Database of thermophysical properties of fruits and vegetables / Banco de dados de propriedades termofisicas de produtos horticolas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

Fruits and vegetables, after the harvest, can be submitted to thermal processes such as heating, cooling and freezing. ln such way, the knowledge of thermophysical properties as density, specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity, play an important role for both, effective design of food processing equipment, and for the control of the processes that involve heat exchangers. Due to the complexity of biological materiaIs, the modeling and optimization ofthe processes depend on the following parameters: water content, and structure of the product and temperature, which may vary during the processo The experimental values of thermophysical properties of fruits and vegetables can be determined through several methods, including the variation of temperature, soluble solid concentration and water content. A great amount of this data is found in national and international literature, however, the data is scattered and the values are not grouped for type of product, method useq, temperature range, error or standard deviation, equations, besides other information. For some products, this data is not available, imposing the need to assume approached values, taking as reference the values of the properties of other products, what can cause considerable errors of calculation and dimension of equipment and processes. This problem motivated the development of the work presented here, with the objective of the elaboration of a database of thermophysical properties of fruits and vegetables, (compiled and organized) groqped and classified, after literature review in several available sources. After compiling the preliminary database, we found lack of information of properties of some national varieties of fruits and vegetables. The following properties for fruits and vegetables had been determined in natura: moisture content, and thermal conductivity (line heat source probe method). The fruits in natura used for the experiments were: Cavendish banana; mango cv.Tommy Atkins; papaya cv.Forrnosa; and cashew fruit. The vegetables in natura were: chayote; eggplant; onion; and pumpkin. The properties determined for fruit pulps were: moisture content; soluble solid (Brix); thermal diffusivity (Dickerson method); specific heat (Method of Mixtures); and density (Picnometric method). The values for thermal conductivity were obtained by the Fourier equation using the properties obtained above. The fruits used on the experiments were: passion fruit; tangerine cV. Ponkã; guanabana; cashew fruit; and west indian cherry.

ASSUNTO(S)

calor especifico thermal conductivity calor - condução hortaliças thermal diffusivity specific heat difusividade termica frutas vegetables fruits

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