Accepted Manuscript

Simulation of food drying processes by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); recent

advances and approaches

Narges Malekjani, Seid Mahdi Jafari

PII: S0924-2244(17)30818-X
DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2018.06.006
Reference: TIFS 2247

To appear in: Trends in Food Science & Technology

Received Date: 30 December 2017

Revised Date: 11 June 2018
Accepted Date: 12 June 2018

Please cite this article as: Malekjani, N., Jafari, S.M., Simulation of food drying processes by
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); recent advances and approaches, Trends in Food Science &
Technology (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.tifs.2018.06.006.

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Simulation of food drying processes by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); recent
advances and approaches

Narges Malekjani, Seid Mahdi Jafari

Graphical Abstract

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Pre- processing Processing Post- processing

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• Problem thinking • Discretization of the • Numerical analysis
• Mesh generation mathematical of the results
• Choosing the equations • Visualization of the
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computational model • Applying the results

boundary conditions
• Continuing iteration
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until reaching
convergence
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Main scheme of CFD analysis

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Simulation of food drying processes by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); recent
advances and approaches
Running title: CFD in food drying processes
Narjes Malekjani, Seid Mahdi Jafari*
Department of Food Materials and Process Design Engineering, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences
and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
*Corresponding Details: Tel/Fax: +98 17 324 26 432. E-mails: smjafari@gau.ac.ir
Abstract

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Background

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the drying processes has a critical role in dehydration of

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food and agricultural products. Advanced computer modeling and simulation techniques can help in

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developing new dryers, modification of current systems, energy saving and process optimization.

Also the most important parameter during the drying food products is food quality (moisture

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content, crack formation, case hardening, etc.) which can be enhanced through using appropriate
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modeling. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a well- known modeling technique which has

received more attention in the food industry in the recent years. Hydrodynamics of fluid flow, heat
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and mass transfer during drying can be predicted using CFD.

Scope and Approach

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This article reviews fundamentals, merits and shortcomings of CFD in the drying process modeling
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with a special focus on dehydration of food products. Since the drying is a growing unit operation,

there is an emphasis on investigation of CFD utilization in modeling emerging drying processes of

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food products such as microwave assisted drying, infrared and superheated steam drying besides

conventional convective drying systems notably in recent 5 years.

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Key Findings and Conclusions

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CFD has been considered as a promising method which could help developing the design of new

dryers, enhancing current dryers and the most important aspect of utilization of this method in the

food industry research and development is “food quality” improvement.

Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); drying; simulation; control; optimization; food

quality.

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1. Introduction

Drying is a multidisciplinary unit operation which can be expressed as the heart of processing

operations in many industries (Dehnad, Jafari, & Afrasiabi, 2016). This process has versatile

utilizations in food, wood and paper, textile, pharmaceutical, chemical and biological material

production (Defraeye, 2014). In food processing, drying is also considered as one of the most

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crucial practices which is applied to different types of food products ranging from low moisture

agricultural crops (e.g. rice, corn, and wheat) to intermediate moisture (e.g. pasta, tea, and coffee)

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and high moisture (milk, fruits and vegetables) products (Jafari, Azizi, Mirzaei, & Dehnad, 2016;

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Jafari, Ghanbari, Ganje, & Dehnad, 2016; Azizi, et al., 2017). The main purpose of drying is

reducing the water content of the product in order to reach a safe level to preserve it from

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deteriorative factors such as microbial, physical and chemical parameters while retaining its sensory
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and nutritional quality and declining the energy and time consumption and optimization of the

process throughput (Bahmani, Jafari, Shahidi, & Dehnad, 2016; Jafari, Ghalegi Ghalenoei, &
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Dehnad, 2017). Drying process has a sophisticated nature. According to Defraeye (2014), drying is

a multicubed operation; multiphase means it involves different phases (solid food products, liquid
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water and gas phase of drying air), multiscale ranging from dryer scale to cell walls of the drying
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product and multiphysics including simultaneous heat, mass and momentum transport in addition to
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many biochemical and chemical processes such as nutritional loss, enzymatic reactions, aroma and

color changes, fat oxidation and microbial degradation that are so critical for ensuring food quality
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and safety (Defraeye, 2014). Drying is also an energy intensive process and includes 12-20% of the
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energy requirements of national industries in developed countries (Bardy, Hamdi, Havet, &

Rouaud, 2015) so it has always been a challenging issue in the food industry (Norton & Sun, 2006;

Strumiłło, 2006).

Investigation of the physicochemical changes occurring during drying in line with developing novel

strategies to optimize the energy consumption, utilization of renewable energy, recovering the heat

used for this process and application of environmentally friendly technologies are becoming more

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important in the current world and any achievement in this area is highly encouraged. These

developments need a lot of time and costly laboratory and experimental efforts. Mathematical

models and computer simulation tools are realistic and effective alternatives to experimental

practices (Hashemi Shahraki, Jafari , Mashkour, & Esmaeilzadeh, 2014; Jafari, Ganje, Dehnad, &

Ghanbari, 2016; Malekjani, Jafari , Rahmati, Esmaeelzadeh, & Mirzaee, 2013). These approaches

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can represent an excellent understanding of the transport phenomena during the drying operation

and enhancing the process control leading to drying optimization and improved food quality

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(Jamaleddine & Ray, 2010). The main external parameters which affect heat and mass transfer are

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ambient air or any drying fluid velocity, temperature and relative humidity; while density, porosity,

permeability, specific heat, mass diffusivity and thermal conductivity are some of the internal

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parameters affecting the drying process. Simulation can act as virtual sensors of humidity, velocity
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and temperature and also internal parameters in inaccessible locations, it is sensitive to small

changes and there are no limitations in testing different and unusual drying conditions. Also, there
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is no requirement for excessive laboratory spaces, skilled operators and additional maintenance.

Besides these advantages, there are some shortcomings in utilization of the computer modeling and
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simulation methods in the field of food industry. Multicubed nature of drying process as stated
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before, lack of adequate data regarding the material properties especially physicochemical
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properties of food and agricultural products which are strongly moisture and temperature

dependent, low economic value of some agricultural products which makes the simulation
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unworthy, and shortage of user-friendly computer software packages are some of these
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disadvantages (Defraeye, 2014).

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a powerful and advanced numerical method to solve

governing partial differential equations (PDEs) of mass, momentum and energy conservation in

fluid flow and heat and mass transfer problems (Norton & Sun, 2010). It also could be noted as a

useful tool in food engineering problems. Visualization of the obtained simulation results for

pressure, velocity vectors, temperature distribution, and species concentration in the form of liquid

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or solid during thermal processes using attractive color figures and animations can help interpreting

of the occurring physical phenomena, thus enhancing the overall process and product quality

(Lemus-Mondaca, Vega-Gálvez, & Moraga, 2011). CFD was first used in the 1950s and since then,

it has been developed increasingly (Norton, Tiwari, & Sun, 2013). The most important motivation

for this study in the first part was to review fundamentals of CFD including the frameworks,

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numerical solution methods, introducing relevant software and analysis techniques. In the second

part of the study, some useful and highlighted examples of CFD utilization in the field of drying

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especially novel drying technologies are presented in order to introduce the capabilities of this

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method to researchers and students in the area of food engineering. As the previous literature of

CFD was mainly focused on drying methods such as spray drying and to some extent fluidized bed

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drying, in this study it has been tried to show the ability of CFD in simulation of some novel drying
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strategies such as microwave assisted, superheated steam drying and infrared drying which are

growing quickly nowadays. Unfortunately, there is a shortage in literature in application of CFD in

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these novel drying technologies but the authors tried to discuss some of the most important aspects

of CFD simulation for the mentioned methods. Further researches regarding the fundamentals of
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CFD simulation and its application in drying of food products will be discussed in the following
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sections.
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2. Principles of CFD in food drying processes

There are some important PDEs which should be solved in order to determine heat, mass and
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momentum transfer during drying processes. Modeling Newtonian fluid flow is performed using
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Navier- Stokes equations. Since drying process involves heat transfer and fluid properties are

usually temperature dependent, so energy equation is usually coupled with Navier- Stokes equation.

When a conjugated heat transfer is being studied, the continuity of thermal energy exchange across

the interface between fluid and solid should be maintained, so, heat transfer in solid body should be

taken into account in CFD simulation.

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Continuity equation or conservation law of mass (eq. 1) implies that there is an axact balance

between the incoming flow of mass in a fluid element with the mass leaving that element:

+ =0 (1)

where and t are density (kg/m3) and time (s), x is Cartesian coordinates (m), u is velocity

component (m/s) and i is Cartesian coordinate index.

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Conservation of momentum or Newton’s second law (eq. 2) states that there is a balance between

the rate change of linear momentum and sum of the external forces acting on the fluid element:

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+ = − + + + (2)

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where j is the Cartesian coordinate index, δ is Kronecker delta, is the dynamic viscosity (kg/ms)

and g is acceleration due to gravity (m/s2).

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Conservation of energy as the first law of thermodynamics (eq. 3) states that there is an equality

between the energy changing rate of a fluid element and added heat or work done on it:
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+ − =! (3)
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where is specific heat capacity (W/kgK), T is the temperature (K), is thermal conductivity
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(W/mK) and ! is thermal sink or source (W/m3) (Norton, Sun, Grant, Fallon, & Dodd, 2007).

