Homogenized thermal conduction model for particulate foods

This paper deals with the definition of an equivalent thermal conductivity for particulate foods. An homogenized thermal model is used to asses the effect of particulate spatial distribution and differences in thermal conductivities. We prove that the spatial average of the conductivity can be used in an homogenized heat transfer model if the conductivity differences among the food components are not very large, usually the highest conductivity ratio between the foods components is lower than 5. In the general case we propose to use a standard spatial homogenisation procedure. Although the heterogeneity give rise to an anisotropic heat transfer behaviour, this effect is negligible when the food particles are randomly distributed. When we use pre-mixed particulate foods a statistical average can be defined from a small number of possible particle arrangements. (C) 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.