A Review on Applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the Food Industry

Abstract

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a powerful simulation tool to obtain fluid flow and heat transfer simulation with the use of computers along with applied mathematics. It is cost effective method to solve real-life problems in fluid dynamics. Mathematical models in terms of conservation laws represent the flow physics in terms of strongly coupled non-liner partial differential equations. CFD finds wide applications in automobiles, aerospace, manufacturing, process industries, power plant equipment and electronic components as a design and simulation tool. Since most of the processes in food industry involves the application of fluid flow as well as heat and mass transfer, CFD provides a good early-stage simulation for predicting the performance of these processes. It also allows the test engineers to validate the test results obtained from simulation of the food processing equipment with experimental study, thereby help them to improve the design and performance of equipment.