Fourier equation (eq. 4) can be used to determine heat exchange in an isotropic solid as follows
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(Norton et al., 2013):

= +!
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(4)
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Fick’s law of mass diffusion (eq. 5) is analogous to Fourier equation and is generally solved in

drying processes to describe moisture transfer:

"# "#
= $%&& (5)

where $%&& is the effective diffusion coefficient (m2/s) (Wang & Sun, 2003).

Although direct solving of Navier- Stokes equations is possible for laminar flow, solving the fluid

motion in the Kolmogorov microscales in turbulent flow is not possible computationally yet, so,
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Turbulence models should be solved besides Navier- Stokes equations in the case of turbulent

flow regime (which is generally encountered in food process modeling because of high flow rates

and complex geometry involved). Selecting an appropriate turbulence model is very critical and has

a direct effect on CFD results. Choosing from available turbulent models depends on the accuracy

and computational time (or cost) (Defraeye, 2014). Generally, turbulence models are categorized

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based on the governing equations used in them. There are two distinct groups of turbulence models:

(1) Reynolds averaged Navier- Stokes (RAN) models, and (2) the models which works on

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computing fluctuations e.g. large eddy simulations (LES).

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In the case of turbulence, with a statistical probability, it is supposed that process variables will be

in a certain range of values within the flow regime. So, RAN equations are used. The effect of

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turbulence on flow field would be determined through time averaging using these equations. In
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other words, these equations are time averaged Navier- stokes equations of motion for fluid flow

(Norton & Sun, 2010). This averaging method eliminates the stochastic properties of the turbulent
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flow regime and generates six additional stresses called Reynolds stresses which could be modeled

by different system of equations (for more information, please see Norton and Sun, 2010). Some
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commonly used RAN turbulence models are (Table 1):

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- Standard ' − ( (' represents turbulence kinetic energy and ( for turbulence dissipation rate)

Renormalization Group or RNG ' − (

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- Realizable ' − (
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- ' − ) model (' represents turbulence kinetic energy and ) for specific dissipation rate of
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kinetic energy)

- Reynolds Stress Model (RSM).

First three models have similar forms and Standard ' − ( is the most commonly used turbulence

model due to a better conversion (Anandharamakrishnan, 2013). Comparison between RAN models

is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

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The second group of turbulence models, large eddy simulation (LES), are based on the fact that

highly anisotropic large turbulent eddies are dependent on geometry of flow domain and also mean

velocity gradients. The velocity field in this model is separated to a resolved part representing large

eddies and a sub-grid part which represent small scales (Norton & Sun, 2006). For more

information about LES models see Norton and Sun (2006).

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RAN models yield satisfactory results for simulation complex large systems with less cost

compared to some other methods. Using LES models is an accurate approach but it requires

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powerful computers and is time consuming and consequently expensive. Nowadays advanced

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methods like hybrid RANs-LES is utilized which have a higher accuracy to model drying processes

(Kuriakose & Anandharamakrishnan, 2010).

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It should be noted that none of the mentioned turbulence models are complete and the prediction
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performed by these models is strongly dependent to the geometry of the system and flow condition.

Solving mentioned PDEs was a difficult problem in the past. The PDEs had to undergo
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simplification processes in order to be solved by hand. Accurate determination of some local

phenomena such as fouling, cleaning, mixing, etc. was not possible using those simplified models.
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Modern CFD approaches have overcome this problem (Norton & Sun, 2010). The main scheme of
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CFD analysis is presented in Fig. 1. Also, overall procedure of a reliable CFD model has been
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depicted in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1
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Fig. 2
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First of all, it should be noted that simulation procedure may differ depending on the situation and

the information which the researcher wants to obtain in a special problem. Based on this idea, there

are two distinct modeling approaches named conjugated and non-conjugated models. If heat and

mass transfer in liquid or solid state food surface with variable or constant thermo-physical

properties is studied, it is called non-conjugated modeling; but, if solid or liquid food material is

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modeled along with its surrounding media (gas or liquid), it is named conjugated modeling (Lemus-

Mondaca et al., 2011).

As shown in Fig. 2, a critical determination in CFD analysis for multiphase systems is choosing

between Eulerian- Eulerian (EE), Eulerian- Lagrangian (EL) and volume of fluid (VOF) reference

frameworks to represent the governing equations. There are basic differences between EE, EL and

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VOF formulations (Fig. 3). To sum up, EL formulation is generally used for dense systems and

individual particles can be tracked in the flow domain. It is expensive and time consuming and

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advanced high speed computers are demanded to solve this formulation. EE is used for both dense

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and dilute systems and cannot predict the local behavior of the particles. VOF is applicable to two

or more immiscible fluids by solving a single set of momentum equations of each fluid and tracking

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its volume fraction (Anandharamakrishnan, 2013). More information related to EE and EL
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formulations is provided by Jamaleddine and Ray (2010).

Fig. 3
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One of the other most important factors in CFD analysis is mesh generation. Meshing technology

has improved extensively in recent years and utilization of tetrahedral, hexahedral hybrid and
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polyhedral meshes has overcome the limitations of simple meshes (Norton et al., 2013).
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Details about discretization methods (FEM, FVM, and FDM) are not presented in this article since
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there are a lot of valuable articles discussing these methods. For more information about

discretization methods see Mallinson and Norris (2010).

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There are many commercial CFD codes which can be used in different processes to model food
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drying processes. Some of the most important codes are ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS CFX,

OpenFOAM, COMSOL Multiphysics, STAR-CD, FIDAP, ADINA, CFD 2000, PHOENICS,

FLOW 3D, etc. (Bhutta et al., 2012). More details on CFD software packages and codes are

presented by Xia and Sun (2002).

It should be noted that the accuracy of any CFD simulation depends on many factors such as the

assumptions and simplification of the model which has been made, the empirical correlations used,

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simplification of boundary conditions and the geometry in order to reduce computation time and

existence of other physical mechanisms such as chemical kinetics.

Like any other modeling methods, CFD has some advantages and disadvantages for drying

simulations. Table 2 summarize some of these aspects (Norton et al., 2013; Xia & Sun, 2002)

Table 2

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Jamaleddine and Ray (2010) reviewed the application of CFD in some drying systems with a

special focus on gas-solid multiphase flows (Jamaleddine & Ray, 2010). Also, Pragati and sharma

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(2012) reviewed the application of CFD in food processing equipment design e.g. cleaning of food

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processing tanks, optimization of hygiene, drying, pasteurization, sterilization, mixing, baking,

refrigeration, heat exchangers and crystallization. They explained further research is demanded

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regarding to control of the drying processes and reduction of energy costs. These authors concluded
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that CFD can be utilized for predicting gas flow patterns, particle histories (temperature, velocity,

residence time and impact position), designing drying chambers, scale up studies and air- particle
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interactions successfully. They mentioned lacking spatial homogeneity of air velocity is a major

problem resulting in the instability of CFD data for dryers (Pragati & Sharma, 2012).
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In a recent study, Norton et al. (2013) reviewed CFD modeling of some thermal food processes
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including sterilization, pasteurization of canned foods (food in pouches, intact egg, plate heat
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exchangers for milk and yoghurt processing), drying (fluidized bed drying, spray drying and forced

convection drying), cooking (natural and forced convection, commercial baking and microwave and
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infrared ovens). They also had a short look on application of CFD in modeling some emerging
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technologies such as high pressure thermal processing and Ohmic heating (Norton et al., 2013).

Defraeye (2014) made a comprehensive review on computational methods for modeling

dehydration of porous materials specially food products including CFD. He reported that the

number of publications reflecting the application of CFD in drying technology has increased

significantly between 2002- 2014 (Defraeye, 2014).

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Although there are some valuable articles which have reviewed the studies of CFD modeling,

developing drying technologies and increasing the number of publications in this area made the

authors convinced to have a fresh look at novel achievements in this field, particularly the food

drying processes. The main goal of this review article is investigating the utilization of CFD in the

recent publications and also emerging drying technologies such as microwave assisted, infrared, and

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super-steam drying.

3. Classification of food dryers

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The drying technologies can be classified based on different aspects. Some researchers have

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categorized dryers as direct and indirect, batch and continuous, in gas or in vacuum, etc. One of the

best classification of dryers has been presented by Mujumdar (2008) who determined four

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categories for drying facilities based on the strategy used for drying, the medium in which the
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material is being dried, the way that solids are handled and the heat input mode (Mujumdar, 2008).

Fig. 4 demonstrates briefly some of the dryers in this categorization. Nowadays more than 85% of
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dryers in the industry are convective dryers which utilize hot air or combustion gases as the drying

medium (Moses, Norton, Alagusundaram, & Tiwari, 2014). The poor quality of the final dried food
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products and low yields in these types of dryers is a critical issue. In order to find more efficient and
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economical drying methods, scientists have combined some of these different categories and
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developed new dryer designs (Moses et al., 2014). For example, microwave assisted convective

drying, ultrasound assisted drying or combining fluidized bed dryers with vacuum are some of these
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novel techniques.
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Fig. 4

4. Application of CFD in convective drying systems

Convective dryers are the most frequent and popular equipment used in industrial applications. Hot

air or combustion gases might be used as heat transfer medium in these type of dryers (Moses et al.,

2014; Tzempelikos et al., 2015). The efficiency of convective dryers is dependent to several factors

such as drying air speed, temperature, relative humidity and flow uniformity (Chandramohan,

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2016). There are different types of convective dryers like tunnel, tray, fluidized bed, spray and solar

dryers. In the following sections, some of the recent studies concerning CFD modeling and

simulation of convective dryers in food processing are discussed.

