Digital Modeling of Heat Transfer during the Baking Process

Numerical modeling and analysis of the baking process are challenging biochemical processes occurring in bread. These changes result from mass engineering tasks, usually characterized by the complex chain of chemical, physical, and heat transfer processes impacting the baking at the same time primarily caused by a variation of two dominating factors: (i) the heat and (ii) the internal moisture content at different temperatures and during the time’s process. This study presents an analysis of the 1-D computational fluid dynamics model for simultaneous heat transfer within a cylindrical bread sample. The numerical simulations were performed using the finite difference model (FDM) and the finite element model (FEM). In the first case, the proposed numerical model considered radiation and convection during sample heating and described the sample’s simultaneous heat, water, and vapor diffusion mechanisms. The calculations indicated that the FDM was susceptible to the time step; consequently, the range of 10 s and 100 s yielded the only relevant results. In the second case, the FEM was used to describe the phenomena of transportation during baking. Results obtained by the FEM showed a large temperature gradient near the surface. The study showed the presence of some critical cases that are considered the most influential on the stages of bread production. The first critical value is the time when the baking temperature reaches 100° C. The second critical value is the time when the liquid water content in the baking medium reaches its peak. The boundary conditions were examined and illustrated by figures in the center and the surface of the bread.