Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417

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Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i f s e t

Review

Numerical simulations of pulsed electric fields for food preservation: A review

D. Gerlach a, ⁎, N. Alleborn a, A. Baars a, A. Delgado a, J. Moritz b, D. Knorr b
a
Institute of Fluid Mechanics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Cauerstr. 4, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany
b
Department of Food Biotechnology and Food Process Engineering, Berlin, University of Technology, Koenigin-Luise-Str. 22, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The application of pulsed electric fields is a novel technique to preserve foods in a non-thermal way. One key
Received 23 July 2007 component of this technology is the treatment chamber, in which the food is exposed to a pulsed electric field
Accepted 10 February 2008 to induce permeabilization of biological cells, e.g. to inactivate microorganisms. For a high efficiency of the
method and a high product quality a detailed knowledge of the electric field strength and temperature
Editor proof receive date 27 March 2008
distribution in the chamber is necessary. The numerical simulation of the fluid dynamics coupled with the
electric and thermal fields inside the treatment chamber can provide such information with high spacial and
Keywords:
temporal resolution. An important goal of the simulations is the optimization of the treatment chamber
Numerical simulation
Pulsed electric field
geometry to improve the uniformity of the electric and thermal fields between the electrodes in order to avoid
PEF the over or under-processing of foods or dielectric breakdowns. This article reviews numerical investigations
Food preservation performed on the pulsed electric field process and presents numerical results of a treatment chamber
Non-thermal processing optimization and the solution of coupled fluid dynamical, electrical and thermal problems.
Industrial relevance: Numerical simulations of the pulsed electric field process provide detailed information of
the fluid flow, the temperature and the electric field distributions in treatment chambers under various
conditions. Such local information inside the electric field is difficult to obtain experimentally. For a further
development of the pulsed electric field technology, numerical simulations can be applied to improve the
fundamental understanding of the physical phenomena occurring and to optimize the process with respect to
the chamber design and operating conditions.
© 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
2. Theoretical and numerical background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
2.1. Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
2.2. Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2.2.1. Fluid flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2.2.2. Temperature field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2.2.3. Electric potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2.3. Fluid properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2.4. Numerical solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
2.5. Post-processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
3. Simulation of the electric field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
4. Coupled simulation of the fluid flow, temperature and electric field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
5. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

1. Introduction

The pulsed electric field (PEF) technology can be utilized for many
operations in food and bioengineering. Applications include, for
⁎ Corresponding author. example, the inactivation of microbial cells, the improvement of mass
E-mail address: dgerlach@lstm.uni-erlangen.de (D. Gerlach). transfer in plant or animal cells or sludge disintegration (Toepfl,