4.1. CFD in spray dryers

Spray drying is a method for converting liquid materials into powder form. It has the advantages of

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high drying rates, broad range of drying temperatures and short drying periods (Jafari et al., 2017).

One of the most important problems in spray dryers is unsteady nature of flow which may cause

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wall deposition or overheating of the product. The 3D nature of the spray dryers makes it

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impossible to use empirical models for their describing. So, CFD is a useful tool for modeling this

type of dryers. Eulerian- Lagrangian approach has been used in CFD modeling of spray dryers in

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most cases which can predict the motion path of particles and heat and mass transfer between the
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particles and drying air (Lo, 2005; Norton et al., 2013). Spray drying process is comprised of four

major parts including atomization, contact between the particles and drying air, evaporation of the
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water and in the last part, separation of the dried powder from the drying air (cyclone). CFD has

been used for modeling all of these parts and it can predict velocity and temperature distribution,
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particle size and humidity as well as several other factors in spray drying processes that effects the
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final product quality and dryer design (Anandharamakrishnan, 2013). Although there are a lot of
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advantages in CFD modeling of spray dryers, there are also some limitations because of

simultaneous existence of both solids and fluids and difficulty in predicting mass transfer within the
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particles and necessity of applying sub-models (e.g. sub-models accounting for mass transfer,
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collision between particles, thermal reactions, stickiness and agglomeration) in order to take this

issue into account. Also, validation of CFD results in spray drying process is complicated since

local measurement of process parameters is to some extent impossible and expensive even in a

laboratory scale. Most of the results in literature have been validated using average outlet data. On

the other hand, the results are dependent on empirical models that are not completely reliable

(Mujumdar, Huang, & Chen, 2010).

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Kemp and Oakley (2002) stated that the main difficulties in CFD modeling of spray drying process

are:

- There is no similarity in drying hydrodynamics during process scaling

- Circulation of air inside drying chamber may move particles on different trajectories

- Heating story may change quality and morphology of the drying products

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- Determination of drying kinetics of material under drying process is difficult.

There have been many reviews on application of CDF in spray drying. For instance, Lo (2005) and

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Kuriakose and Anandharamakrishnan (2010) have reviewed the application of CFD in spray drying.

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Mujumdar et al. (2010) have also studied some advances in spray drying focusing on CFD

modeling. Jamaleddine and Ray (2010) and Norton et al. (2013) dedicated a part of their studies to

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review the application of CFD in spray drying. Most of the CFD studies in the field of spray drying
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is concerned to co- current towers so, Abdullah et al. (2017) have recently reviewed fundamentals

of counter current spray dryers. As there are comprehensive reviews in the field of CFD modeling
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of spray dryers, we refer the readers to these articles and only review some of the most recent

studies.
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In most papers, CFD simulation has been performed to simulate hydrodynamics of bed or maximize
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drying thermal efficiency or lowering the overall cost of the spray drying process. Although these
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factors are important, the crucial factor in food drying is the product’s quality. Based on this

assumption Schmitz-Schug et al. (2016) studied the impact of spray drying conditions on lysine
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loss. Reaction engineering approach (REA) which has been used for modeling drying kinetics was
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implemented in CFD analysis by STAR-CCM+ Software. The model representing kinetics of lysine

loss took temperature, moisture and physical state of lactose into account. The residence time and

properties of particles was solved using CFD and coupled with reaction kinetic model to predict

lysine loss. They suggested that this approach could be used in optimization of spray drying for

dairy powders in order to prevent lysine loss (Schmitz-Schug, Kulozik, & Foerst, 2016)

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Jaskulski et al (2017) performed a similar study and tried to investigate thermal inactivation of

whey proteins during spray drying of skim milk using ANSYS- Fluent CFD package. Particle

moisture, temperature profile and residence time was predicted by evaporation and particle

formation extended models and were utilized as input data in a quality model of inactivation

kinetics. Then, the resulted quality model was implemented into the CFD code and simulation was

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conducted and validated. Also, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to measure whey

protein inactivation during drying experiments. A good agreement was shown between

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experimental and predicted whey activity that represented the successful development of the CFD

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code. So, this model can be suggested to predict the whey protein loss during spray drying of skim

milk (Jaskulski, Atuonwu, Tran, Stapley, & Tsotsas, 2017).

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Many CFD models have not been verified in the literature. So, data provided by such studies can
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hardly be used in a large scale. In a recent work by Lisboa et al (2018), an industrial scale spray

dryer was modeled. They used simplified basic models to estimate key parameters for spray drying
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design. The model was validated for a wide range of food products at different temperature and

relative humidity levels. The authors suggested that such models could be used instead of
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complicated CFD models in many applications (Lisboa, Duarte, & Cavalcanti-Mata, 2018).
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The authors think that although velocity and flow pattern during spray drying can be predicted
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easily in CFD packages, but it is necessary to conduct studies concerning drying process control and

energy and optimization in this era. Also, some simplifying assumptions like considering spatial
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homogeneity which leads to unrealistic results should be avoided. Finally, since designing a spray
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dryer which produces high quality products is a very sophisticated process, it is thought that besides

aspects related to drying cost and efficiency, correlating quality kinetics of degradation of food

products to the transport phenomena occurring during the process may be the most holistic

approach in spray drying of valuable food and pharmaceutical products which is still lacking and

could be focused with more details.

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4.2. CFD in fluidized bed dryers (FBD)

Fluidization is a deep-rooted technique which has been applied successfully in many industrial

applications (Lettieri & Mazzei, 2009). FBDs can be used for the drying of wet particulate materials

that behave like a fluid in the drying chamber. High heat and mass transfer coefficients between

drying materials and drying air medium due to their high contact and gentle mixing leads to

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elevated drying rates compared to some other drying methods. However, there are some

shortcomings in this process e.g. scale-up issues, uneven fluidization and product quality. Solving

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these problems depends on gaining a comprehensive knowledge about the process and reliable

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mathematical correlations which can be used to predict, optimize and scale- up the process (Mortier

et al., 2011). CFD has been used extensively to explore the interactions between multiple phases

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and prediction of different phenomena in this drying system (Lettieri & Mazzei, 2009; Malekjani,
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2017). In regard of existing different phases and chemical reactions which may be conducted in

such a process, the CFD modeling is a complex procedure. One of the most important difficulties in
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CFD modeling of FBDs is modeling the turbulence behavior (because of 3D and transient nature).

Numerical modeling of fluidized beds is performed by coupled solving of mass, momentum and
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energy equations with the equations describing interphase interactions and one of the main
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difficulties in CFD simulation of fluidized bed dryers is modeling multiphase interactions

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(Philippsen, Vilela, & Zen, 2015). As it was mentioned in the previous section, Eulerian- Eulerian

and Eulerian- Lagrangian approaches are used to simulate multiphase flows. Eulerian- Eulerian
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approach is widely used for CFD modeling of the fluidized beds. One of the other important
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limitations in CFD modeling of fluidized bed dryers is very long computation times required for

modeling just a fraction of drying process (Szafran and Kmiec, 2005), although with the continuous

progress in computers and invention of powerful supercomputers, these calculations can now be

performed in a very short time.

Verification of the CFD models in FBDs has been conducted using X- ray imaging, optical fiber

and pressure probes, laser and 3D capacitance imaging methods (Mortier et al., 2011). Some of the

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applications of CFD in FBD include designing different parts of the dryers especially gas

distribution section and draft tube and presenting online models in order to control the drying

process (Norton et al., 2013).

Mortier et al. (2011) have reviewed modeling of FBD for wet granular materials. Lettieri and

Mazzei (2009) discussed some of the challenges on the CFD modeling of FBDs. Pan et al. (2016)

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reviewed the fundamentals and applications of three phase fluidized bed reactors. Jamaleddine and

Ray (2010) and Norton et al. (2013) dedicated a part of their works to review the studies concerning

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the application of CFD in modeling spouted and fluidized bed drying processes. In a recent study by

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Philippsen et al. (2015), they presented different methods of FBD modeling including CFD.

Spouted bed dryers are used instead of FBDs for drying larger, irregularly shaped, sticky and

U
heavy particles. In this method, there is a high speed injection of a gas flow which moves the solids
AN
to the center of the drying chamber until reaching the top of it (Anandharamakrishnan, 2013).

Nazghelichi et al. (2013) studied the hydrodynamics and heat transfer in a lab scale FBD for drying
M

carrot cubes using Fluent. Three levels of bed height, cube size and inlet air temperature were

investigated in order to evaluate the effects of each factor on energy optimization ratio. Also,
D

Taguchi technique was used to rank the mentioned factors. The results revealed that the cube size
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was the most significant effect among the others. The authors declared that their method could be
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applied in energy utilization optimization in FBD drying process. Their findings showed that as the

particle size is smaller, the bed is deeper and higher and the drying air temperature is higher, the
C

energy utilization is more (Nazghelichi, Jafari, Kianmehr, & Aghbashlo, 2013).

