Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Modeling the transport phenomena and structural changes

during deep fat frying
Part I: model development
R. Yamsaengsung a, R.G. Moreira

b,*

a
b

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand 90110
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2117, USA
Received 4 May 2001; accepted 2 July 2001

Abstract
A fundamental 2-D model was developed to predict the heat and mass transfer that occur during the frying and cooling process
of tortilla chips. Semi-empirical correlations were included to account for structural changes, such as shrinkage and expansion due
to pung. All water present in the tortilla chip was considered bound and led to shrinkage when removed. The parameters that were
studied included water saturation, Sw , oil saturation, So , temperature, T, and pressure, P. Liquid ow results from convective ow
due to the gradient in total gas pressure and capillary ow due to the gradient of capillary force. Gas movement results from
convective ow due to the total gas pressure gradient and Knudsen diusion due to the concentration gradient. The only transport
phenomenon during cooling is oil absorption, which is assumed to be a function of the capillary pressure.
2002 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
It is understood that fried products absorb oil during
frying and as they cool which contributes to a high fat
and high calorie product. Oil content in fried foods has
been related to initial moisture content (Gamble, Rice,
& Selman, 1987; Moreira, Palau, Sweat, & Sun, 1995b),
pre-frying treatment (Gamble et al., 1987; Moreira,
Castell-Perez, & Barrufet, 1999), structural changes
during baking (Lee, 1991; McDonough, Gomez, Waniska, & Rooney, 1993; Rock-Dudley, 1993), and cooling
time (Sun & Moreira, 1994). Moreira, Palau, and Sun
(1995a) showed that bulk density decreases, and porosity and oil uptake increase with frying time during
frying of tortilla chips.
Still, changes taking place during frying are dicult
to model since there are a number of inter-related factors that have to be taken into account. It is important
to identify the structural changes during the dierent
stages of the process to better understand the quality
changes that occur during frying. The porosity of the
product formed during frying plays an important role in
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-979-847-8794; fax: +1-979-8478794.

E-mail address: rmoreira@tamu.edu (R.G. Moreira).

the subsequent oil uptake. When a crust begins to form

at the surface of the tortilla chips, for example, there is
an excessive pressure buildup and the product expands
and pus. Therefore, a better understanding of the
transport processes and their relationship to various
parameters should provide ways to optimize the frying
process, and thus control oil pickup.
Mathematical models of various complexities have
been developed. These models deal with frying of individual products assuming constant physical properties.
A large number of models have been based on simple
diusion of energy and mass transfer, with various approximations accounting for evaporation or ignoring it
altogether (Ateba & Mittal, 1994; Dincer & Yildiz, 1996;
Moreira et al., 1995a; Rice & Gamble, 1989). These
models did not include the oil phase transport.
Farkas, Singh, and Rumsey (1996a,b) provided a more
detailed model of temperature and moisture transport in
deep fat frying of potato slices. Two separated equations
for two regions, the crust and the core with a moving
boundary were used in the model. It also included pressure driven ow in the crust for the vapor phase, but they
ignored diusion ow in the crust region as well as
pressure driven ow of liquid or vapor in the core region.
Moreover, the model did not include the oil phase or the
eect of changing porosity on the heat and mass transfer.

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2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Nomenclature
apparent diusivity coecient due to capillary force (kg/m s)
C
molar density of gas mixture kmol=m3
c
mass concentration kg=m3 total volume
Cp
specic heat (J/kg K)
Deff;g
eective gas diusivity in moist materials
m2 =s
d
diameter of tortilla chip (m)
Exfactor expansion factor (dimensionless)
h
heat transfer coecient on open boundary
W=m2 K
hmv
vapor transfer coecient on open boundary
(m/s)
K1  K32 coecients in dierential equations
k
thermal conductivity (W/m K)
ki
intrinsic permeability m2
kgr
gas relative permeability (dimensionless)
kwr
water relative permeability (dimensionless)
kor
oil relative permeability (dimensionless)
k10
constant in Eq. (38) (kg mol/kJ)
k20
constant in Eq. (38) (dimensionless)
M
molecular weight (kg/kmol)
m
mass of component (kg)
*
n
total ux kg=m2 s
P
total pressure (Pa)
p
partial pressure (Pa)
pc
capillary pressure (Pa)
ps
saturated pressure of pure water (Pa)
R
universal gas constant (J/kmol K)
Ra
air gas constant (J/kg K)
Rv
vapor gas constant (J/kg K)
am