1466-8564/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ifset.2008.02.001
 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
Mathys et al., 2006). In case of food preservation, the destruction of
microorganisms such as molds, yeast and bacteria, which can act as
spoilage organisms or pathogens, is of major concern. The inactivation
by PEF as a non-thermal method was investigated extensively in the
past (Grahl & Märkl, 1996; Wouters, Dutreux, Smelt, & Lelieveld, 1999;
Ho & Mittal, 2000; Mãnas & Pagãn, 2005). Electric field pulses of short
duration (1–100 µs) and high intensity (10–50 kV/cm) are applied to a
food placed between electrodes. Microbial cells exposed to such fields
can respond by an electrical breakdown of the cell membrane, which
leads to membrane perforation (electroporation) and, in the irrever-
sible case, to the inactivation or death of the microorganism. An
electrical breakdown of the cell can be expected when a critical
transmembrane potential larger than approximately 1 V is provided
(Zimmermann, Pilwat, & Riemann, 1974). As a consequence, the
required minimal electric field strength necessary for a proper
inactivation depends on the cell size and geometry (Heinz, Alvarez,
Angersbach, & Knorr, 2002). Although the treatment of the food by an
electric field leads to an increase in temperature due to ohmic heating,
the process temperature is typically held low enough (sublethal
temperatures) to exploit the advantages of a non-thermal technology.
In contrast to a thermal treatment as a widely used procedure for the
microbial inactivation, emerging non-thermal methods such as PEF
better preserve the sensory, nutritional and functional properties of
foods (Grahl & Märkl, 1996; Mãnas & Pagãn, 2005; Toepfl, Mathys et
al., 2006), which is compatible with the increasing consumer demand
for ‘fresh-like’ food. Numerous experimental studies have proven that
a sufficient reduction of microorganisms can be achieved by the
application of PEF (Wouters et al., 1999). Most successfully was the
treatment of liquid foods in a continuous process (Heinz, Toepfl &
Knorr, 2003; Evrendilek et al., 2000; Ho & Mittal, 2000; Bendicho,
Barbosa-Cánovas, & Martín, 2002). However, the PEF technology has
not reached yet a stage of commercial usability, which shows the
demand for further intensive research to complete the understanding
and to minimize the drawbacks.
The present paper deals with the numerical simulation of the
treatment process of liquid foods by PEF. This approach can be
considered as an alternative to experiments or at least a complemen-
tary method in such cases, when experiments are difficult or
impossible to be performed. Numerical simulations would, for
example, be advantageous, when the measuring equipment itself
disturbs the process under consideration. The substitution of parts of
the experiments by numerical simulations becomes also interesting,
when the experimental development of a process is too expensive and
time consuming. Then, numerical simulations can be employed to
study crucial parts of the process in detail and its behavior in specified
parameter ranges for optimization.
The basis for numerical simulation are governing equations, which
describe the problem under investigation. These equations are
typically partial differential equations, which cannot be solved
analytically except for a few special cases. In order to obtain an
approximate solution numerically, one has to use a discretization
method which approximates the differential equations by a system of
algebraic equations, which can then be solved on a computer (Ferziger
& Perić, 2002). The numerical solution of the discretized equations
provides then results at discrete points in space, at the elements or the
control volumes of the numerical grid, and in time.
In order to apply numerical methods for theoretical predictions of
the PEF process, one starts with the formulation of a mathematical
model, i.e. the definition of the governing equations and boundary
conditions (Fiala, Wouters, van den Bosch, & Creyghton, 2001;
Lindgren, Aronsson, Galt, & Ohlsson, 2002). An appropriate model
considers all relevant physical mechanisms but simplifies the exact
conservation laws to save computational time. A model of the PEF
process can include, for example, equations for the electrical potential
between the electrodes, the fluid flow in the treatment chamber and
an energy equation taking into account the electric heating of the
409
fluid. A commercial solver can be used for the discretization of the
governing equations and their solution. As a result of the simulation,
the solution variables like velocities, pressure, electrical potential and
temperature are available at each computational grid point, which
allows the user to analyze the results in a post-processing step. Such
spatially and temporally resolved information of the process quan-
tities inside the treatment chamber can hardly be made accessible
through experiments.
Aim of the present paper is to summarize the numerical studies
done so far on the PEF process. The number of publications using
numerical tools in this field is rather limited until now. One group
focuses on the simulation of the electric field in the treatment
chamber without considering the flow field and the temperature
distribution (Qin, Zhang, Barbosa-Cánovas, Swanson, & Pedrow,
1995; Misaki, Tsuboi, Itaka, & Hara, 1982; Góngora-Nieto, Pedrow,
Swanson, & Barbosa-Cánovas, 2003; Toepfl et al., 2007). The
objectives of such simulations are to improve the uniformity of the
electric field in the treatment region in order to avoid an over-
processing or the possibility of dielectric breakdowns due to field
intensity peaks. On the other hand, the electric field strength must
exceed a critical value over the cross-sectional area of the chamber
(Zimmermann et al., 1974; Heinz et al., 2002) to provide a sufficient
treatment of all fluid volumes. Non-uniform distributions of the field
strength can be caused by the geometry of the chamber composed by
insulators and electrodes (Qin et al., 1995; Misaki et al., 1982) or by
impurities in the treatment medium such as air bubbles or other
dielectric materials like fat globules (Góngora-Nieto et al., 2003;
Toepfl et al., 2007). The second group of numerical investigations
solves the coupled problem including the electric field, the fluid flow
and the ohmic heating of the fluid (Fiala et al., 2001; Lindgren et al.,
2002). The purpose of such complex simulations is to study the local
interplay of the heating of the fluid due to the electric field and the
heat transfer due to heat convection and conduction. To profit from
the advantages of PEF as a non-thermal technology as discussed
above, the temperature in the chamber should be controlled at every
location. Different effects can arise: when the temperature locally
increases too strongly due to field heterogeneities, the quality of the
food (nutritional and functional properties) may suffer. If the
temperature in the treatment region is low enough, the efficiency
of the PEF process may still depend on temperature (Heinz et al.,
2003; Toepfl et al., 2007). Hence, a detailed knowledge of tempera-
ture as well as field strength distributions in the chamber is necessary
for an efficient application of PEF.
This paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the the-
oretical background consisting of the mathematical model and the
numerical solution is described. In Sections 3 and 4 the available
numerical studies are summarized and extended by own simulations.
Finally, the results are discussed in Section 5.
2. Theoretical and numerical background
2.1. Governing equations
The electrohydrodynamic phenomena occurring in the treatment
chamber of PEF systems can in general be modeled by applying the
conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy and charge. The
liquid food is treated here as a Newtonian fluid, with density ρ and
dynamic viscosity µ. Mass conservation can be expressed by the con-
tinuity equation
Aq
þ jd ðqvÞ ¼ 0; ð1Þ
At
where t and v denote the time and the velocity vector and ∇ the nabla
operator. Under the assumption of an incompressible fluid (liquid) and
a negligible influence of the temperature on the density, which is a
410 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
sufficiently accurate approximation in cases considered here, Eq. (1)
simplifies to a divergence-free velocity field
jd v ¼ 0:
The momentum equation is given as

 h  i
Av
q þ ðvdjÞv ¼ jp þ jd AðT Þ jv þ ðjvÞT ;
At
where p represents the pressure and T the temperature. As indicated
in Eq. (3), the dynamic viscosity µ may be temperature dependent. In
order to consider the impact of the pulsed electric field applied on the
temperature distribution in the processed medium, the energy equa-
tion is coupled with the electric field,