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Azmir et al. (2018) coupled CFD and discrete element method DEM method to describe heat and

mass transfer in a fluidized bed dryer containing spherical corn kernels. DEM method is used to

investigate the granular flow. Each grain is tracked using Newton’s laws of motion while all forces

due to gravity, particle- particle, particle- wall and electrostatic fields are considered. This method

helps in gaining more detailed information in particle scale. In this approach, the on-line data about

particle velocity, temperature, position and moisture content produced by DEM is used for solving

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
CFD governing equations. Then the results of CFD analysis would be incorporated into the DEM.

These authors used 2D and 3D geometry for CFD and DEM analysis, respectively. An in- house

developed code was used for CFD-DEM analysis. They examined the effects of drying air

temperature and velocity on grain and air moisture content. The results showed that as the drying air

velocity and temperature rise, the drying rate increases. They described the corn kernel quality by

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standard deviation of its moisture distribution and reported that in higher air velocities and lower

drying air temperatures, the quality of drying material is superior (Azmir, Hou, & Yu, 2018).

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In Table 3, a brief overview of CFD application in the field of fluidized and spouted bed drying of food

SC
and agricultural products has been provided.

Table 3

U
4.3. CFD in solar dryers
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Sun drying is one of the oldest and cheapest methods of drying food and agricultural products but, it

is labor- intensive, long and has the risk of pollution of food with insects, molds, etc. So, solar
M

dryers have been developed because they are easier to control and protection of the product from

pollution is possible (Sanghi, Ambrose, & Maier, 2017). Solar dryers are categorized into four
D

major types: direct, indirect, mixed, and hybrid. CFD can be used to predict velocity and
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temperature distribution profiles in these dryers (Chauhan, Kumar, & Tekasakul, 2015). Chauhan et
EP

al. (2015) have reviewed the application of computer modeling in solar dryers. In two other recent

studies, Milczarek and Alleyne (2017) and Praka sh et al. (2017) reviewed mathematical modeling
C

of solar dryers.
AC

In a study by Romero et al. (2014), they investigated an indirect solar dryer for vanilla drying.

Variation of temperature inside the dryer was predicted using ANSYS- Fluent CFD package. Their

results showed a good agreement between experimental and predicted data at collector outlet while

inside the chamber, some deviations were found. The authors ascribed these variations to

approximation of heat transfer coefficient and suggested using a variable heat transfer coefficient as

a function of time during day for solar dryers (Romero, Cerezo, Garcia, & Sanchez, 2014).

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In another study, an indirect solar cabinet dryer was simulated using ANSYS- Fluent for drying

sliced tomatoes. The ambient local weather was used as the boundary condition. Temperature and

velocity distribution were predicted. Thermal efficiency of the dryer without any load, under half

load and full load was measured. The maximum and minimum temperatures in the dryer were

predicted to be 70 and 27 ℃, respectively. Thermal efficiency of the dryer was 21.5 %.

PT
(Tesfamariam, Bayray, Tesfay, & Hagos, 2015)

Solar cabinet drying process of corn has also been studied using CFD. Temperature, humidity and

RI
velocity profiles of the drying air was simulated and validated with experimental data. The major

SC
objective of this study was developing a predictive model based on local changes of the weather in

order to enhance drying efficiency. A 3D model was developed by solving continuity, Navier-

U
Stokes and energy equations using Ansys- Fluent package. Moisture transfer equation was solved
AN
independently. Thin layer drying models were also used to model the drying process of corn

kernels. The porosity of the flow fields was considered as the source terms in all of the governing
M

equations. Radiative transfer equation (RTE) was added as a source term to energy equation to

represent the radiative effects. The effect of turbulence was also evaluated using RNG ' − ( model.
D

The local weather data was used as boundary condition. The results showed that the model over-
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predicted both temperature and humidity to some extent. A stagnation which was seen in
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experimental humidity data was predicted by model accurately. This model was able to simulate the

drying process under overcast conditions and amount of removing the moisture was 32% less than
C

fair weather conditions (Sanghi et al., 2017).

AC

Recently, Orbegoso et al. (2017) performed numerical simulation of one- step and three- step solar

collectors for solar drying of cocoa bean. The aim of their study was simulating heat transfer due to

convection and radiation in order to determine the best configuration of the collectors regarding

outlet drying air temperature and drying thermal efficiency. Mass, momentum and energy equations

were solved coupled with discrete ordinate model (DOM) for discretizing RTE and standard ' − (

turbulence model in an Eulerian framework using Ansys- Fluent package. The results showed that

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the three- step collector located between the second and third channel in dryer was the most

thermally efficient configuration (67% more efficient than one- step). These authors showed the

importance of CFD modeling in design and optimization of energy in such type of dryers

(Orbegoso, Saavedra, Marcelo, & La Madrid, 2017).

Some limitations in CFD modeling of solar dryers include transient nature of mixed and natural

PT
convection of airflow within the dryer, variations and complexity of the boundary conditions which

is the local weather, shrinkage in drying material which necessities applying moving meshes,

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existing solar radiation besides long wave radiation, more sophisticated drying kinetics than forced

SC
convection systems because of partial rehydration (Prakash & Kumar, 2017).

5. CFD in freeze drying

U
Lyophilization or freeze drying is an excellent method for retaining original quality attributes of the
AN
dried products. This method preserves the biological activity of food components, flavors, colors,

and aroma but it is a complicated, costly and time-consuming process. In this method, the water
M

inside the food material is first frozen; then the created ice is sublimated (Nakagawa & Ochiai,

2015). This process can be implemented at atmospheric pressure or under vacuum (Li, Stawczyk, &
D

Zbicinski, 2007).
TE

There have been some studies on the modeling of freeze drying process for food products. Some
EP

researchers have focused on mathematical modeling of this process (Bubnovich, Quijada, & Reyes,

2009; Bubnovich, Reyes, Quijada, & Mahn, 2012; Nakagawa & Ochiai, 2015; Nam & Song, 2007),
C

and some others have emphasized on modeling the freeze dryer parts such as drying shelf (Cheng &
AC

Tsai, 2012), condensers (Petitti, Barresi, & Marchisio, 2013) or heat exchangers (Cheng, Tsai,

Cheng, & Chen, 2014). There are a few studies regarding CFD simulation of freeze drying of food

products (Coletto, 2015; Li et al., 2007).

Li et al. (2007) developed a two-dimensional model based on film sublimation and uniformly

reaching ice front (URIF) model using FLUENT 6.1 software. The model took into account phase

changes and water vapor diffusion inside the porous media. Species Transport model in FLUENT

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was used to simulate the transport of non-condensable species and to predict the rate of sublimation.

The drying samples (apple cubes) were divided into four zones including the frozen front (pure ice

plate), an ice- vapor interface, the dry zone (porous zone) and a gas phase. The frozen front zone

was treated as a wall where ice sublimation starts in and a UDF was used to determine the

sublimation rate. A source term was added to the adjacent walls in order to consider the effect of

PT
water vapor generation on the gas phase species distribution. Flow through the dry zone (porous

zone) was simulated using inbuilt CFD model for porous media. The results were validated with the

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experimental data of apple cubes and showed a reasonable agreement. Results showed the internal

SC
resistance of porous medium is dominant. Absorption and desorption of the samples enhanced

moisture transport (Li et al., 2007).

U
In a more recent study, Coletto et al. (2015) aimed to simulate the entire process of freeze drying
AN
instead of a piece of product. They focused on atmospheric freeze drying (AFD) using wheat bran

as an adsorbent in a fluidized bed dryer to enhance the AFD process efficiency. ANSYS FLUENT
M

was used to simulate the process. Eulerian- Eulerian aproach for fluidized bed dryer and

hydrodynamics of the dryer was successfully simulated (Coletto, 2015).

D

6. CFD in novel drying technologies

TE

In order to achieve better results of energy efficiency and product quality, new dryer designs are
EP

emerging from the results of scientific research. Modern technologies such as microwave and

ultrasound are used to enhance existing drying systems for food products. Some other technologies
C

have been developed recently, e.g. superheated steam drying. Most of the researches in the field of
AC

drying are conducted on novel drying technologies so that the widespread and commercial use of

these systems are very limited due to lack of sufficient understanding of the process costs and

commercial design and large-scale applications (Moses et al., 2014). Therefore, CFD models can

provide new insights in developing and designing these systems in the industrial scale. In the

following subsections, some of the less common drying systems along with application of CFD in

modeling and simulation of these processes are discussed. More details are presented in Table 4.

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Table 4

6.1. CFD in microwave- assisted drying processes

Microwave drying refers to the utilization of electromagnetic radiations in order to produce a

volumetric heating pattern. This process causes a meaningful time and energy reduction and

improved product quality compared to conventional drying systems (Schubert & Regie, 2006).

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One of the main advantages of microwave and microwave-assisted drying is energy efficiency.

Energy saving in this type of dryers is mainly due to shorter drying times and higher dying rates.

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Another reason for energy efficiency of microwave-assisted drying is that, microwave energy is

SC
absorbed only by dielectric materials, so, energy loss through air or transfer to oven walls,

conveyors and other parts of the equipment is negligible which can result in significant energy

U
savings. For instance, 25-90% drying time reduction and 400-800 % increment in drying rate and
AN
32-71% energy saving has been reported during microwave-assisted drying in comparison with

convective drying techniques. This higher energy efficiency is more dominant specially in falling
M

rate drying period (Moses et al., 2014).