Ni and Datta (1999) developed a multiphase porous

media model to simulate the frying of potato slices.
Based on the approach of Whitaker (1977), their model
included the signicance of pressure driven ow for the
oil, vapor, and air phase in a non-hygroscopic porous
medium. Their model did not account for the changes in
the product porosity and its eect on the system energy
and mass transport. Oil absorption was considered to
happen during frying and the cooling process was
completely neglected. In rigid non-hygroscopic porous
media, the porosity is dened as volume fraction of
water plus gas, and is constant. However, food materials
are typically hygroscopic in which some water is tightly
bound to the solid matrix.
Asensio (1999) using the same approach of Whitaker
(1977) developed a model to describe the heat and mass
transfer in paper drying. Shrinkage was accounted by
including the bound water term. The removal of bound
water was considered to lead to shrinkage of the cellular
structures of the material.

S
Sg
So
Sw
Sfactor
T
t
V
W
w
x

saturation or liquid saturation (decimal)

gas saturation (decimal)
oil saturation (decimal)
water saturation (decimal)
shrinkage factor (dimensionless)
temperature (K), unless specied
time (s)
volume m3
moisture content (% w.b.), unless specied
chip thickness (m)
molar fraction (decimal)

Greek symbols
dT
coecient of Soret eect due to capillary
force (kg/m s K)
/
total porosity (dimensionless)
k
latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
l
dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
q
intrinsic density (kg/m3 )
qCp eff eective heat capacity of the moist materials
J=m3
Subscripts
a
air
amb
ambient
c
capillary
g
gas
o
oil
s
solid matrix
w
water
v
vapor
e
eective

Frying of foods can change the products porous

structure by the phenomenon of shrinkage or pung
(Kawas & Moreira, 2000; Lujan-Acosta & Moreira,
1996). These changes in structure aect the diusivity of
gases and liquids in the material (Xiong, Narsimhan, &
Okos, 1991).
Various approaches have been proposed to study the
structure changes during drying. Crapiste, Whitaker,
and Rotstein (1988a,b) studied the drying of potato
and apples considering the shrinkage of the material by
including a velocity term in the total water transport
equation assuming quasi-isothermal drying. Achanta,
Okos, Cushman, and Kessler (1995) studied the shrinkage of food gels using starch gluten gel by modifying
Darcys law to account for viscoelastic deformation.
The review of literature reveals that the frying models
developed so far did not address the combined relationship between raw materials and frying conditions on
the structural changes (shrinkage and thickness expansion) and subsequent oil absorption of the products.

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Further work is needed to study the phenomenon of

crust formation, shrinkage, pung and to model the
porosity and textural changes during the frying process
of tortilla chips.
The objective of this study was to develop a multiphase porous media model considering shrinkage and
thickness expansion to predict the spatial and transient
prole of moisture content, oil content, temperature, and
pressure of the tortilla chip as a function of frying time.
2. Model development
The drying and frying processes are very similar
and many models have been developed to describe and
predict the two systems. The basic energy and mass
governing equations are very much the same. The differences in the models usually come in the system which
the model is describing. In each case, assumptions,
boundary conditions, transport mechanisms, and physical properties for each system will vary.
Food materials are considered hygroscopic and consist of bound water. During most conventional drying
processes, i.e., oven drying and frying, the removal of
bound water causes shrinkage of the material. Fig. 1
illustrates the dierences between hygroscopic and nonhygroscopic material.
2.1. Major assumptions
There are several assumptions that have been widely
used for drying processes. These include:
(1) the phases of solid, liquid, and gas are continuous;
(2) local thermal equilibrium is valid, which means
that the temperatures in the three phases are equal;
(3) sorption isotherm is valid in describing the vapor
pressure as a function of temperature and the moisture content;

(4) gas phase consists of a binary mixture of air and

vapor;
(5) Darcys law is valid in describing the convective
ow of liquid and gases;
(6) liquid transport is due to the capillary and convective ow and gas transport is due to convective ow
and molecular (Knudsen) diusion;
(7) heat conduction in the porous media is described
in terms of eective thermal conductivity and is proportional to the mass content of each phase.
For the frying of tortilla chips, the following assumptions are also included:
(8) the latent heat of vaporization cools the region
during evaporation keeping the local temperature
near the boiling point;
(9) local temperature remains at boiling point until
very low water saturation is reached (0.18);
(10) heat transfer coecient is a function of frying
temperature and temperature gradient between the
surface and the oil;
(11) shrinkage is due to bound water removal; and
(12) pung is due to air and vapor expansion.