AT
qcP ðT Þ þ vdjT ¼ jd ½kðT ÞjT  þ rðT ÞE2 ;
At
where E denotes the electric field strength and cP, k and σ represent
the specific heat, thermal and electrical conductivity, respectively. The
last term in Eq. (4) considers the conversion of electrical to thermal
energy (Joule heating). It is assumed that the pulsating electric field
does not induce a time varying magnetic field, thus ∇ × E = 0. As a
consequence, the electric field vector E can be written as the gradient
of the electrical potential ψ
E¼
E jw:
Based on charge conservation, the governing equation for the elec-
trical potential can be written as
jd J ¼J jd ½rðT Þjw ¼ 0
with J denoting the current density.
Eqs. (2)–(6) represent a set of coupled differential equations. Their
solution under specified boundary conditions provides information
about the fluid flow, the temperature field and the electric field.
2.2. Boundary conditions
For the solution of the governing Eqs. (2)–(6), conditions have to be
specified on the boundary of the computational domain/grid
considered. In the following a set of boundary conditions are
described, exemplarily, for a co-linear configuration of a treatment
chamber, as indicated in Fig. 1. In this configuration, the high voltage
electrode ring is separated from two ground electrodes by insulator
rings. For such an axisymmetric configuration, the symmetry of the
problem can be exploited by using cylindrical coordinates (r, φ, z) and
assuming changes in the azimuthal coordinate direction φ to vanish
(∂/∂φ = 0). As a consequence, two-dimensional simulations of a three-
dimensional problem can be performed, which reduces the comput-
ing time drastically. Hence, the centerline of the treatment chamber
represents the symmetry line (r = 0). The velocity vector for this case
has components v = (u, w) in the r, z coordinate directions, respectively.
Fig. 1. Example geometry of a co-linear treatment chamber to explain the boundary
conditions.
In the following, the boundary conditions for the fluid flow, the
temperature field and the electric potential are described separately.
ð2Þ 2.2.1. Fluid flow
No-slip and impermeable boundary conditions are specified at all
walls (grounds, electrode, insulators), i.e. v = 0. A Neumann condition
can be prescribed for the velocity at the outflow boundary with
n · ∇v = 0, where n is the unit normal vector to the boundary. The
ð3Þ
outflow condition should in general be chosen such that it has no
effect on the flow at upstream locations. The flow in the chamber can
be assumed to be laminar, when the Reynolds number (Re = ρw —2R/μ) is
typically below the critical value of 2100 of a straight pipe flow, where
the transition from laminar to turbulent occurs (Bird, Stewart, &
Lightfoot, 1960). Here, R is the inner radius of the electrodes and w — is
the mean velocity over the cross section of the pipe given by w — = Q· /
·
(πR2) with Q being the volume flow rate. In case of a laminar flow, a
Dirichlet boundary conditions for a fully developed pipe flow can be
ð4Þ — (1 − (r/R)2) and u = 0. The symmetry
defined at the inflow, i.e. w(r) = 2w
boundary condition is given by u = 0 and ∂w/∂r = 0 at the centerline of
the chamber (r = 0). In case of a turbulent flow in the chamber, the
governing equations are typically extended and appropriate turbu-
lence models are introduced (Ferziger & Perić, 2002).
2.2.2. Temperature field
At the inflow boundary, a constant fluid temperature Tin is
typically prescribed. An adiabatic boundary condition is defined at
the symmetry boundary and the outflow, i.e. n · ∇T = 0. The small
ð5Þ thermal conductivity of the insulators compared to the electrodes
suggests an adiabatic boundary condition at the insulator bound-
aries. At the electrodes either an adiabatic boundary condition as
given above or a prescribed heat flux boundary condition (n · k∇T =
α(T − Tref)) can be specified. In the latter case a heat transfer
ð6Þ coefficient α and a reference temperature Tref have to be provided,
which is calculated based on simplified equations for the heat flux
across the boundary to the ambient (Baehr & Stephan, 2004).
2.2.3. Electric potential
In order to solve the equation for the electric potential (Eq. 6),
ψ = ψ0 (t) is defined at the electrode and ψ = 0 at the grounds. Since the
electric field pulsates and the potential of each pulse delivered by the
electric circuit can be time varying (exponential pulse), the potential
defined as boundary condition at the electrode is in general a function
of time. By introducing ψ0 = ψ0 (t), one faces the problem, that the time
scales of the electrical pulse (τ ~ 1...10 µs) and the off state (1/f ~ 0.02 s
with f being the pulse frequency) may differ considerably, which has
to be realized numerically. In numerical simulations of the electric
field coupled with the fluid flow reported so far (Fiala et al., 2001;
Lindgren et al., 2002), time invariant electrical potentials have been
defined as boundary conditions. To relate this steady heating case to
the parameters of the pulsating one, the heating source term in the
energy equation (Eq. 4) has been multiplied by the factor (fτ). The
temperature increase of each fluid volume can be assumed to be
captured accurately, when the residence time in the treatment volume
is large compared to the time period between pulses, i.e. if each fluid
volume experiences a large number of pulses when flowing through
the chamber.
At all other boundaries beside the electrodes, a zero gradient of the
potential normal to the boundary is prescribed (n · ∇ψ = 0).
2.3. Fluid properties
Before solving the governing equations on an appropriate
computational grid, the properties of the liquid food have to be
determined either by experiments or from literature. The set of
governing Eqs. (2)–(6) contain the fluid density ρ, dynamic viscosity µ,
thermal conductivity k, specific heat cP and the electrical conductivity
 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
σ. When the property changes in the treatment chamber with
temperature are small, one might neglect this temperature depen-
dence, which simplifies the governing equations and their numerical
solution. In the case of water, for example, the density and specific
heat vary only slightly in the typical temperature ranges of 20–90 °C,
and can thus be taken as constant. In contrast, the viscosity decreases
significantly with raising temperature, and can alter the flow field
considerably. Even more important is the temperature dependence of
the electrical conductivity, because σ determines directly the process
parameters. One crucial point here is the influence of conductivity
variations on the treatment chamber resistance, which affects the field
