Transport phenomena in pasta drying: a dough-air double domain advanced modeling

In the realm of pasta drying, where precise prediction of temperature and water-content distribution is crucial, the application of modeling and simulation emerges as highly significant. This study endeavors to evaluate operational conditions ensuring the production of a safe, high-quality pasta product. An advanced two-domain model was devised and solved to estimate transport phenomena in both the food and air domains. Unlike conventional models relying on specified interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients, the proposed model serves as a versatile tool applicable across a broad spectrum of process and fluid-dynamic conditions in real pasta driers. The system of non-linear unsteady-state partial differential equations governing the behavior of a “Rigatone" pasta sample in a drier was solved using the finite elements method to estimate how air characteristics influence drying performance. A pilot-scale drying chamber was used for model validation for inlet air temperature at relative humidity values of 50 % and 60 %, with error consistently below 10 %.