
on DC are in agreement with previous results obtained
with B for a wide range of di€erent conditions (Gonz-
alez et al., 1987).
It is interesting to point out that, for 30% with which
the deviations are lower, R is a more sensitive indicator
of the DC, while at 15%, S is better. This di€erence in
sensitivity in the estimation of DC of these two indica-
tors has been discussed in other work (Gonzalez, Torres,
Greef, & Gordo, 1986). This is a very important point,
because the selection of DC indicator, if it is not ade-
quate, can change the desired results of the scale up,
which is desired to be kept constant. So we suggest that
48 R.J. Gonzalez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51

Fig. 2. Solubility of the extruded samples.

Fig. 3. Retrogradation of the extruded samples suspensions.

for high moisture levels (low DC), R should be taken
but, for low moisture levels (high DC), S is preferred.
Fig. 4 indicates that P corresponding to the SE are
lower than that of B. This is related to the higher DC
(and consequently lower viscosity) obtained with the SE.
The dependence of P on rpm is complex, since it is
directly related to Q and die length and inversely related
to viscosity. At 30% and for the two extruders, P in-
creases with rpm, this increase being lower for SE,
particularly in the case of the longer die, with which P is
practically independent of rpm.
At 15%, the in¯uence of DC on P is very noticeable
and it decreases as rpm increases, except for B with the
shorter die, for which P increases a little with rpm. This
indicates that at this moisture the e€ect of Q is less
important than that of DC.
We can conclude that the ideal model is useful for
predicting Q values but it has a great limitation in the
prediction of DC, unless some corrections are made.
Case 3, used in this work to scale up B, establishes
that SE dissipates more energy and that the residence
time in the SE is 50% higher than in B (Table 1). Both
aspects increase the DC. The higher dissipation is con-
trolled by the isothermal condition of the operation, so
the higher DC obtained with SE could be attributed to
the higher residence time. However, this could be pos-
sible only in the case of 30% moisture, since at this level,
the higher the residence time (or the lower the rpm) the
 R.J. Gonzalez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51 49

Fig. 4. Die pressure for both extruders.