strength distribution and the energy input, and has to be compensated
appropriately in practice. Such mechanisms are discussed by Heinz
et al. (2002), where also fluid properties are provided for selected
liquid foods. However, the temperature distribution in the treatment
chamber is difficult to obtain experimentally. Additionally, as will be
shown with the help of simulations in Section 4, the temperatures
determined downstream of the electrodes may differ strongly from
the peak values in the treatment gap. Hence, without numerical sim-
ulations an accurate prediction of the temperature and the corre-
sponding fluid properties in the treatment zone becomes difficult. As
the discussion above indicates, the electrical conductivity in the
numerical model should be considered as temperature dependent.
2.4. Numerical solution
After the governing equations and boundary conditions for a
particular problem are specified as, for example, in Sections 2.1 and
2.2, they have to be implemented into a numerical solution algorithm.
In case of a commercial software, the user can usually enable the
desired equations by choosing them from predefined libraries. The
physical system under consideration has then to be mapped on a
numerical grid, which can be created typically by a grid generator
provided by the software. One should perform computations of a test
problem with different levels of grid refinement, when the numerical
model is completed, in order to ensure a grid independent solution of
the numerical algorithm. The discretization of the equations on a grid,
i.e. the approximation of the differential equations by a system of
algebraic equations for the variables at a finite number of discrete
locations, is done automatically in case of a commercial solver. Typi-
cally finite difference, finite volume or finite element methods are
applied for discretization. Finally, the system of algebraic equations is
solved by a solution method, which depends on the problem
considered (Ferziger & Perić, 2002). The numerical result provides
distributions of the solution variables at all discrete points/cells and
can be further processed as described in the next section.
A large variety of commercial software packages can be employed for
numerical simulations of the PEF process. Software packages used in
previous studies are either special solvers for electric field distributions
or tools, which can couple differential equation for diverse physical
problems. Examples are Maxwell 2D (Ansoft), Qickfield (Tera Analysis),
Femlab/Matlab and ANSYS/Multiphysics used in Toepfl et al. (2007),
Lindgren et al. (2002) and Fiala et al. (2001). Another possibility is to
develop and apply in-house solvers as it was done in Qin et al. (1995),
Misaki et al. (1982) and Goóngora-Nieto et al. (2003). The numerical
results presented by the authors in Sections 3 and 4 were performed
using the software package FIDAP from FLUENT/ANSYS (Fluent Inc.,
1998). This commercial software is basically a fluid flow solver, which
can model further equations for temperature and other quantities,
which is sufficient for electrostatic problems.
2.5. Post-processing
After a numerical simulation has been completed successfully, the
solution variables are available at all grid points, in transient
computations additionally at several time instants. Typically a large
411
amount of data accumulates in this way, which has to be prepared in
an appropriate way to allow the extraction of the desired information.
Commercial software packages provide usually post-processing or
visualization tools together with solvers, so that the results can be
processed immediately.
The standard way to visualize numerical data is to plot isolines of
some variable (contour plot) as used in this publication, for instance,
in Fig. 4(a), where the distribution of the electric potential on the two-
dimensional grid is depicted. It is also possible to compute new
quantities based on distributions of the solution variables such as the
electric field as a gradient of the potential. In Section 3 the standard
deviation of the electric field strength is calculated in a prescribed
region of the grid as a post-processing step. Another example is to
determine the electric current I flowing through the chamber by the
integration of the current density J = σE over the electrode, i.e.
Z
I¼ J Jd n dA; ð7Þ
AElec:
where n and AElec. denote the normal vector and the area of the
electrode boundary. The current I can be further used to calculate the
specific energy input W introduced into the chamber by the pulsed
electric field, which can be defined as (Heinz et al., 2002)
1
W ¼ f : w0 Is; ð8Þ
m
where ṁ represents the mass flow rate.
3. Simulation of the electric field
This section deals with the simulation of the electric field alone
without considering fluid flow and the temperature distribution in the
chamber. As a consequence, the effect of temperature on the electrical
properties such as conductivity or dielectric permittivity cannot be
considered, so that they are assumed as constant. Numerical simulations
have been employed, for example, in order to obtain a detailed
knowledge about the electric field distribution inside the treatment
chamber to avoid intensity peaks. Góngora-Nieto et al. (2003) have
performed numerical simulations to investigate the influence of air
bubbles on the local electric field distribution inside a co-axial chamber
geometry. The two-dimensional model included the electrostatic
simulation of the electric field in the gap (ψ0 = 25 kV, σ = 0.6 S/cm),
with and without spherical gas bubbles of the size of 0.5 and 1 mm
placed in the gas. Up to two gas bubbles with different vertical and
horizontal arrangements relative to the electric field have been studied.
The simulation results showed, that the electric field distribution is
significantly changed due to the presence of the bubbles. Owing to the
lower permittivity of air compared to liquid, the electric field strength
inside the bubble is increased almost by a factor of two and outside the
bubble in the liquid phase decreased by a factor of up to 10 under the
conditions of Góngora-Nieto et al. (2003). Such results are of high
interest, since, on one hand, the decreased electric field strength around
the air bubbles reduces the treatment effectivity of the process. On the
other hand, a higher field strength inside the bubble increases the risk of
arcing, which is a limiting factor of the PEF technology. In the work of
Góngora-Nieto et al. (2003), the computed electrical potential across the
air bubbles were used to predict conditions, at which a dielectric
breakdown or a partial discharge in the bubbles can be expected. This