2.2. Equilibrium state variables

In the frying of tortilla chips, since the material is
hygroscopic, six phases are considered. This includes
liquid water, bound water, vapor, air, oil, and the solid
matrix. Since the study assumes that all water present in
the system is bound (but perhaps not to the same degree), all water loss will lead to shrinkage of the system.
The subscript, w, represents all bound water in the
system. Based on the volume averaging approach of
Whitaker (1977), the multiphase energy and mass
transport equations for a porous media transport model
of deep fat frying can be developed. Porosity is dened
as the volume of pores occupied by the total volume.

Fig. 1. Schematic of hygroscopic and non-hygroscopic material.

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

For a tortilla chip with three components (water, oil,

and gas), porosity is
P3
DVi
;
1
/ i1
DV
where DV is the change in volume. Saturation is dened
as the volume of pores occupied by a component
DVi
Si
;
/DV

where i can be water, w, oil, o, or gas, g, and

3
X

Si 1:

i1

For the gas mixture of air and vapor (subscripts, a and

v), Daltons law states that the total pressure is equal
to the sum of the partial pressure of air and vapor
P pv pa :

P
;
RT

where P is the pressure, R is the gas constant, and T

is temperature. The mass concentrations of vapor, air,
water, and oil are given by:
p v M v Sg /
;
RT
p a M a Sg /
ca
;
RT
cw qw /Sw ;

co qo /So :

cv

6
7

2.3. Rate laws

During the frying of a porous media, the following
transport phenomena will take place: diusive transport
of vapor and air, capillarity driven transport of liquid
(water and oil), and total pressure driven ow of liquid,
vapor, and air. The following rate equations are derived
in similar fashion to Ni and Datta (1999). Combining
the diusive (Bird, Stewart, & Lightfoot, 1960) and
convective uxes (Bear, 1972), the total ux of air and
vapor becomes:
*
na
*

ki kgr
C2
qa
rP  Ma Mv Deff;g rxa ;
lg
qg

10

ki kgr
C2
rP  Ma Mv Deff;g rxv :
lg
qg

11

nv qv

12
13

The coecients am , dT , amo , and dTo , are given below:

ki kwr opc
;
lw oSw
ki kwr opc
;
dT qw
lw oT
ki kor opc
amo qo
;
lo oSo
ki kor opc
;
dTo qo
lo oT
am qw

14
15
16
17

where the capillary pressure, pc , is a function of Sw and T.

2.4. Governing equations

The molar density of gas mixture is equal to

C

ki kwr
rP  am rSw  dT rT ;
lw
ki kor
*
no qo
rP  amo rSo  dTo rT :
lo
*

nw qw

Since symmetry is assumed, the diagram shown in

Fig. 2 illustrates only the top right section of the tortilla
chip viewed from the side. The tortilla chip is then divided into four sections. Only the upper right section
was considered for model development. Fig. 3 shows the
transport mechanisms involved in the frying process.
There is no mass or energy transfer from the bottom and
left sides, while there are diusional and convective
uxes occurring at the top and the right side of the
tortilla chip.
The governing equations for water (combining liquid
water and vapor), oil, air, and energy are shown in Eqs.
(18)(21), respectively:
Mass conservation of water (liquid and vapor). Rate of
water accumulation within the system rate of
change of water within the system due to convective
and diusive uxes rate of evaporated water
K5

oSw
oT
rK1 rSw rK3 rT rK4 rP :
K7
ot
ot
18

Mass conservation of oil. Rate of oil accumulation

within the system rate of change of oil within
the system due to convective and diusive uxes
K14

oSo
rK10 rSo rK11 rT rK12 rP :
ot
19

Mass conservation of air. Rate of air accumulation

within the system rate of change of air within the
system due to diusive uxes
oSw
oT
oP
K24
K23
ot
ot
ot
rK17 rSw rK19 rT rK20 rP :

K21
The liquid ux of water and oil based on the total crosssectional area can be derived as:

20

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Fig. 2. Schematic of the 2-D model of the tortilla chip (gure not drawn to scale).

