Lecture 2

Thermal properties of agricultural produce: specific heat, thermal

conductivity, thermal diffusivity and their applications

Frictional properties of agricultural produce: coefficient of internal

friction, coefficient of external friction, angle of repose and their
applications

Aero and hydrodynamic properties of agricultural produce: drag

coefficient, terminal velocity and their applications
Importance
• Most processed foods and many freshly consumed foodstuffs receive
some type of heating or cooling during handling or manufacturing.
• Design and operation of processes involving heat transfer requires
special attention
• These properties are involved in almost every food processing operation.
• Knowledge of the thermal properties of foods is essential in the analysis
and design of various food processes and food processing equipment
involved in heat transport, with respect to heat transfer or energy use,
such as in extrusion cooking, drying, sterilization, cooking etc.
• Product are heated or cooled to extend the shelf life, to soften
the structure, to change the form or increase extraction.
• Thermal properties are generally non-uniform changing with time,
temperature, constituent of food and location as food product is cooled
or heated.
• In heat treatment of biological materials, time and temperature are
equally important if the viability, nutrient and quality of the material
are to be preserved.
• The most important thermal properties in food processing such as,
specific heat capacity (Cp), thermal conductivity(k), and thermal
diffusivity(a).
THERMAL PROPERTIES

• Specific heat has an important role in determination of energy cost and for the
dimensions of machinery and equipment that are needed in thermal processes.
• Furthermore, specific heat (Cp) of food materials changes according to their
physical and chemical properties.
• The thermal conductivity (k) of food determines how fast heat can be evenly
transferred to the entire food mass, which in turn affects the quality of the final
product.
• When heating and cooling of materials involves unsteady state or transient heat
conduction, the material temperature changes with time and knowledge of the
thermal diffusivity (a) is required for predicting temperature in these processes.
Specific heat
• Heat required to raise the temperature by 1°C for unit mass of the body.
• The heat required to heat a material of mass M from an initial
temperature T1 to final temperature T2 is equal to the product of the
mass x specific heat x (T2 – T1).
• A heat balance for heating or cooling a material can not be attempted
without knowledge of the heat capacity of the material.
• Specific heat is given in kJ/kgoC and it is measured using a
calorimeter.
• Specific heat of frozen foods is much lower than that of not frozen foods.
This is because specific heat of ice is only half of that of water.
• The specific heat of wet agricultural material is the sum of specific heats of bone
dry material and its moisture content.
• If Cd and Cw are the specific heats of bone dry material and water respectively, and
m is the moisture content of the material in percent wet basis, then the specific
heat can be expressed as given below.

• The above relationship exists above 8% moisture content of the grain only.
• The specific heat of bone dry grain varies from 0.35-0.45 k cal/kg°C.
• The specific heat is measured by calorimeter, generally a simple thermos vacuum
bottle.
• The differential scanning - calorimeter (DSC)is suitable for measuring the specific
heat.
Thermal Conductivity (Jm-1s-1oC-1):
• This is the measure of materials ability to conduct heat.
• In foods the thermal conductivity depends mostly on composition, but also on any factor that
affects the heat flow paths through the material, such as percentage void space (porosity)
moisture content, shape, size, arrangement of void spaces, homogeneity, orientation of fibers and
chemical composition.
• The amount of heat Q that flows through a slab of material of
thickness x having a thermal conductivity k is calculated as Q = kA∆T
• where A is the surface area of the material normal to direction of heat flow and
• ∆T = (T1 -T2) are the surface temperature of the material.
• Thermal conductivity of agricultural materials is measured using the thermal conductivity probe.
• Line heat source probes are used frequently for agricultural materials.
• The thermal conductivity of single grain ranges from
0.3-0.6 kcal/m.hr.°C and bulk grain varies from 0.10-
0.15 kcal/m.hr.°C.
• The difference is due to the air spaces present in the
bulk grain.
• The thermal conductivity of air is 0.02 kcal/m.hr.°C.
Thermal Diffusivity (m2/s):
• Thermal diffusivity is used in the determination of heat transfer
rate in solid foods of any shape.
• Physically it relates the ability of a material to conduct heat
to its ability to store heat.
• It may be calculated as thermal conductivity divided by the product
specific heat and mass density or it may also be measured by transient
heating technique.
• Thermal diffusivity generally tends to vary in a similar manner as thermal
conductivity
FRICTIONAL PROPERTIES

• Frictional properties such as angle of repose and coefficient of friction

are important in designing equipment for solid flow and storage
structures and the angle of internal friction between seed and wall in
the prediction of seed pressure on walls.
• The coefficient of static friction plays also an important role in
transports (load and unload) of goods and storage facilities.
• It is important in filling flat storage facility when grain is not piled at a
uniform bed depth but rather is peaked.
• Coefficient of friction is important in designing storage bins, hoppers,
chutes, screw conveyors, forage harvesters, and threshers.
• The material generally moves or slides in direct contact with trough,
casing, and other components of the machine.
• The various parameters affect the power requirement to drive the
machine.
• The frictional losses are one of the factors, which must be overcome
by providing additional power to the machine.
• Hence, the knowledge of coefficient of friction of the agricultural
materials is necessary.
Drag Coefficient
• It is used to quantify drag or resistance of an object is a fluid
environment such as air or water. It is a dimensionless quantity. Drag
coefficient is always associated with surface area:
• Where CD and CL are the drag coefficient and the lift coefficient respectively. The net
resistance force Fr is given in terms of an overall drag coefficient C as follows:

• Where : Fr is resistance or drag force

C overall drag coefficient
Ap projected area normal to the direction of motion m2
ρf is mass density of fluid
V is relative velocity between main body of fluid and object.

