An improved, easily implementable, porous media based model for deep-fat frying - Part I: Model development and input parameters

A fundamental-based model of the frying process that can also be solved in a commercially available software would provide tremendous benefit to design of fried food products and frying processes by making the power of simulation available for design. Quality and safety issues such as crust development, oil pickup and acrylamide formation can be addressed with such a model. However to achieve the above without sacrificing the fundamental physics behind the process, significant reformulations are needed, that require mathematical as well as physical insight into the process. An improved multiphase porous media model involving heat and mass transfer has been developed and solved numerically with careful consideration given to selection of input parameters. Non-equilibrium formulation for evaporation is used which describes the physics better and is easier to implement in a typical CFD software as it can explicitly express the evaporation rate in terms of concentration of vapor and temperature. External heat transfer and mass transfer coefficients are estimated to accurately reflect the different frying phases, i.e., the non-boiling phase and surface boiling and failing rate stages in the boiling phase. This paper discusses model development, while the results, validation and the sensitivity analysis are presented in the companion paper.