Fig. 3. Transport mechanisms of the frying process (top right cross-section).

Conservation of energy. Rate of accumulation of heat

due to each phase within the system + the heat ux
for each phase within the system heat ux due to
conduction for each phase within the system
oSw
oSo
oT
K29
K30
K31
ot
ot
ot
rK25 rSw rK26 rSo rK27 rT
rK28 rP  cpv~
nv cpo~
no cpa~
na
nw rT :
cpw~

21

The coecient K values are given in Appendix A. For

details of derivations of Eqs. (18)(21) refer to
Yamsaengsung (2000).
2.5. Initial and boundary conditions
The product is assumed to be at equilibrium prior to
frying and has uniform Sw , So , T, and P. The initial
conditions include: Sw Swi , So 0; T Ti , P Pamb .
The boundary conditions are given below:
2.5.1. Closed boundary
Assuming symmetric geometry, the closed boundary
yields the following mass and energy equations:
*

K1 rSw  K2 rSo  K3 rT  K4 rP nw nv 0;

K9 rSw  K10 rSo  K11 rT  K12 rP no 0;

K17 rSw  K18 rSo  K19 rT  K20 rP
keff rT 0:

*
na

0;

23
24
25

2.5.2. Open boundary

Mass transfer on the surface is assumed to be in
equilibrium with the surrounding. Regardless of volumetric evaporation present inside, surface evaporation
occurs simultaneously which means that there is liquid
ux crossing the boundary and vaporizing instantly (Ni
& Datta, 1999). Therefore, the surface evaporation
only aects the boundary mass and heat ux. At the
surface, oil saturation is assumed to be constant. For the
open boundary, the following mass and energy equations are:
 K1 rSw  K2 rSo  K3 rT  K4 rP


pv
/Sg Sw
 qv0 hmv ;
Rv T

26

So So1 ;

27

P Pamb ;

28

 K25 rSw  K26 rSo  K27 rT  K28 rP hT  Tamb :

22

29

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

have to be developed to represent each individual pore

expansion. The empirical equations for shrinkage and
expansion are given in Eqs. (34) and (37), respectively.

2.6. Oil absorption during cooling

The majority of the fat content in tortilla chips results
from the absorption of oil during the cooling process
(Moreira & Barrufet, 1998). The only transport phenomenon during cooling is oil absorption, which is assumed to be a function of the capillary pressure.
In solving the sets of partial dierential equations for
the cooling process, Eqs. (18)(25) are followed with
several additional assumptions. First, there is no moisture transfer and second, there is rapid oil transfer due
to the capillary pressure dierence. The initial conditions during cooling are: Sw 0, So S1 ; T Tamb , P
Pamb . The closed boundary conditions are the same as
Eqs. (30)(33) and the open boundary conditions include:

Sfactor 0:84714Sw3  0:75713Sw2 0:19608Sw

0:90396;

34

dt
do

35

where
Sfactor

and dt is the diameter of the tortilla chip at time t and

do is the initial diameter.
Exfactor 239:47Sw3 120:74Sw2  21:914Sw
3:3107

ki kor opc
;
lo oSo

wt
wo

37

30

Exfactor

31

and wt is the thickness of the tortilla chip at time t

and wo is the initial thickness. Fig. 4 shows the model
of thickness expansion due to pung.

32

P Pamb ;

36

where

K1 rSw  K2 rSo  K3 rT  K4 rP ~

nv ~
nw 0;

~
no qo

Sw < 0:20;

K25 rSw  K26 rSo  K27 rT  K28 rP hT  Tamb :

2.8. Input parameters

33
The input parameters are vital in yielding an accurate
predictive model. For dierent products, the input parameters will vary, thus reliable experiments must be
conducted. For food products, relatively little data, such
as the permeability of liquids and gases, the sorption
isotherms, and the capillary pressure curve, are available.
Eq. (38) gives the sorption isotherm used in this
model. The equation is taken from Kawas (2000) who
tted experimental data for the frying of tortilla chips
with the Chung and Pfost (1967) model. The k1 and k2
values are 8:11  106 kg mol=kJ and 17.91, T is in
Kelvin, and W is moisture content (d.b.).