higher the DC. But in the case of 15% moisture, the Table 3
higher DC obtained with the SE cannot be attributed to Comparison between the two extruders, for 15% and l=d ˆ 10, but at
higher rpm ratio than the model
the higher residence time ®xed by the model, since at this
moisture level, DC decreases as residence time increases. Brabender (mm) SE
Moreover, it is clear that even at 30% the di€erences in
DC are much higher than that caused by an increase in Rpm 153 240 51 80
Q 68.5 90.1 183 240
residence time and the rpm needed with the B to equalize S 29.6 41 30 40
the DC obtained with the SE would be increased too R 350 290 290 280
much, since DC is not very sensitive to rpm at 30%. It is P 204 197 189 172
also clear that any change in rpm for changing the res-
idence time, in order to match the same DC in both
extruders, modi®es the velocity gradient, which is the
scaling up experiment. Table 3 shows these results, for
primary criterium that is kept constant in the scale up
the shorter die (l=d ˆ 10) and 15 %. This new set of rpm,
model. We can conclude that this criterium is not a good
which are almost two times higher than those previously
indicator of the degree of friction during the extrusion,
used in B (let us say, rpm SE ˆ rpmB=3, instead of
particularly for the case of 15%, which implies a high
rpmB/1,5), gives matching the DC for both (similar S
degree of friction.
and R), although it is clear that a reduction in rpm
We can also say that, considering the simplicity of the
should be done in the SE in case a lower DC is desired,
ideal model, it could be applied to the scaling up a
but this implies a reduction of the output (QSE =QB ˆ
cooking extruder, providing that a new set of processing
2; 66 instead of 5), which is a great disadvantage.
condition are found for the SE so as to obtain the same
This signi®cant change in output also implies a
DC as that of the small one.
change in the velocity gradient in the die but the change
In our case, three relatively simple alternatives to
in P is only about 10%. This di€erence in pressure is
vary the DC can be proposed, which imply changes in:
much lower than those obtained in the scale up experi-
(a) the rpm; (b) the die l/d ratio and (c) the feeding
ments because the values in Table 3 correspond to
moisture level. Examples for the three cases are dis-
similar DC.
cussed in the following paragraph.
For the case of the longer die (l=d ˆ 20), only one
rpm is compared, because a higher value than 240 is not
3.1. The change of rpm practical with B. It is observed in Table 4 that again, the
DC is similar when B is operated at 240 rpm and com-
Instead of reducing the rpm in the SE, for decreasing pared with the SE at 51 rpm, giving a rpm ratio of about
DC and consequently, to obtain similar DC with both 4.7 instead of 1.5 as the model establishes.
extruders, we selected a new set of rpm for the small Regarding the samples corresponding to 30% mois-
extruder to match the DC obtained with the SE in the ture level and particularly for the longer die a very low
50 R.J. Gonzalez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 48 (2001) 45±51
Table 4
Comparison between the two extruder for 15% and l=d ˆ 20, but
higher rpm ratio than the model
Brabender SE
Rpm 240 51
Q 85 146
S 45 50
R 275 220
P 198 200
rpm would be needed with the B to increase the DC to a
level similar to those of the SE.
3.2. The change of the die l=d ratio
For the samples at 30% moisture, it is observed that
the DC obtained with SE and the shorter die are similar
to those of the B at the corresponding rpm, but with the
longer die (Fig. 2). It is interesting to point out that in
this case, even though the DC are similar, the pressure
values in B are almost the double of the SE. This is due
to the e€ect of a longer die in B.
Similarly, for the samples at 15% but at the lower
rpm, the S values corresponding to the SE (Fig. 2) with
the shorter die are similar to those of the B at the cor-
responding rpm, but with the longer die (Fig. 2). The
di€erence in S begins to increase as the rpm become
higher.
Regarding the P values, the B again gives higher
values than the SE due to the die length e€ect.
We can conclude that, the application of the ideal
model is possible, providing a change in the die l/d ratio
is made. This is a great advantage, because a decrease of
the die l/d ratio in SE will give a higher output than the
one predicted by the model. As in the case of changing
rpm, the change in l/d, obviously breaks the primary
criterium of keeping constant the velocity gradients
both, in the die and in the screw channel.
3.3. The change of moisture level
Finally an alternative method of decreasing the DC in
the SE, without changing any design variable or oper-
ation, is to increase the moisture level. Table 5 shows the
results obtained with the SE at 22% moisture level, for
the shorter die and for the rpm established by the model,
in comparison with those of B but at 15%. It is observed
that S are higher while R are lower than the corre-
sponding values obtained with the B. Even though these
di€erences are not too large (10% higher for S and 60
amylographic units for R) it is a good demonstration
that the DC is not completely de®ned by only one in-
dicator.
Table 5
Comparison between the two extruder for 22%, l=d ˆ 10 and with the
rpm ratio according to the model, in comparison with those of B but at
15%
Rpm: B ± SE 77 ± 51 120 ± 80 173 ± 115
Q 41.5 ± 173.2 58.2 ± 233.7 75 ± 298.5
S 25.3 ± 28.2 27 ± 30 32 ± 35.5
R 380 ± 440 370 ± 420 340 ± 400
P 200 ± 70 203 ± 75 205 ± 80.5
Regarding the P values, it is observed that they are
much lower than those reached with the B at 15%
moisture, because viscosity is dependent not only on DC
but also on moisture.
The modi®cation of moisture can be considered a
good alternative for adjusting the condition needed to
obtain the same product speci®cations, as was also
suggested by Yacu (1992). This alternative has also the
disadvantage that the output is lower than that pre-
dicted by the scale up model but is less signi®cant than
in the case of reducing rpm (alternative (a)).
4. Conclusion
The reason why the scaled up extruder gives a lower
output is mainly due to the higher DC obtained as a
consequence of a higher degree of friction in the SE.
This, in addition, implies that the velocity gradient taken
as a primary criterium to be kept constant in the scale up
model (case 3), is not a good indicator of the global
degree of friction during the extrusion process, partic-
ularly for the case of 15% moisture level.
The selection of the DC indicators is a very important
point, for high moisture level, R should be used, while
for low moisture level, S is preferred. In the case of in-
termediate moisture level, both indicators can be used.
The ideal model, with some obvious limitations, is
still useful in scaling up a cooking extruder, providing
some corrections are made with the SE, taking into ac-
count that for high moisture level, minor corrections are
needed. The decrease in the die l/d ratio seems to be the
best alternative, because the higher cooking capacity of
the SE allows to increase the output by reducing the die
¯ow restriction (l/d).
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