Novel Application of Neutron Radiography to Forced

Authors: Thijs Defraeye Wondwosen Aregawi Saba Saneinejad Peter Vontobel Eberhard Lehmann Jan Carmeliet Pieter Verboven Dominique Derome Bart Nicolaï

Publish Date: 2012/11/18

Volume: 6, Issue: 12, Pages: 3353-3367

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Abstract

Neutron imaging is a promising technique to study drying processes in food engineering as it is a nonintrusive nondestructive technique which provides quasirealtime quantitative information of the water loss during drying and of the internal water distribution at a high spatial and dynamic resolution Particularly the high sensitivity to water is its main advantage for drying studies despite the limited accessibility to reactor facilities which produce neutrons This technique was used to investigate forced convective drying of fruit tissue pear and apple placed in a small wind tunnel Water loss water distribution in the sample and sample shrinkage were evaluated as a function of time The water loss determined quantitatively from neutron radiographs was underestimated slightly compared to gravimetrical measurements The overall drying behaviour agreed well with control measurements performed in a climatic chamber and was very similar for both fruit tissues The corresponding shrinkage behaviour of both tissues was also similar The large shrinkage which is characteristic for soft biological materials such as food products however hindered postprocessing to some extent From the internal water distribution the water gradients within the sample induced by drying were visualised and were found to predominantly occur at the air–material interface indicating that the water transport inside the tissue dominated the water loss instead of the convective exchange with the air flow Neutron imaging was shown to exhibit unique benefits for studying drying processes of foodThijs Defraeye is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research FoundationFlanders FWO and acknowledges its support The experiments were carried out at the NEUTRA beamline of the Paul Scherrer Institute Villigen Switzerland We would like to acknowledge the contributions and support of the Paul Scherrer Institute NEUTRA support team Financial support by the Research Foundation—Flanders project FWO G060308 and KU Leuven project OT 08/023 is also gratefully acknowledged

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