Application of microwave radiation combined with other drying techniques especially convective
D

drying helps to overcome some limitations such as non-homogenous heat distribution, unwanted
TE

food quality changes (textural deterioration, color, nutritional loss, etc.) and also, low penetration
EP

depth of microwave into the food products (Feng, Yin, & Tang, 2012; Malekjani, Emam-Djomeh,

Hashemabadi, & Askari; Moses et al., 2014). Microwave-assisted hot air drying is usually
C

employed at the final stages of the drying process. The most common applications of this
AC

technology include microwave-assisted vacuum drying, microwave-assisted fluidized bed drying

applied to granular food and agricultural products (notably spouted bed drying for heat sensitive

products), and microwave assisted vacuum drying (Rattanadecho & Makul, 2016).

Prediction of heat and mass transfer in microwave-assisted technologies is a challenging task due to

high dependency of dielectric constant (( , ) and dielectric loss factor (( " ) to the physical properties

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of drying material such as temperature, moisture content, porosity and changes in its chemical

composition (Feng et al., 2012).

There are various methods for the modeling of microwave-assisted drying process. It involves

simultaneous solving of the models which describe microwave heat generation and the models

which can predict temperature distribution inside the food product. Solving Maxwell’s equations

PT
(eqs. 6-9) which are four fundamental governing equations can describe microwave energy

absorption and pattern accurately. Although modeling microwave heating with Maxwell’s equations

RI
is highly accurate, it is sophisticated and additional data about dielectric properties of the food

SC
material is required.

1
∇×0 = − (6)

U
4
∇×2 = 3+ (7)
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∇. $ = 6 (8)

∇. 7 = 0
M

(9)

where E and H are electric (V/m) and magnetic field intensity (A/m), D and B are electric
D

displacement (N/V m) and magnetic induction (T) respectively. J is current flux (A/m2) and q is
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electric charge density.

Lambert’s law (eq. 10) is used for the determination of microwave energy and it is a straightforward
EP

formulation; however, it doesn’t ensure determining a comprehensive scheme of electromagnetic

C

field distribution (Liu, Wang, & Sakai, 2005; Yanniotis, 2007). So, it is possible to model
AC

microwave drying by solving governing heat and mass transfer equations while adding the

microwave volumetric heating as a source term with exponential dissipation (Lambert’s law) as an

alternative approach for solving complicated Maxwell’s equations. Many authors have applied

Lambert’s law in modeling of microwave drying (Arballo, Campañone, & Mascheroni, 2012;

Hemis, Choudhary, & Watson, 2012; Joardder, Kumar, & Karim, 2017; Kumar, Joardder, Farrell,

Millar, & Karim, 2016; Souraki & Mowla, 2008). Lambert‘s law has some limitations. First, the

size of the sample should be semi-infinite. Second, effects of standing wave are not considered, and
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finally, penetration of microwave energy is one-dimensional. In Lambert‘s law it is supposed that

incident energy is normal to the surface and energy dissipation has exponential manner.

8 9 = 8: ; <=> (10)

where P(x) is the amount of power dissipation at depth x (W), x is the depth from the samples

surface (m), P0 is the power at the surface (W), and ? is the attenuation constant (m-1) which is

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dependent to velocity of radiation (m/s), frequency (Hz) and loss tangent (Pitchai, 2011).

Ranjbaran and Zare (2012) performed a comprehensive CFD simulation of soybean drying in a

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microwave assisted fluidized bed dryer. They used a calorimetric method (Yang & Gunasekaran,

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2004; Zare & Ranjbaran, 2012) in order to determine the initial microwave power density and

proposed a modified equation to calculate microwave heat source. The model could predict the

U
effects of different levels of microwave power densities and initial drying air temperature on
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product moisture content, drying air temperature and absolute humidity with an appropriate

agreement between simulation and experimental data. They claimed that the small deviations of
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simulation results from the experimental data could be related to laboratory measurement errors
D

occurred while determining the initial power density of microwave, air temperature, velocity and
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relative humidity (Ranjbaran & Zare, 2012).

Radio frequency (RF) module in Finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics is a useful and
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user-friendly tool in CFD modeling of microwave drying. Zhu et al. (2015) performed a more basic

study on microwave drying of spherically shaped food products (potato spheres). Instead of using
C

the experimental calorimetric method to determine the microwave power density, these authors
AC

coupled the solution of electromagnetic governing models with multiphase porous media models.

Maxwell’s electromagnetic field equations were solved to identify a more actual explanation of

electric field distribution inside the samples and microwave oven. They reported the use of less

sophisticated Lambert’s law in most cases can only present a qualitative explanation of microwave

penetration within the material and moisture content profiles so, they selected Maxwell’s equations.

Temperature distribution, point temperatures, moisture content and pressure changes in three

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different sizes of potato spheres and the oven were tracked during the simulation process (Zhu,

Gulati, Datta, & Huang, 2015). They found that different size samples had different responses to

microwave heating at the same drying conditions. The intermediate size spheres showed more heat

absorption in the microwave oven which caused their explosion during drying process while smaller

size particles experienced uniform temperature and had better quality. They also, reported that the

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model was very sensitive to mass transfer coefficients of surrounding air within the oven. The

model data was in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data (Gulati, Zhu, Datta, & Huang,

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2015).

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In another study, Joardder et al. (2017) used Lambert’s law instead of solving Maxwell’s equations

so that intermittent microwave convective drying with a multiphase porous media model was

U
simulated. The model was solved for liquid, gas and solid phases and considered shrinkage and
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porosity during drying; it was compared with the model without shrinkage. Temperature, moisture

content, porosity, and density was determined using CFD and apple slice was used for validating
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the simulation process. A good agreement reported between the experimental and simulation data.

Taking the shrinkage into account helped to achieve more realistic explanation of heat and mass
D

transfer. The model provided a good insight of drying process and these researchers suggested it
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could be applied in process quality enhancement and optimization. The authors reported that some
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parameters e.g. the rate of evaporation, effective thermal conductivity, capillary diffusion and gas

pressure which cannot be predicted by simpler models, could be predicted using their developed
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model. These parameters can help in some practical conditions instead of real time calculations
AC

(Joardder et al., 2017).

Although some efforts have been made in CFD modeling of microwave assisted drying but there

are still important challenges in this area. Variation of dielectric and thermal properties of food

products with temperature and frequency changes, lack of adequate data about dielectric properties

of food and agricultural products, scarcity of appropriate CFD packages including physics of

microwave process completely for solving the related equations in real situation, considering actual

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conditions in microwave ovens including the complex oven geometry are some of these issues

(Pitchai, 2011; Sosa-Morales, Valerio-Junco, López-Malo, & García, 2010).

6.2. CFD in infrared drying processes

Wavelengths between 0.75 and 1,000 µm in the electromagnetic spectrum is called infrared which

is used in modern food processing technologies (Moses et al., 2014; Riadh, Ahmad, Marhaban, &

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Soh, 2015). Infrared drying is a novel drying method which benefits from a higher rate of

dehydration, efficient conversion of electrical energy into heat, the selectivity of heating and higher

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speed of shutting down and starting up the drying processes. It also requires a small space, the

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control of the processing unit is easy and it has few installation and capital costs (Tsotsas &

Mujumdar, 2011).

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One of the most critical aspects of infrared dryer utilization is energy saving which could be due to
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supplying the energy directly to the drying material without dispersing it into other objects. The

energy efficiency of infrared dryers is related to the absorption properties of drying material that
M

determines the characteristics of the dryer (Pawar & Pratape, 2015).

CFD modeling of infrared dryers has recently been conducted in some researches and it is still a
D

new concept. Wu et al. (2017) explained that there are two assumptions which can be made in
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modeling infrared drying based on infinity and zero penetration depth of infrared radiation. As the
EP

penetration depth of the infrared waves is about a few millimeters, for the products with a larger

size than several millimeters such as peanut, soybean, etc. it can be assumed as a boundary
C

condition for heat transfer. In the products with limited size like wheat, rice, etc. it can be
AC

considered as an internal heat source or a heat transfer boundary condition. These authors used both

concepts in order to study the influence of penetration depth of infrared radiation on drying rice

kernels. The radiation source term in heat transfer equation was assumed to exist in the model with

the penetration depth of infinity and was neglected in the model with zero penetration depth and the

radiation was treated as a boundary condition. The results showed that both models could accurately

predict drying curves and temperature during drying and the maximum predicted temperature

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difference was 1.5 ℃ between two models so both assumptions can be applied in CFD modeling of

infrared drying for small sized particles (Wu, Zhang, & Li, 2017).

In order to calculate infrared power source term, the penetration depth of IR waves should be

defined, which is the depth at which the absorbed infrared power declines to 1/e of its original value

at the surface of the material. It can be considered that 63.21 % [(1-(1/e)] of the power at the surface

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is the effective fraction of power in order to produce volumetric heat. So, the volumetric heat

generated per unit volume of the layer at any the particle temperature @ which it penetrates can

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be calculated using eq. 11:
L

SC
CDE,GHI J K<
8AB @ = N O <BO
M
(11)
P J BJ JMQ
O

where 8AB is the infrared power density (W/kg), 8AB,R

U
S is the initial infrared power (W) absorbed at

the surface of the particle, T@ is particle radius (m) and T@%U is internal penetration layer radius (m).
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8AB,R S is a function of particle surface temperature and can be calculated by using eq. 12.
M

N
V[ M X=YZ.K[ N < J X=YZ.K[ ]
8AB,R S @ = L]^M L L]^J (12)
X X
^M _M `M]J ^J _J
D

where (@ and (% are emissivity of particle and emitter, A is surface area and a%<@ is the view factor
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(part of radiation which strikes the particle surface from the emitter surface) (Nejadi & Nikbakht,

2017).
EP

Aktas et al. (2016) investigated a novel type of infrared dryer combined with a solar collector and a
C

heat recovery unit in order to decrease the high amount of energy required for infrared drying. They
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studied heat and mass transport with a three dimensional CFD model to investigate drying kinetics

of melon slice and flow behavior in the drying system. Velocity contours and temperature

distribution profiles were determined using CFD results. They reported that the performance of

solar-infrared dryer has been better with the utilization of the solar energy and heat recovery units.

