Investigation of heat transfer and mass transfer parameters in a convection oven for model foods

Abstract: Forced air convection systems are the most preferred design of choice in many of the industrial-scale convection ovens. In this study, experimental investigation on convective heat transfer and mass transfer within a forced air convection oven was performed at different oven temperatures (100℃, 110℃ and 120℃) and at flow velocity (2 m/s, 3 m/s and 4 m/s) using potato slices (10'10'60 mm) as model food. The Yıldız et al., 2007 approach with slight modification was applied to estimate the effective convective heat transfer and mass transfer coefficient during convection frying. In addition to the experimental approach, the empirical correlation method was also used to calculate the convective heat transfer and mass transfer coefficient and compared with the coefficient values obtained from the experimental method. The effective heat transfer and mass transfer coefficient obtained from the Yıldız et al., 2007 method was found to be almost constant with increasing oven temperature. However, with increasing flow velocity the effective heat transfer coefficient increased but the influence of flow velocity on effective mass transfer coefficient was not significant. The comparison of the coefficient values obtained from the experimental method and the empirical correlations showed that the experimental method yields quite low values than the empirical method.