2.7. Structural changes

The basis of this research is to account for the
structural changes during the frying process. Experimental data on shrinkage and expansion (Table 1) from
Kawas (2000) were used to develop empirical equations
of shrinkage and expansion factors as a function of the
average water saturation of the tortilla chip. Following
Achantas pung algorithm (Achanta et al., 1995),
more thickness expansion was assigned towards the
center of the chip and progressively less expansion was
assigned moving towards the edges. This is to account
for a higher gas pressure expansion towards the center
of the product. Realistically, a microscopic model may


ln

pv
ps






k10
exp  k20 W :
RT

Table 1
Heat capacity values used in this model
Parameter

Values (J/kg K)

Reference
2

Solid

Cps 2:506 2:503W  1:557W  10

Blumenthal and Pokorny (1998)

Water

Cpw 4180 at 15 C

Spalding and Cole (1973)

Oil

Cpo 2223

Choi and Okos (1986)

O2 (J/mol K)

CpO2 aO2 bO2 T cO2 T 2 dO2 T 3

Lewis (1987)

N2 (J/mol K)

CpN2 aN2 bN2 T cN2 T 2 dN2 T 3



1
Cpa 0:21CpO2 0:79CpN2  103
Ma


1
Cpv av bv T cv T 2 dv T 3  103
Mv

Lewis (1987)

Air
Water vapor

Lewis (1987)
Lewis (1987)

38

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Fig. 4. Model of thickness expansion due to pung. Upper slice of the tortilla chip, gure is not drawn to scale.

for T 6 100 C

Since no permeability data for tortilla chips have been

collected, values for the intrinsic and relative permeabilities follow those used by Ni and Datta (1999). To
account for the convective ow of liquid and gas due to
capillary pressure, several correlations were studied. In
this model, the Spolek and Plumb (1981) equation was
modied (Eq. (39)) and gave good results. The equation
gives the capillary pressure as a function of water saturation. In further research, experiments must be conducted to obtain true capillary pressure curves for
tortilla chips.
pc 0:45  106 Sw0:23 :

ks 0:1085 0:009986T  5:203  106 T 2

for T > 100 C
ks 0:06938 9:997  105 T 6:327  108 T 2 ;

The eective heat capacity, which includes the contribution of all the components in the tortilla chip, is given
in Eq. (40)
qCp eff qs Cps 1  / qw Cpw /Sw qo Cpo /So
40

Changes in the tortilla chips specic heat Cps with

temperature were small compared to changes with
moisture content (Chen, 1996). The heat capacities of
the tortilla chip solid fraction along with the rest of its
components are shown in Tables 1 and 2. The unit of
specic heat is J/kg K. From Table 1, M is the moisture
content in decimal (d.b.), Ma is the molecular weight
(m.w.) of air (28.85 g/gmol), and Mv is the m.w. of vapor
(18.02 g/gmol).
The eective thermal conductivity (in W/m K), which
includes the contribution of all the components in the
tortilla chip, is given in Eq (41)

Table 3
Thermal conductivity values used in this model

keff ks 1  / kw /Sw ko /So kg /1  Sw  So :

41
The thermal conductivity of solid fraction of the tortilla
chip is taken from the following correlations (Chen,
1996):

Parameter

Values (W/m K)

Reference

Water
Gas
Oil

kw 0:64
kg 0:026
ko 0:17

Choi and Okos (1986)

Choi and Okos (1986)
Lewis (1987) for corn oil

Table 2
Coecients for determining CpO2 , CpN2 , and Cpv (Lewis, 1987) from Table 1
Component
O2
N2
Water vapor

a
25.46
27.32
32.22

43

where T is the temperature of the tortilla chip. The rest

of the thermal conductivity values are shown in Table 3.
In addition, the heat and mass transfer coecients
are important parameters that are also very hard to
determine for food materials. Farkas and Hubbard
(2000) found the convective heat transfer coecients, h,
to be a dynamic property ranging from 300 to
1100 W=m2 K and to be coupled with the movement of
oil. For this study, it was assumed that the temperature
of the product does not increase until very low-moisture content due to large latent heat of vaporization
compared to the rate of heat transfer from the oil to the
surface. Thus, the convective heat transfer term is neglected during this period. Once the water saturation of
the product has dropped below 0.20, the convective heat
transfer term is added back on. This water saturation
limit is used based on experimental observations.
Furthermore, the mass transfer coecient is assumed
to be a function of the moisture gradient and the frying
temperature. As the water saturation decreases, hmv
decreases, and as the frying temperature increases the
initial hmv increases.