The drying efficiency with heat recovery system and without it at 50 °C were 33.4% and 22.6%,

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respectively. The experimental and theoretical findings were in a good agreement and such results

could be used in solar- infrared dryers design (Aktaş et al., 2016).

In another study, the previous authors studied heat and mass transfer characteristics of apricot in an

infrared dryer. One of the main assumptions in this study was neglecting the sample shrinkage.

VOF multiphase model was used to describe temporal and spatial changes of the fluid flow.

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Velocity and temperature distribution and water volume fraction in the chamber and near apricots

were determined using CFD results. The authors concluded that efficient CFD analysis could have a

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positive effect on designing dryer and product quality (Aktaş, Sözen, Amini, & Khanlari, 2017).

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6.3. CFD in super-heated steam drying processes

Super-heated steam drying is referred to a drying process which applies steam of higher temperature

U
than saturation temperature in a specific pressure instead of hot air. This process has the benefits of
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the high drying yields, reducing the risk of oxidation, small required space, reduced risk of

explosion and fire and no need of disinfection. The superheated steam passes over the drying
M

product and causes the moisture inside it to boil which is then moved from the interior parts into the

surrounding. This process can be accompanied by microwave, fluidized bed, infrared, or other
D

drying systems (Devahastin & Mujumdar, 2014; Moses et al., 2014; Mujumdar, 2014).
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Superheated steam drying is an energy efficient process. Utilization of superheated steam instead of
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hot air as a drying medium can reduce the energy consumption by recycling the exhausted vapor

energy (the latent heat of evaporation could be recycled during condensation of the exhausted
C

vapor) and avoiding emission of gas into surrounding medium by condensation. In contrast, in hot
AC

air drying systems, latent heat recovery in the released moist air is sophisticated and costly. It has

been shown in the literature that about 85% of input energy could be saved in pilot scale

superheated steam dryers. Also, because of high heat transfer coefficient of superheated steam, the

drying time is very short which leads to high drying rates and low drying costs and energy saving

(Romdhana, Bonazzi, & Esteban-Decloux, 2015).

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Superheated steam drying is a complicated process because of sophisticated heat and mass transfer,

interactions between vapor and solid phases and also particle-particle interactions. It is a multiphase

turbulence flow. Xiao et al. (2012) investigated superheated steam fluidized bed drying process for

rapeseeds as an isometric, spherical and constant size solid. They considered the system a two phase

vapor- solid mixture with volume fractions that obeyed eq. 13. The continuity equation in such a

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system is expressed as eqs. 14 and 15.

bc + bR = 1 (13)

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Vapor phase:

K
bc +S bc c e cS + bc h
= gRc

SC
c S f c cf (14)

Solid phase:

U
K
bR R +S S
bR R e RS + f
bR R Rf h
= gcR (15)
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The moisture fraction of drying particles (i , ) was predicted using eq. 16:

bR R i , + S
K
bR R e h , + gh
RS i + bR R Rf i = ∇. bR R $j,R ∇i
, ,
M

S f cR (16)

The momentum conservation equation are as follows:

D

Vapor phase:
TE

bc c kkkkl
c + ∇. bc c kkkkl
c kkkkl
c = −bc ∇8 + ∇. mnc + bc c
kkkkkkl
l+T cR + gRc
h kkkkkkl
Rc (17)
EP

Solid phase:

bR R kkkklR + ∇. bR R kkkklR kkkklR = −bR ∇8 − ∇8R + ∇. mnR + bR R

kkkkkkl
l+T Rc + gcR
h kkkkkkl
cR (18)
C

Energy conservation equation is as eqs. 19 and 20:

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Vapor phase:

oC
bc c 2c + ∇. bc c kkkkl2
c c = −bc + mnc : ∇kkkklc + qRc + gRc
h 2%c@ (19)

Solid phase:

oC
bR R 2R + ∇. bR R kkkkl2
R R = −bR + mnR : ∇kkkklR + qcR + gcR
h 2%c@ (20)

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One of the most important issues in superheated drying is distinct different periods during drying;

condensing and heating, constant drying and falling rate stage. These three stages were modeled

individually and three different models were developed for mass transfer in each stage. The heat

transfer coefficient in the first stage was calculated using McAdams equation (eq. 21) and mass

h was calculated using eqs. 22 and 23.

transfer rate between two phases (gcR

[xMyJ XzJy y < { ] |} ~•O| K‚

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uvG
ℎs = 1.13 × × • (21)
wG €| wG y < {

ƒGy
ghcR =

RI
(22)
xMyJ XzJy y < {

where:

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qRc = ℎs „ − c (23)

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For the second period, empirical correlations for Nusselt Number was utilized (eq. 24) and the
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convective heat transfer rate was calculated (eq. 25).

u•y vG … G
ℎ= wG}
(24)
M

L L
† R = 2.0 + 0.74T;R } 8e O (25)
D

ƒ
ghRc = x yG (26)
MyJ
TE

where:

qcR = ℎ c − R (27)
EP

And finally for the falling rate period:

w"Š
C

uvG G 4M‹‹ "ŒI <"M• 4M‹‹ < ŒI

ghRc = −bR R w = wG}
exp −4‘ = wG}
(28)
AC

w G
qcR = ℎ c − R = bR R @R w + ghRc 2%c@ (29)

The inlet velocity and temperature of superheated steam were fixed. In the first stage of drying the

drying rate was negative because of initial condensation of the steam and the moisture content of

the drying samples increased. In constant drying stage, the simulation over-predicted the drying rate

so the predicted drying time in this period was also shorter. In the falling rate stage the predicted

temperature and drying rate were higher than the experimental results. These authors did not take
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into account evaporation from the material and only considered condensation of steam; so, there

were some variations between experimental and CFD results in the constant rate period in their

study (Xiao, Zhang, Wu, & Liu, 2012).

In another study, heat transfer in a rotary kiln operated with superheated steam was investigated.

Heat transfer model consisted of radiation exchange between superheated steam, refractory wall and

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the surface of solids, conductive heat transfer in refractive walls and the mass and energy balance

for drying material and the steam. Gas convection inside the chamber was also considered. A steady

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state model was solved and distribution of temperature in dryer walls, solids and steam phase was

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found. The CFD results were validated with the literature data of carrot drying in the same type of

dryer and a good agreement was observed (Sinhal, Ghoshdastidar, & Dasgupta, 2012).

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In a more recent study, CFD modeling was conducted for superheated steam drying of spent grain
AN
pellet. Instead of utilization of classic drying models with transfer coefficients, Reynolds- Averaged

Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations were used. Ramachandran et al. (2017a) reported that mass
M

transfer prediction is complicated because a specified mass boundary condition does not exist and

evaporation is only dominated by heat transfer at the interface. Also, accurate determination of mass
D

transfer coefficient using the analogy between heat and mass transfer is not possible in the case of
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superheated steam drying. Superheated steam drying was divided into three stages:
EP

(1) primarily condensation of steam on the sample when it is in contact with superheated steam and

results in the condensation of superheated steam on the surface. In this stage, the temperature of the
C

sample is lower than the steam and the condensed steam would evaporate or absorbed by the sample
AC

depending on the hygroscopic behavior. The film condensation heat transfer has the most important

role in determining the heat flux and the empirical correlation for cylindrical objects was used to

determine heat transfer coefficient,

(2) condensed steam evaporation when the surface temperature of drying material is identical to

superheated steam temperature and evaporation is started and it is governed by heat transfer

coefficient between superheated steam and water on the surface of drying material,

29
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
(3) drying phase when the solid temperature increases and moisture diffusion is the dominant

driving force for drying. Drying can be predicted using sensible heat transfer rate.

The validation of the numerical model with experimental data showed a good agreement with a

mean relative percentage error less than or equal to 10% which shows the capability of the CFD

model to be used for optimization and designing superheated steam dryers (Ramachandran,

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Akbarzadeh, Paliwal, & Cenkowski, 2017).

7- Conclusion

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As discussed in this article CFD can be used to predict fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, also

SC
product quality attributes in many drying systems even emerging drying technologies such as

microwave assisted, infrared and superheated steam drying. There has been a huge advancement in

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application of CFD in drying of food and agricultural products but, lack of adequate knowledge
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about complex drying process, lack of appropriate information about physicochemical properties of

food material in literature and inefficient researches in industrial scale made CFD approximately
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useless in industrial and commercial scale. Coupling CFD method with novel modeling techniques

such as reaction engineering approach, discrete element method, drying kinetics models made it
D

possible to use in process optimization regarding energy, time and the most important factor
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“quality”. The review shows there is few researches in drying optimization using CFD. Developing
EP

more user-friendly software packages and enhancing the processing capability of computers could

also extend CFD utilization in food drying. The validation problem of CFD results is also exists
C

because of complexity of gaining experimental data in some dryer designs and conditions. To
AC

conclude, in contrast to other fields such as mechanical or aerospace engineering, it should be noted

that, since a food material is a biological object, utilization of computational modeling and

simulation in Food Science and Technology cannot be successful without proper using of physical

experiments determining the biological and physicochemical characteristics of food materials.