• A number of relationships depending on the geometry of the body exist to compute the drag
coefficient of agricultural materials. However, for laminar flow the drag coefficient can be
estimated as:

• C while for turbulent flow it can be estimated as:

Re is Reynolds Number and it is given as:

d is the effective dimension of the object (length, diameter etc..)

and
η is the viscosity of the
fluid
AERO AND HYDRO-DYNAMIC
PROPERTIES
The physical properties, such as density, shape, size, etc., are required for
calculating the terminal velocity and drag coefficient of the agricultural produce.
In the handling and processing of agricultural products, air is often used as a
carrier for transport or for separating the desirable products from unwanted
materials, therefore the aerodynamic properties, such as terminal velocity and
drag coefficient, are needed for air conveying and pneumatic separation of
materials.
As the air velocity, greater than terminal velocity, lifts the particles to allow
greater fall of a particle, the air velocity could be adjusted to a point just below
the terminal velocity.
The fluidization velocity for granular material and settling velocity are also
calculated for the body immersed in viscous fluid.
Terminal Velocity
• In free fall, the object will attain a constant terminal velocity Vt at
which, where acceleration will be zero.
• Net gravitational accelerating net upward equals to the sum of buoyant
force and drag force
• Gravitational force acting downward= buoyant force exerted by the
fluid on the body in upward direction+ drag force (frictional resistance
due to motion of the body in the fluid medium)
• In free fall an object will attain a constant terminal velocity Vt at which
the net gravitational accelerating force Fa equals the resistance upward the drag
force Fr.
• It is the final constant speed of a falling object. Under the steady state condition
where terminal velocity has been achieved if the particle density is greater than
the fluid density the particle will move down word.
• If the particle density is smaller than the fluid density the particle will rise.
• When air stream is used to separate grain from associated foreign materials such
as straw and chaff, the knowledge of terminal velocity of all particle involved will
define the range of air velocities affecting good separation of the grain from
foreign materials.
• Thus terminal velocity is an important aerodynamic property of
material in such application as pneumatic conveying and separation.
Measurement of terminal velocity
• Most scientists and researchers employ air column to find out the
terminal velocity of grains.
• The set up usually consists of a vertical air column, which is blown
from the bottom and passes through the screen. The screen uniformly
distributes the air velocity.
• The air column is also attached with velocity measuring device. The
blower maintains variable speed.
• When grains are allowed to drop into the column, initially they attains
acceleration, once the velocity is adjusted they fall to the bottom with
a constant velocity.
• This constant velocity is termed as terminal velocity
• Where m is mass of the particle
g is acceleration due to gravity
ρpis density of the particle
ρf is density of the fluid
Ap Projected area of the particle normal to the motion
C is drag coefficient
• Separation of foreign materials from seeds, grains
potato, blue berry
• Conveying and handling of grains, chopped forage
small & large fruits
• Hydraulic handling of apples, cherries, mango&
potatoes etc.
Grains Terminal velocity,  m/s

Wheat 9-11.5

Barley 8.5-10.5

Small oats 19.3

Corn 34.9

Soybean 44.3

Rye 8-5-10.0

Oats 8.0-9.0
• Angle of repose: The angle of repose is the angle between the base
and the slope of the cone formed on a free vertical fall of the granular
material to a horizontal plane.
• The size, shape, moisture content and orientation of the grains affect
the angle of repose.

• There are two angles of repose,

• (1) static angle of repose, and (2) dynamic angle of repose.
• Static friction: The friction may be defined as the frictional forces acting between
surfaces of contact oat rest with respect to each other.

• Kinetic friction: It may be defined as the friction forces existing between the
surfaces in relative
motion.

• If F is the force of friction and W is the force normal to the surface of contact,
then the
coefficient of friction ‘f’ is given by the relationship
F
f = ----
W
The coefficient of friction may also be given as the tangent of the angle of the
inclined surface upon which the friction force tangential to the surface and the
component of the weight normal to the surfaces are acting.
Grain Angle of repose, degree

Wheat 23-28

Paddy 30-45

Maize 30-40

Barley 28-40

Millets 20-25

Rye 23-28
• Coefficient and Angle of Internal Friction

• The coefficient of internal friction is the friction of seeds against seeds.

• Angle of internal friction (friction angle). A measure of the ability of a
unit of solid material to withstand a shear stress.
• It is the angle (φ), measured between the normal force (N) and resultant
force (R), that is attained when failure just occurs in response to a
shearing stress (S).
• Its tangent (S/N) is the coefficient of sliding friction. Its value is
determined experimentally
• The angle of internal friction is an important property
which helps to estimate the lateral pressure in storage
silos.
• Angle of internal friction values are also used in
designing of storage bins and hopper for gravity
discharge.
• The coefficient of friction between grains is required
as a design parameter for design of shallow and deep
bins.
Difference between angle of repose and angle of internal friction

The engineers generally assume that both the angle of repose and angle of
internal friction are same.
Some investigators have indicated that for sorghum, the angle of repose
and angle of internal friction are different.
If one is used in place of other to design any system, it will lead to error.
Some investigators also attempted to develop a relationship between angle
of repose and angle of internal friction so that by the simple test of angle of
repose, the angle of internal friction could be estimated.
But the results revealed that the two angles run almost parallel to each
other for various moisture content levels, thus no simple relationship
existed by which angle of internal friction could be estimated from
angle of repose within a reasonable accuracy.
The angle of repose is generally higher than angle of the internal friction
for the grains of approximately the same moisture content and density.