happens most likely inside the bubble, since the breakdown strength is
much smaller for gases than for liquids. In order to minimize the risk of
the dielectric breakdown, if air bubbles are present in the region of high
field strengths, the pressure inside the chamber should be increased
(Góngora-Nieto et al., 2003).
Toepfl et al. (2007) studied numerically the reduction of the
electric field strength caused by the presence of dielectric materials
such as fat globules in food or agglomeration among microorganisms.
412 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
In the latter case, the electric field distribution can differ strongly
between an isolated microorganism compared to a cluster of them.
Toepfl et al. (2007) reported a significant decrease of the electric field
strength close to such objects. The influence of mechanisms men-
tioned above on the quality of the treatment process is not understood
sufficiently and needs further numerical as well as experimental in-
vestigations (Toepfl, 2006). Related problems can arise when electro-
chemical processes occur at the electrodes (Morren, Roodenburg, & de
Haan, 2003; Toepfl, Heinz et al., 2006), which can result in partial
electrolysis of the solution or corrosion of the electrode surface.
Another application of numerical simulations of the electric field in
the treatment chamber is to optimize the chamber geometry with
respect to different objectives. Treatment chamber geometries
(parallel plate, co-axial, co-linear) produce electric fields with
different levels of field uniformity (Barbosa-Cánovas & Altunakar,
2006). As a consequence, a proper design of the chamber geometry is
of great importance to ensure a sufficient treatment of all fluid
volumes. Such an optimization is an appropriate task for numerical
simulations, since the computational effort of a single electric field
simulation is typically low. Therefore, a large number of simulations
can be performed and an optimized geometry can be identified either
by parametric studies or systematic (algorithmic) optimization.
Misaki et al. (1982) have developed a numerical algorithm to
optimize automatically the design of insulators to reduce local peaks of
the electric field strength along the insulator surface. They extended
their electric field solver in such a way, that starting from an initial
configuration of the insulator geometry, the insulator contour was
changed locally based on some correction rules (in proportion to the
normal Maxwell's stress at the surface) until the maximum field
strength on the insulator surface reached a reference value. As a
result, the local maxima of the field strength were successfully reduced
in their application. Using a similar numerical approach Qin et al. (1995)
optimized the geometry of a parallel plate and a co-axial treatment
chamber. The aim of this work was also to improve the uniformity of the
field intensity along the insulator surface in order to reduce the
probability of dielectric breakdowns. The theoretically optimized
geometries of the chambers were successfully tested by experiments
applying high voltage pulses for the inactivation of microorganisms.
Lindgren et al. (2002) have applied numerical simulations to
optimize the uniformity of the electric field in a co-linear configura-
tion. As a measure of the uniformity, Lindgren et al. (2002) have
calculated a relative standard deviation of the electric field strength in
the insulator gap (see Fig. 2), which is denoted here with ESD. An
improved design can be obtained, if ESD is minimized in a given range
of parameters. In a similar way to Lindgren et al. (2002), the standard
deviation of the field strength is used as objective function for the
present results, i.e.,
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u
u 1 X N  2
ESD ¼t E  Eavg dVi ;
Vgap i¼1 i
where the summation is over all N elements of the computational grid
in the insulator gap having an electric field strength Ei and an element
Fig. 2. Sketch of a co-linear treatment chamber and the notations used for optimization.
Only the upper half of the axisymmetric configuration is shown.
volume δVi, respectively. The total volume considered, Vgap, and the
volume averaged field strength, Eavg, are defined by
X
N
1 X N
Vgap ¼ dVi and Eavg ¼ Ei dVi : ð10Þ
i¼1
Vgap i¼1
Variations of two geometrical parameters are considered by the
present authors for illustration, the insulator length LI and the inner
insulator radius RI as indicated in Fig. 2. The edges of the insulator are
rounded to avoid intensity peaks of E at sharp corners. The radius of
curvature is given by (R − RI) with R being the inner electrode radius. R
was defined here to be 3 mm. This co-linear model geometry is similar
to the one used in the experiments of Toepfl et al. (2007). The two
parameters LI and RI are varied in the range 1 mm ≤ LI ≤ 20 mm and
0.1 mm ≤ RI ≤ 2 mm.
The electrical conductivity of the fluid is assumed to be constant,
thus the governing equation of the electrical potential (Eq. 6) simplifies
to a Laplace equation (∇2ψ = 0). The problem considered here can
further be simplified, when one exploits the fact, that the potentials in
the governing equation and the boundary conditions can be scaled
with the applied potential ψ0 and a characteristic length lc. As a
consequence, a potential ψ⁎ = 1 is defined at the electrode, where the
superscript ⁎ denotes non-dimensional quantities. The normalized
electric field E⁎ as a result of the simulation can easily be re-scaled by
E = E⁎ ·ψ0/lc. This non-dimensional representation of the problem has
the following practical advantage. For a selected organism a critical
electric field strength Ecrit can be calculated, which is the desired value
to be provided in the insulator gap being as uniform as possible. To
obtain this value for a particular geometry simulated, it is convenient
to set Ecrit = Eavg. The potential to be applied can be determined as
ψ0 = Ecrit · lc/Eavg
⁎ , where Eavg
⁎ is the volume averaged field strength in the
gap (Eq. 10) obtained as a result of the simulation of a particular
geometry. In this way the electrical potential disappears as an
additional parameter of the optimization process. In Heinz et al.
(2002) values of the critical electric field Ecrit are calculated following
Zimmermann et al. (1974) for selected organisms based on the as-
sumption of a critical transmembrane potential of 1 V and the know-
ledge of the cell dimensions.
Results of the present computations are provided in Fig. 3, where
the influence of (a) the insulator length LI and (b) the insulator radius
RI on the relative standard deviation ESD are shown, respectively. In