39

qg Cpg /1  Sw  So :

42

c
2

1.5190  10
0.6226 10 2
0.1920  102

)0.7150  10
0.0950  105
1.0540  105
5

1.311  109
0
)3.594  109

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

3. Discussion
During the drying of food materials, water is removed from the system causing signicant shrinkage.
For tortilla chips, Kawas and Moreira (2000) observed
up to 9.6% shrinkage in the chip diameter for the control
sample and up to 7.6% and 11.6% shrinkage for the ne
and coarse masa particles, respectively. Also, they noticed signicant increase in the thickness of the chip due
to pung (gas pressure buildup). They recorded up to
100% increase in puness around the center of the chip
(taking into account gas bubble expansion) and about a
7% increase in the thickness of the chip (disregarding the
gas bubble expansion). This study includes these changes in the model in order to obtain a more accurate
prediction of the moisture and temperature prole.
Fennema (1985) presented an idea of water interaction within a food system that was useful in developing
the structure model. Fig. 5 illustrates three dierent
zones of water using a moisture sorption isotherm.
Water presented in zone I is the most strongly absorbed
and most immobile water in food and the enthalpy of
vaporization of this water is much greater than that of
pure water. This water forms a monolayer over the hydrophilic region of the solid material by either waterion
or waterdipole interaction. It is the most tenaciously
bound water and is thought of as constitutional
water. Water in zone II consists of zone I water and a
multilayer water that associates with neighboring molecules mainly by waterwater and watersolute hydrogen bonding. This bound water is called vicinal water.
The enthalpy of vaporization for the multilayer water is
slightly to moderately greater than that of pure water.
Water in zone III of the isotherm includes water in zones

I and II plus water that is added (resorption procedure)

within the connes of zone III. Water in zone III is the
least bound and most mobile water and is designated
bulk water. Fennema (1985) noted that in the presence
of gels or cellular structures, this water is designated as
entrapped water. Its enthalpy of vaporization is essentially the same as that of pure water. Thus, in this
study, bound water includes the tightly bound constitutional water, the slight less bound, vicinal water,
and the least bound, entrapped water.
From the experimental data shown in Table 4,
shrinkage of the tortilla chip occurred within the rst
5 s of frying (1.27 mm thickness at 190 C). This corresponds to a moisture reduction from 42.2 to 28.5%
w.b. and a water activity reduction from 0.987 to 0.978.
Thus, it is likely that most of the shrinkage of the material occurs due to the removal of the water from zone
III, which consists mostly of the entrapped water.
With further drying and sucient energy input, the
water from zone II can be removed. The monolayer
bound water that constitutes the zone I water probably represents the water that remains at the equilibrium
moisture content (2% w.b.).
At low-moisture contents (during removal of zone II
water) when shrinkage begins to stop, pung will
commence. Crust formation at the outer layer of the
tortilla chip restricts the amount of pressure that can be
released from the core region (limited water diusion).
From experimental data from Table 4, pung begins
after about 20 s of frying (at 190 C), or at about 10%
moisture content (w.b.). Pung continues until about
2% moisture content (w.b.) at which point the equilibrium is reached. Thus, incorporating the structural
changes during the frying process into the model is vital

Fig. 5. Generalized moisture sorption isotherm for the low-moisture range of food 20 C (Fennema, 1985).

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Table 4
Percentage of shrinkage, thickness, and puness of the tortilla as a function of frying time for tortilla with 1.27 mm initial thickness fried at 190 C
(Kawas, 2000)
Time (s)

Shrinkage (%)

Thickness (%)

Puness (%)

Moisture (% w.b.)