Nomenclature
A Surface area (m2)
B Magnetic induction (T)
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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Specific heat capacity (W/kgK)
@ Specific heat at constant pressure (J/kgK)
Deff Effective diffusion coefficient (m2/s)
D Electric displacement (N/V m)
E Electric field intensity (V/m)
a%<@ View factor
g Acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
h Convective heat transfer coefficient (Wm2 K)
H Magnetic field intensity (A/m)
2%c@

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Latent heat of evaporation of water (J/kg)
J Current flux (A/m2)
gh Condensation rate or drying rate (kg/m3s)

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Nu Nusselt Number
P Pressure (Pa)
8AB Infrared power density (W/kg)
8AB,R

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S Initial infrared power (W) absorbed at the surface of the grain
P(x) Amount of power dissipation (W)
P0 Power at the surface (W)
8e Prandtl Number

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q Electric charge density (C/m3)
Q Convective heat transfer rate (W/m2)
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r Radius (m)
R Drag force (N)
T@ Radius of particle (m)
M

T@%U Internal radius of the penetration layer (m)

T; Reynolds Number
! Thermal sink or source (W/m3)
D

t Time (s)
TE

T Temperature (K)
u Velocity component (m/s)
X Composition ratio by weight (%)
x Depth from the samples surface (m)
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i, Wet basis moisture content of the solid phase (kg/kg)

C

Greek symbol
b Volume fraction
AC

( Emissivity
(" Dielectric loss factor
(, Dielectric constant
δ Kronecker delta
? Attenuation constant (1/m)
Volume viscosity coefficient (Pa s); thermal conductivity (W/mK)
Dynamic viscosity (kg/ms)
Density (kg/m3)
m Reynolds stress tensor (N/m2)

Subscripts and Superscripts

31
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
b Boil
cr Critical
e Emitter
eq Equilibrium
i,j Cartesian coordinate index
l Liquid
p Particle
s Solid
v Vapor
w Water

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x Cartesian coordinates (m)

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Table 1. Comparison between Reynolds averaged Navier- Stokes (RANs) models (Farid, 2010; Kuriakose &
Anandharamakrishnan, 2010; Norton & Sun, 2006, 2010; Norton, Tiwari, & Sun, 2013)
Model Description
Basics of this model are transport
equations accounting for ,
Standard k-ε turbulence kinetic energy and ,
turbulence dissipation rate
Similar to Standard k-ε but includes
some additional expressions for
RNG k-ε development of dissipation rates and
some constants different from
Standard k-ε model constants.
Instead of using constant Empirical
turbulence model constant (like
Standard k-ε model), this term is a
function of turbulence properties
Realizable k-
and mean
ε assuming eddy viscosity as
Flow. So, it satisfies certain
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mathematical constraints
on the Reynolds stress tensor that
are consistent with the physics of
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turbulent flows. A new model for
the rate of dissipation is also used.
Basics of this model are transport
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equations accounting for ,
Standard turbulence kinetic energy and
− model specific dissipation rate ( rate of
dissipation per unit turbulent
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kinetic)
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This model includes transport
Reynolds equations for the Reynolds stresses,
Stress Model a transport equation for the
(RSM) turbulence energy dissipation rate
and three transport equations for the
turbulent fluxes of each scalar
property.
Table 2. Advantages and disadvantages of CFD modeling in food drying processes
Advantages Disadvantages
Good convergence
Robust
Inadequate in some cases due
Economical to assumptions and empiricism
which model is based on (the
Reasonably accurate most important assumption
made in this model is assuming
Satisfactory results in processes
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an equilibrium condition for
without adverse pressure gradient
turbulence)
Suitable for external flow around
Not highly accurate in complex
complex geometries
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flow regimes, geometry and
Frequently used in drying severe pressure gradients
processes with high Reynolds
number
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Independency from empiricism and Some limitations because of
taking anisotropy of complex flows assuming eddy viscosity as
being isotropic
into account
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flows
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Some convergence difficulties
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Same benefits as RNG but works
Some limitations because of
better in more complex flows such
as jet impingement
being isotropic
Convergence is more difficult than
k-ε
Works better for boundary layers
under adverse pressure gradients
Suitable for flows with convoluted
curvatures and internal flows
Frequently used in drying
processes
Most complete model physically Long computational time and
powerful memory
Suitable in the case of adverse
pressure gradient involved Poor convergence was reported
Suitable for complex flow behavior in many literatures
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 Advantages
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Disadvantages
Providing detailed understanding of heat, mass and
momentum transfer in the drying system
Declining scale up problems for drying systems
Working as virtual sensors in drying systems to
improve final product quality
Very small time steps are needed in some cases
because of different time scale of fluid flow, heat,
mass and scalar transport resulting in long
computation times
Incapability of online controlling the thermal
processes
Lack of adequate data about physicochemical
properties of food materials during drying

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Simulating unusual conditions such as hot Shrinkage during drying which makes mesh
temperatures or dangerous environment generation more complex

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Table 3. Some of the CFD studies in the field of fluidized and spouted bed drying of food and agricultural
products
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 Case description
ACCEPTED Software
Modeling methods
MANUSCRIPT Findings Authors

Spouted bed drying Eulerian multiphase model was Fluent - Importance of inlet air (Sobieski,
of grains at used to describe the velocity 2008)
different gas inlet hydrodynamics of the bed and - Importance of selecting
velocities, grain grain height in the bed with suitable turbulence models
densities and different model parameters - Good agreement between
diameters (turbulent models, initial and experimental and simulation
maximum coefficient of results
packing)
Spouted bed drying Various important features of Fluent - Every factor has its own (Sobieski,

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simulation such as selecting effect on simulation results 2010)
between 2D and 3D space, so, the function and practical
geometry, structured or implication should be
unstructured grid, configuration examined carefully to

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of multiphase model, the improve computational
turbulence model and the results
sensitivity of the model to phase

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and flow parameter changes.

Fluidized bed Eulerian- Eulerian approach MFIX - Drying conducted in falling (da Silva, de
drying of soybean with incorporation of mass rate period and diffusion is Souza, da
meal at different transfer model the most important Costa, de

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temperatures, controlling parameter. Matos Jorge,
velocities and bed Symalal O’Brien drag model - Temperature had a & Paraíso,
was selected as the best model
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heights significant effect on drying 2012)
but, the effects of velocity
and bed height were not
significant
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Circulating An Eulerian model with kinetic Ansys - Pressure drop declined along (Priya,
fluidized bed drying theory of granular flow Fluent the higher length Pradeep, &
of some seeds were - Deviation between the Saravanan,
studied for experimental and predicted 2017)
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evaluation of the data were satisfactory and in

influence of axial the range of 7- 9.5 %.
pressure variations
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with gas flow rate

