CFD Simulation of a Co-rotating Twin-screw Extruder: Validation of a Rheological Model for a Starch-Based Dough for Snack Food

The extrusion of starch-based products has been a matter of interest, especially for the pasta and the snack food production. In recent years, twin-screw extruders for snack food have been studied from both structural and fluid dynamics viewpoints. This project started from the rheological characterization of a starch-based dough (corn 34 wt%, tapioca 32 wt%), comparing viscosity values acquired in laboratory with different theoretical models found in literature. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation recreating the simple case of a fluid flow between two parallel plates was carried out to validate the former comparison. After the rheological validation was completed, the second phase of this work covered a 3D CFD simulation of the first part of the twin-screw extruder (feeding zone). The objective was to find a suitable model for describing the dough rheological behavior and the operating conditions of a co-rotating intermeshing twin-screw extruder. Once the model would be defined, it would allow to investigate several working conditions and different screws geometries of the machine, predicting the evolution of the product rheological properties.