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Thermal Properties of Foods

This chapter discusses the thermal properties of foods including thermal conductivity, specific heat, enthalpy, and thermal diffusivity. Thermal conductivity measures a material's ability to conduct heat and depends on temperature, composition, and porosity. Specific heat shows the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a substance and can be determined through various methods. Thermal diffusivity measures a material's ability to conduct thermal energy relative to its ability to store energy and can be calculated from thermal conductivity, density and specific heat. Understanding thermal properties is important for engineering and process design involving heat transfer in food processing and preservation.

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21 views2 pages

Thermal Properties of Foods

This chapter discusses the thermal properties of foods including thermal conductivity, specific heat, enthalpy, and thermal diffusivity. Thermal conductivity measures a material's ability to conduct heat and depends on temperature, composition, and porosity. Specific heat shows the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a substance and can be determined through various methods. Thermal diffusivity measures a material's ability to conduct thermal energy relative to its ability to store energy and can be calculated from thermal conductivity, density and specific heat. Understanding thermal properties is important for engineering and process design involving heat transfer in food processing and preservation.

Uploaded by

Ajejeje
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 3

Thermal Properties of Foods

SUMMARY

Since many stages in the processing and preservation of foods involve heat transfer, it is important
to understand the thermal properties of foods. Thermal properties data are required in engineering and
process design. An energy balance for a heating or cooling process cannot be made and the temperature
profile within the material cannot be determined without knowing the thermal properties of the material.
In this chapter, principles and measurement methods of thermal conductivity, specific heat, enthalpy,
and thermal diffusivity are discussed. In addition, predicted models for thermal conductivity and
specific heat are given.
Thermal conductivity is defined as the ability of a material to conduct heat. Thermal conductivity
of foods depends on temperature, composition, and porosity of material. There are steady-state and
transient-state methods for measurement of thermal conductivity. Although steady-state methods are
simple in the mathematical processing of results, the long time necessary for the measurement makes
transient methods more preferable for foods. The most commonly used transient methods are the
thermal conductivity probe method, transient hot wire method, modified Fitch method, point heat
source method, and comparative method.
Specific heat shows the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of unit mass of the
substance by unit degree. There are equations in literature to express specific heat as a function
of composition or temperature. Specific heat can be determined by the method of mixture, method
of guarded plate, method of comparison calorimeter, adiabatic agricultural calorimeter, differential
scanning calorimeter, and method of calculated specific heat. Differential scanning calorimeter can
also be used to determine gelatinization enthalpy of starch samples.
Thermal diffusivity measures the ability of a material to conduct thermal energy relative to its
ability to store thermal energy. Thermal diffusivity can be calculated indirectly from the measured
thermal conductivity, density, and specific heat. It can also be determined directly from the solution
of a one-dimensional unsteady-state heat transfer equation.

3.1 FOURIER’S LAW OF HEAT CONDUCTION

We need a driving force to overcome a resistance in order to transfer a property. For any kind of
molecular transport processes (momentum, heat or thermal energy, and mass) the general equation

107
108 3. Thermal Properties of Foods

can be written as follows:


Driving force
Rate of a transfer process = (3.1)
Resistance
Consider a wall of thickness X and surface area A. Imagine that the wall is initially uniform at a
temperature T0 . At time t = 0, one side of the wall is suddenly brought to a slightly higher temperature
T1 and maintained at that temperature. Heat is conducted through the wall as a result of the temperature
difference, and as time proceeds, the temperature profile in the wall changes. Finally, linear steady-state
temperature distribution is achieved as shown in Fig. 3.1.
The driving force for the heat transfer to occur is the temperature difference:

Driving force = T1 − T0 (3.2)


While the rate of heat conduction through the wall is proportional to the heat transfer area (A),
the thickness of the wall (X ) provides resistance to heat transfer. In addition, the ability of the wall
material to conduct heat should be considered. Each material has a different ability to conduct heat.
The responses of steel and wood to heating are not the same when they are exposed to the same amount
of heat. This material property is named thermal conductivity (k). Considering all these parameters,
the resistance to heat transfer can be written as:
X
Resistance = (3.3)
kA
When the steady-state condition has been reached, the rate of heat flow (Q) through the wall can
be written by substituting Eqs. (3.2) and (3.3) into Eq. (3.1):
T1 − T0
Q = kA (3.4)
X
Equation (3.4) in differential form gives Fourier’s law of heat conduction:
dT
Q x = −kA (3.5)
dx

T1
A
T0
k

Figure 3.1 Steady-state heat transfer through the wall.

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