and solid
circulation rate.
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Case description Modeling methods
• Two-fluid Eulerian-Eulerian
CFD simulation of model and kinetic theory of
spherical moist
granular flow was used
particles (soybeans)
• UDF for calculation of
in a microwave
microwave power
assisted fluidized bed
• Calorimetric method for initial
dryer in order to
microwave power density
study the behavior of
gas-solid flow determination and a modified
equation
• standard − model with
some modifications was used to
model turbulence
• Maxwell’s electromagnetic
Microwave drying of
field equations and porous media
spherically shaped
models were solved
food products
• A source term was added to the
energy equation in order to
represent the effect of the
microwave from the
electromagnetic model.
• Darcy’s law was used
assuming flow in a porous media
containing lower permeability
instead of solving standard
Navier-Stocks equations
Intermittent • Lambert’s law was used to
microwave calculate microwave energy
convective drying generation within the drying
considering shrinkage products.
and porosity was
compared with the
model without
shrinkage for apple
slice drying
The influence of • Fick’s second law of diffusion
penetration depth of and heat transfer equation was
infrared radiation on solved.
temperature and • The radiation source term in
moisture content of heat transfer equation was
rice kernels during assumed to exist in the model
drying with the penetration depth of
infinity and was neglected in the
model with zero penetration
depth and the radiation was
treated as a boundary condition.
Table 4. Recent CFD studies in the field of novel drying technologies for the food and agricultural products
Type of model Geometry and Discretization
dimensions
• Conjugated • 2D axis-symmetry
geometry (half of a
cylindrical column
representing the drying
chamber was selected
as computational
domain)
• Conjugated • 3D geometry
(microwave cavity and
spherical sample with
diameters of 0.06,
0.03, 0.012 m)
• Non- conjugated • 2D axis-symmetry
geometry for a
cylindrical sample with
diameter of 40 mm and
thickness of 10 mm
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• Non- conjugated • One-eighth of the
kernel geometry
(ellipsoid) was selected
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Physical properties Boundary condition Mesh type Other considerations
method Software Findings Authors
Microwave assisted drying
FVM Dielectric constant Velocity inlet Structured tetrahedral • Neglecting temperature
and dielectric loss Pressure outlet mesh gradient inside the • Small deviations of
factor as a function particles and shrinkage • GAMBIT 6.3.26 simulation results from the
of temperature and • FLUENT 6.3.26 experimental data could be
moisture content; related to laboratory
measurement errors
thermal conductivity (Ranjbaran & Zare, 2012)
of drying material as occurred while
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a function of determining the initial
moisture content; power density of
thermodynamic microwave, air
temperature, velocity and
properties of air as a
relative humidity
function of
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temperature
• FEM • Dielectric • Surrounding air • Tetrahedral mesh Shrinkage was not
• COMSOL • Intermediate sized
constant, dielectric temperature and elements considered
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Multiphysics Maxwell’s spheres showed more
loss factor , specific relative humidity was
equations were solved microwave absorption and
heat and thermal used as boundary
exploded during drying
by the RF module, mass (Zhu, Gulati, Datta, &
conductivity as a condition for
function of transport models. transfer by Transport of • Uniform and low Huang, 2015)
Diluted Species and temperature drying in
temperature • Forced convection
Transport of smaller size particles
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was considered as
Concentrated module, • Capillary diffusion
boundary condition
heat transfer by Heat dominates in smaller sized
for energy equation
transfer in Fluids samples
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module and momentum
equation by Darcy’s
law
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• FEM • The dialectic • Forced convection • Triangular mesh - • Arbitrary Lagrangian- • Intermittency of
properties were and evaporation at with a homogenous Eulerian framework for microwave result in
considered as a sample surface element size moving mesh and Non- uniform moisture and
function of moisture linear Solid Mechanics temperature distribution
• A good agreement
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content. module for large
(Joardder, Kumar, & Karim,
• Thermo-physical deformation were used reported between the
2017)
properties as a in.COMSOL experimental and
function of liquid • Mass, energy and simulation data.
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and gas volume momentum governing • Taking the shrinkage
fraction in the equations for liquid into account helped to
sample water and vapor and air achieve more realistic
inside the sample were explanation of heat and
solved using Transport mass transfer.
of Diluted Species, Heat
Transfer in Fluids and
Darcy’s Law modules,
respectively.
Infrared drying
• FEM • Thermal • Convection and • Tetrahedral mesh • Rice kernels were
• COMSOL • Both models could
conductivity, evaporation at the elements assumed to be composed
Multiphysics accurately predict drying
density and specific surface as boundary of three different parts;
curves and temperature
heat as a function of condition for energy husk, bran and the
during drying (Wu, Zhang, & Li, 2017)
moisture content equation and endosperm.
• maximum predicted
equilibrium between
temperature difference
moisture transferred
was 1.5 ℃ between two
to the surface and the
models
water which leaves
the samples through
surrounding drying
air
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• Drying simulation was
conducted at surface
temperatures of 50 and 60℃ and
the air velocity of 0.5 m/s.
• Steady state condition
• Drying air was considered as
an ideal gas mixture.
• Energy equation, −
A novel type of standard wall functions
infrared dryer turbulence model and Mixture
combined with a multiphase model was selected
solar collector and a and both air the solar collector
heat recovery unit in and drying chamber was
order to decrease the simulated
high amount of • Fluids in the system were the
energy required for removed vapor from the melon
infrared drying of slices and drying air. Air mass
melon slice flow in dryer inlet, the rate of
heat radiation and convection
heat transfer were introduced as
boundary conditions.
• Velocity contours and
temperature distribution profiles
were determined using CFD
results
• Validation experiments were
conducted at air velocity levels
Velocity and
of 0.5 and 0.25 m/s and fixed
temperature
apricot surface temperatures of
distribution and water
60 and 65℃.
volume fraction in
• Calculating Reynold’s Number
the chamber and near
revealed laminar flow inside the
apricots were
chamber so the Nusselt Number
determined in an
and heat transfer coefficient
infrared dryer for
were easily calculated using
apricots
relevant relationships.
Diffusivity of vapor into air was
also calculated using the analogy
between heat and mass transfer.
• − turbulence model was
used
• Two-phase flow equations for
Superheated steam
an axis-symmetrical cylindrical
fluidized bed drying
drying chamber was solved
process for rapeseeds
• Heat and mass transfer and
drag models were incorporated
into the software using a UDF.
• The inlet velocity and
temperature of superheated
steam were fixed.
Superheated steam • Reynolds- Averaged Navier-
drying to study Stocks (RANS) equations were
temporal and spatial used model
temperature and • − turbulence model was
moisture changes of a used
single pellet
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• Conjugated • 3D geometry of solar • FVM • Effective moisture • Heat flux to the • Tetrahedral mesh • The flow was assumed
collector (80*50*11 diffusivity and mass horizontal part of the elements steady state
cm) and drying transfer coefficient collector and
chamber (114*64*37 of food sample were convection heat in
cm) calculated using the contact region of
CFD ambient air and
insulated walls
• The performance of
• ANSYS FLUENT,
solar-infrared dryer has
DESIGN MODELER
been better with the
and MESH programs (Aktaş, Şevik, Amini, &
utilization of the solar
were used for solving Khanlari, 2016)
energy and heat recovery
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the models, generating
units.
the geometry and the
• The experimental and
mesh, respectively.
theoretical findings were
in a good agreement
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• Conjugated • 3D geometry • FVM • Heat and mass • Vapor injection rate • Tetrahedral mesh • One of the main
• Six infrared lamps transfer coefficients was applied to drying (mesh density near the assumptions in this study • ANSYS FLUENT • CFD helped obtaining
and a tray (40*80 cm) were calculated sample surfaces as a IR lamps and apricot was neglecting the sample (VOF multiphase uniform air velocity and (Aktaş, Sözen, Amini, &
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containing half apricots based on the results boundary condition was higher than other shrinkage. model), DESIGN optimization of drying Khanlari, 2017)
were modeled. to avoid simulating vacant positions in • Steady state flow MODELER and MESH efficiency
• Drying chamber the latent heat drying chamber) • k-ɛ turbulent model was software were used to
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(114×64×64 cm) calculations during applied solve the equations,
diffusion process creating geometry and
mesh.
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Superheated steam drying
• Conjugated • Axisymmetric • FVM - - • Not specified • Drying particle size was • FLUENT
• These authors did not
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cylindrical drying considered constant during
take into account
chamber (120*250 drying
evaporation from the
mm)
material and only
considered condensation
(Xiao, Zhang, Wu, & Liu,
of steam; so, there were
2012)
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some variations between
experimental and CFD
results in the constant rate
period in their study
• Conjugated • 3D geometry ( a • FVM • Thermo-physical • Varying boundary • Tetrahedral mesh
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- • SIMPLEC algorithm • Good agreement with a
quarter of a pellet properties and condition according with increased density in ANSYS CFX mean relative percentage (Ramachandran,
(12.7*35.5 mm) and moisture diffusivity to the stages of near the walls program error less than or equal to Akbarzadeh, Paliwal, &
drying chamber as a function of drying
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10% Cenkowski, 2017)
(272*356 mm) ) temperature and •
moisture content
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Pre- processing Processing Post- processing

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• Problem thinking • Discretization of the • Numerical analysis

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• Mesh generation mathematical of the results
• Choosing the equations • Visualization of the
computational model • Applying the results

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boundary conditions
• Continuing iteration
until reaching
convergence

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Fig. 1. Main scheme of CFD analysis
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2- Defining initial and boundary

1- Defining the physical problem
conditions

3- Choosing between eulerian-eulerian

4- Considering governing

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(EE), eulerian-lagrangian (EL) and volume
equations of conservation called
of fluid (VOF) reference frameworks in
navier-stocks equations
multiphase systems

5- Implementation of additional transport
equations for turbulence, granular flow,
solid settling or granular temperature in
some cases; see Norton et al. (2013) for
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6- Selecting between 2D or 3D
dimensions. Reducing the dimension (if
possible) can reduce the complexity of

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more details about governing equations in the model.
thermal processing.
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8- Discretization of the partial differential

7- Dividing computational domain into equations using finite element (FE), finite
cells called “mesh”. difference (FD) or finite volume (FV)
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methods
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9- Solving the resulting algebraic equations

10- Checking the quality of the mesh
for each mesh by means of linear equation
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and mesh independency of the

solvers including gaussian elimination or
results.
gauss- seidel method.
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11- Checking the residual errors existing between consecutive

iterations and if it is high, modification of the model input or mesh
refinement is required until reaching convergence

Fig. 2. Fundamentals of CFD analysis

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Fig. 3. (a) Eulerian–Eulerian, (b) Eulerian–Lagrangian approach illustration

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Determinant factor
for classification of
food dryers

Heat transfer Method of solid

Drying strategy Heat input mode
medium handling

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- Vacuum drying
- Spray drying - Hot air drying - Fixed bed drying
- Conductive

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- Freeze drying - Superheated steam - Fluidized bed
drying - Convective
- Intermittent drying drying
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- Tray drying - Radiative
- Pulse combustion - Solar drying
- Drum drying - Microwave
drying - Inert medium
drying - Spouted bed - Ultrasound
- Impinging stream
drying - Supercritical fluid drying' - High electric field
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- Cyclic pressure drying - Jet- zone drying - Infrared

drying - Vibrating bed
drying
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Fig. 4. Different aspects for classification of food dryers

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Highlights

- A comprehensive knowledge of heat, mass and momentum transfer is critical in CFD.

- CFD modeling could be useful to enhance drying process design and development.

- CFD could enhance quality by correlating the results to degradation kinetics.

- Developing novel drying technologies with the aid of CFD is possible.

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