both figures also the non-dimensional mean value of the electric field
strength Eavg ⁎ is plotted for completeness. As described above, the
homogeneity is improved with decreasing values of ESD. Considering
Fig. 3(a) the electric field becomes more uniform by extending the
length of the insulator LI. However, by increasing the length of the
insulator the average field strength is lowered. The consequence is
that for long insulator gaps (large LI) large potentials has to be applied
to obtain a critical field strength Ecrit in the gap.
ð9Þ For the variation of the insulator radius RI (Fig. 3(b)) a minimum of
the ESD distribution can be identified at about RI = 2.2 mm. If the inner
radius of the insulator is decreased from this value, the uniformity of
the electric field worsens significantly. For increasing insulator radii,
corresponding to a configuration changing towards a straight pipe, the
electric field becomes also more non-uniform in terms of the standard
deviation ESD. The average field strength increases with increasing
insulator radius.
The results can be interpreted further in the following way. If, for
example, a treatment chamber should be designed in which a uniform
electric field of strength Ecrit = 30 kV/cm exists to inactivate organisms
(Heinz et al., 2002), Fig. 3(b) suggests to choose for LI = 4 mm an
insulator radius of RI = 2.2 mm. For this geometry the necessary po-
tential to obtain Ecrit = Eavg in the gap region is, as described above, ψ0 =
Ecrit ·lc/E⁎
avg (RI = 2.2 mm) = (30 kV/cm) ·1 m/138 ≈ 22 kV. Here, Eavg
⁎ (RI =
2.2 mm) is taken from Fig. 3(b) and lc = 1 m had been used as length
scale in the simulations.
 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
Fig. 3. Results of parametric studies to optimize the uniformity of the electric field
strength by minimizing its standard deviation ESD in the insulator gap. (a) variation of
the insulator length LI, (b) variation of the insulator radius RI (cf. Fig. 3).
In Fig. 4, contour lines of the electric potential ψ⁎ (a) and the
electric field strength E⁎ (b) (non-dimensional quantities) are depicted
for the optimized geometry with RI = 2.2 mm and LI = 4 mm. Fig. 4(b)
Fig. 4. Contour lines of the electric potential ψ⁎ (a) and the electrical field strength E⁎ (b) of the optimized geometry with RI = 2.2 mm, LI = 4 mm, cf. Fig. 2.
413
shows that there exists a large area in the gap with electric field values
⁎ (RI = 2.2 mm) = 138. The maximal
E⁎ close to the average value of Eavg
values of E⁎ are found at the insulator surface.
Surprisingly, the co-linear geometry of the treatment chamber
used in Toepfl (2006) and Toepfl et al. (2007) has an insulator radius of
RI = 2 mm, which is very close to the optimum found here (RI = 2.2, cf.
Fig. 3(b)) for R and LI being the same.
4. Coupled simulation of the fluid flow, temperature and
electric field
The knowledge of the spacial temperature distribution inside a
treatment chamber is of high interest for an efficient and reliable
application of the PEF technology. Since temperature measurements
inside the treatment gap are difficult experimentally, local temperature
peaks can remain undetected and may lead to an unwanted thermal
treatment of some parts of the liquid food. Numerical investigations
allow the prediction of the temperature distribution in the treatment
zone. The simulation requires the coupled solution of the governing
equations for the electric field, the temperature and the fluid flow (Eqs.
2–6) and boundary conditions as described in Sections 2.1 and 2.2, which
increases the complexity of the solution process and the computational
efforts significantly compared to the simulation of the electric field alone.
Fiala et al. (2001) presented a numerical model including the
calculation of the electric, temperature and the velocity field in the
treatment chamber. The objective of this work was to determine
numerically the effect of ohmic heating on the temperature distribu-
tion in the chamber and to compare the results with their own
experiments. The chamber geometry considered was a co-linear
configuration, the electrical conductivity was treated as temperature
dependent. Instead of simulating the pulsation of the electric field,
Fiala et al. (2001) multiplied the source term of the energy equation
(Eq. 4), i.e. the Joule heating term, by a factor (fτ), and performed their
simulations until a steady state was obtained. As a consequence, the
heat dissipated in the chamber in this time-independent model is
equivalent to the pulsating case. Under the conditions of Fiala et al.
(2001) (τ = 2.3 µs, ṁ = 3.61 l/h, ψ0 = 5.2 and 8.48 kV), a temperature
increase from an inflow value of 30 °C by up to 20 °C was measured far
downstream of the treatment zone. A good agreement between the
numerical results and the experiments for different values of (fτ) was
reported. Maximal temperatures of about 90 °C were found
numerically at regions of high electric field intensities.
414 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417
Using a similar numerical approach Lindgren et al. (2002)
performed simulations of four different co-linear chamber designs
to compare the temperature increase. The designs considered in the
simulations consisted of two experimentally evaluated geometries
and two additional ones, which exists only as numerical models as a
result of a geometrical optimization as presented in the previous
section. As an extension of the numerical model used in Fiala et al.
(2001), Lindgren et al. (2002) took the temperature dependence of all
fluid properties into account. Local temperature information allowed a
critical comparison between the different designs. Strong temperature
increases in the treatment volume, especially close to the insulator
surface, were observed. As a consequence, an active cooling of the
chamber was recommended.
Own results are presented here, in which the co-linear treatment
chamber as used in Toepfl et al. (2007) has been considered nu-
merically as well as experimentally. A schematic sketch of this
axisymmetric geometry is given in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 provides the notations
of the insulator geometry. The flow enters into the chamber at the left
side (inflow). The inner radius of the electrodes is R = 3 mm, the radius
and length of the insulator are RI = 2 mm and LI = 2 mm, respectively.
The insulators are denoted as insulator A (left) and B (right). A NaCl
solution has been used as model fluid for the experiments. Measure-
ments of the electrical conductivity showed a linear dependence of
the conductivity on the temperature. The regression curve σ(T) =
0.011 ·T + 0.222 has been implemented into the numerical model,