0
5
10
20
30
40
60

0.0
7.8
8.0
8.0
8.1
8.3
9.4

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
7.0
7.0

0.0
0.0
0.0
70.0
90.0
100.0
100.0

42.0
28.0
22.0
10.0
5.5
3.8
3.8

to predicting the drying rate, the temperature prole,

and the nal oil content of the tortilla chip.
For a hygroscopic material, bound water resides in
the solid matrix and leads to shrinkage of the structure
when it is removed. Shrinkage in this study is dened as
a decrease in the radius of the product (Kawas, 2000).
Two methods were investigated and one was implemented into the model. First, Crapiste et al. (1988a)
introduced the shrinkage velocity term, which depends
on experimental data of dimensional changes as a
function of moisture content. A second method, which is
similar to the shrinkage velocity method, used the experimental data to produce an empirical correlation of
shrinkage as a function of moisture content. The dimension of the tortilla chip was then adjusted as a
function of the moisture content to obtain a more accurate drying curve and temperature prole.
After all the bound water has been removed and the
moisture content of the tortilla chip has decreased, the
material will begin to pu due to the gas pressure
buildup inside the tortilla. Pung or pillowing is dened
as an increase in the thickness of the tortilla chips due to
the formation of the gas bubbles at the surface. The
crust region provides a high resistance to gas diusion;
thus, causing the pressure build up and formation of gas
pockets. To describe the expansion due to pung an
empirical relationship similar to that for shrinkage was
considered in this study.

4. Conclusions
The frying process, including cooling, of tortilla chips
was simulated based on the fundamental approach of
multiphase porous media. The parameters that were
studied included water saturation, Sw , oil saturation, So ,
temperature, T, and pressure, P. Liquid ow results from
convective ow due to the gradient in total gas pressure
and capillary ow due to the gradient of capillary force.
Gas movement results from convective ow due to the
total gas pressure gradient and Knudsen diusion due
to the concentration gradient. The only transport phenomenon during cooling is oil absorption, which is assumed to be a function of the capillary pressure.

Food materials are typically hygroscopic in which

some water is tightly bound to the solid matrix. To
address that issue, semi-empirical correlations were
included to account for structural changes, such as
shrinkage and expansion due to pung. These correlations were based on experimental data. All water present
in the tortilla chip was considered bound and led to
shrinkage when removed. When shrinkage begins to
stop, pung commences. Crust formation at the outer
layer of the tortilla chip restricts the amount of pressure
than can be released from the core region (limited water
diusion). Pung begins at about 10% moisture content
(w.b.). Pung continues until about 2% moisture content (w.b.) at which point the equilibrium is reached.
The incorporation of the structural changes during the
frying process into the model is vital to predicting the
drying rate, the temperature prole, and the nal oil
content of the tortilla chip.
Appendix A
Ma Mv Deff;g
opv
P
;
RT P  pv Ma Pv Mv
oSw
Ma Mv Deff;g
opv
P
;
K3v
RT P  pv Ma Pv Mv
oT
pv kkgr
Ma Mv Deff;g
opv
K4v
P
;
Rv T lg RT P  pv Ma Pv Mv
oT
pv
/1  Sw  So opv
K5v /

;
Rv T  oSw
Rv T
/1  Sw  So o Pv
K7v
;
Rv
oT T
K1 K1v am ;
K3 K3v dT ;
kkwr
K4 K4v qw
;
lw
K5 K5v /qw ;
K7 K7v ;
K10 amo ;
K11 dTo ;
kkor
K12 qo
;
lo
K14 /qo ;

K1v

10

R. Yamsaengsung, R.G. Moreira / Journal of Food Engineering 53 (2002) 110

Ma Mv Deff;g
opv
P
;
RT P  pv Ma pv Mv
oSw
Ma Mv Deff;g
opv
P
;

RT P  pv Ma pv Mv
oT
P  pv kkgr
Ma Mv Deff;g
pv ;

Ra T lg RT P  pv Ma pv Mv



/ P  pv 1  Sw  So opv

;

Ra
T
T
oSw



/ P
PSw 1  Sw  So o opv

 2
;
Ra T 2
T
oT oT
T
/1  Sw  So
;

Ra T
am k;

K17 
K19
K20
K21
K23
K24
K25

K26 amo k;
K27 Keff  dTo  dT ;


kkwr
kkor
q
q k;
K28 
lw w
lo o
K29 k/qw ;
K30 k/qo ;
K31 qCp eff :

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