which is very similar to the distribution presented by Heinz et al.
(2002) for orange juice. The fluid viscosity µ and the thermal
conductivity k are also defined to be temperature dependent in the
simulations. Their dependencies are taken over from VDI-Wärmeatlas
(1994) for water. Since the density and specific heat of water change
only slightly with temperature, they are assumed to be constant, i.e.
ρ = 995 kg/m3 and cP = 4.18 kJ/kg K. The operating conditions studied
are provided in Table 1, where three cases having pulse frequencies of
20, 50 and 70 s− 1 are distinguished (Cases I–III). The parameters
common to all cases are a pulse length of τ = 3 µs, a potential of
ψ0 = 15 kV, a mass flow rate of ṁ = 5.2 kg/h and an inlet temperature of
Tin = 29.5 °C. Stationary simulations have been performed by adjusting
the value of the Joule heating source term in Eq. (4) by the factor (fτ) as
used in Fiala et al. (2001) and Lindgren et al. (2002) to achieve the
energy input to be the same in this time-independent case compared
to the pulsating case. The temperature boundary conditions at the
electrodes are assumed to be a prescribed heat flux with a given heat
transfer coefficient α as described in Section 2.2. A heat transfer
coefficient of α = 9 W/m2K was determined based on a simplified
calculation of the heat loss from the chamber by free convection
(Baehr & Stephan, 2004). However, the simulations showed, that the
results obtained using this heat flux condition are in principle the
same as those with an adiabatic condition.
Fig. 5 shows in (a) a streamline plot, in (b) the temperature and in
(c) the electric field distributions for Case I at the second insulator B.
The closed streamline behind insulator B in Fig. 5(a) indicates a
recirculation region due to the expansion of the flow field from the
insulator to the ground electrode. This recirculation region influences
the temperature distribution as depicted in Fig. 5(b). The fluid reaches
Table 1
Parameters of the three different Cases I–III
f [1/s] τ [μs] ψ0 [kV] m· [kg/h] Tin [°C] Texp [°C]
Case I 20 3 15 5.2 29.5 35.2
Case II 50 45.9
Case IIII 70 54.1
The experimentally measured temperature at the outlet of the treatment chamber is
denoted with Texp.
insulator B with an increased temperature of T N Tin = 29.5 °C due to the
heating in the gap of insulator A. Close to the center of the chamber
only moderate temperature increases can be detected compared to
the fluid temperatures at the insulator surface as observed also by
Fiala et al. (2001) and Lindgren et al. (2002). Fig. 6(a), Case I, gives an
impression of the temperature distribution along the centerline of the
chamber (r = 0). Temperature jumps at insulators A (z = 10...14 mm) and
B (z = 49...53 mm) by 1.5 K, respectively, can be observed in Case I. In
contrast, at the right side of the insulator B surface (Fig. 5(b)),
temperatures higher than 60 °C can be seen. The reason for such
strong radial temperature gradients is the much larger residence
times of the fluid close to the wall compared to the center of the
chamber. The fluid near the wall moves with lower velocities due to
the no-slip condition at the wall. Hence, these fluid volumes
experience more electrical pulses compared to the fluid with higher
velocities towards the center of the chamber. Additionally, the
recirculation region behind the insulator prevents the convective
transport of heat from the insulator surface. As a consequence, a
region of high temperatures can be identified behind the insulator,
which agrees in its extensions with the size of the recirculation region
(compare Fig. 5(a) and (b)). Due to the temperature non-uniformities
as discussed above and their influence on the distribution of the
electrical conductivity, the electric field has an asymmetric distribu-
tion as shown in Fig. 5(c) compared to a symmetric one in Fig. 4(b),
where a constant value of σ was used.
In Fig. 6(a), the temperature distribution along the centerline of the
chamber is compared between the three cases considered (cf. Table 1).
As expected, the heating of the fluid in the insulator gaps
(z = 10...14 mm and z = 49...53 mm) increases with increasing pulse
frequency f. The temperature jumps in the gap of insulators A and B
are the same for each case, resulting in a step-like shape of the
distributions. A slight increase of the temperature behind the gap
regions can be seen, which is due to the radial heat flux from the high
temperature region near the wall towards the center of the flow field.
At the outflow of the computational domain, 7 cm downstream of
insulator B (z = 124 mm), a strong radial non-uniformity of the
temperature still exists, as shown in Fig. 6(b) for Cases I–III. Here,
r = 0 denotes the center of the pipe and r = R = 3 mm the pipe wall.
The experiments were performed under the same conditions as
the numerical predictions (Table 1). The fluid temperature was
measured for the Cases I–III with a fiber optic sensor (Takaoka,
Japan) of diameter 1 mm at the same axial position as the numerical
distributions in Fig. 6(b). The temperatures were Texp = 35.2, 45.9 and
54.1 °C for Cases I–III, respectively, as given in Table 1. These
experimental values lie well inside the temperature ranges covered
by the numerical distributions of Fig. 6(b). A comparison between the
experimental values and the numerical distributions even suggests
that the measurements were made at a radial position of r ≈ 1.5 mm,
since a horizontal line at r = 1.5 mm in Fig. 6 (b) crosses the numerical
distributions exactly at the values measured experimentally.
An important point not discussed so far is the maximal
temperatures reached in the simulations of Cases II and III. Due to
the higher frequencies in these cases compared to Case I, the
temperatures at the right end of insulator B increases to values
above 100 °C, which is possible in the simulations, but what would
lead physically to boiling of the fluid in this region at ambient
pressure. Fiala et al. (2001) observed under their conditions
(fτ = 380 × 10− 6, m· = 3.61 l/h, ψ0 = 5.2 and 8.48 kV) temperatures of up
to 90 °C, thus, values also close to the boiling temperature at
p = 0.1 MPa. Since phase change cannot be handled with the current
numerical model, the temperature in the flow field was artificially
restricted to values below 100 °C. However, such high temperatures
inside the treatment chamber have to be avoided by improved
chamber designs or cooling between electrode pairs, because of
their negative effect on the product quality. Further investigations
including numerical simulations as a tool to provide detailed
 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417 415

Fig. 5. (a) Streamlines, (b) temperature contours (in °C) and (c) electrical field strength contours (in V/m) near insulator B for case I (cf. Table 1). The flow is from the left to the right
side, it is shown only the upper half of the axisymmetric chamber.

information of the temperature field inside the chamber are needed
to clarify this aspect.
5. Conclusions
This article has summarized available literature on numerical
simulations of liquid food processing by pulsed electric fields and has
presented new results. The strength of applying numerical simula-
tions to investigate the PEF process lies in its capability to provided
detailed information about electric and thermal fields inside the
treatment chamber, which cannot be provided otherwise. One
appropriate task of the numerical approach is the geometrical
optimization of the chamber to improve the uniformity of the electric
field and thus to avoid intensity peaks and temperature non-
uniformities. Such optimized chamber designs can be obtained by a
minimization of a user-defined penalty function, which can, for
example, be a measure of the uniformity of the electric field in the
electrode gap. The minimization process can be performed by pa-
rametric studies as done so far or by the application of systematic
optimization algorithms.
An extension of the numerical model towards coupled simulations
of the fluid flow, the electric and thermal fields provide important
information about the temperature distribution in the treatment
region. As shown here, temperatures measured downstream of the
treatment region can differ significantly from the maximal tempera-
tures occurring inside the chamber. As a consequence a thermal over-
processing can happen in some regions of the treatment zone, which
reduces the quality of the product and which may remain undetected
without numerical simulations.
Future work will aim amongst others at the implementation of
inactivation kinetics into the numerical model as it was done by
Kilimann et al. (2006) for the case of high pressure treatment. Such a
model can contribute significantly to the development of efficient PEF
equipment by numerical optimization.
Nomenclature
cP specific heat
E, E electric field vector, intensity
Eavg averaged electric field intensity
Ecrit critical electric field intensity
416 D. Gerlach et al. / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies 9 (2008) 408–417

Greek letters
α heat transfer coefficient
µ dynamic viscosity
ρ density
σ electrical conductivity
τ pulse length
φ azimuthal coordinate
ψ electrical potential
ψ0 applied electrical potential

Superscript
⁎ non-dimensional quantity

Abbreviations
PEF pulsed electric field

Acknowledgement

The present work is part of the EU-funded project FOOD-CT-2005-

015710 “Novel Processing Methods for the Production and Distribu-
tion of High-Quality and Safe Foods” (NovelQ). The authors gratefully
acknowledge the support received.

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