A meshfree three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model to study transport phenomena in single plant cells during drying

To improve the performance of food drying operations, an in depth understanding of the related transport phenomena in plant food cellular structures is necessary. A three dimensional (3-D) numerical model has been developed to investigate the morphological changes and related solid and fluid transfer mechanisms of single parenchyma cells of apple during drying. This numerical model was developed by coupling a meshfree particle based method: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) with a Discrete Element Method (DEM). Compared to conventional grid-based numerical modelling techniques: Finite Element Methods (FEM) and Finite Difference Methods (FDM), the proposed meshfree model can better predict the deformations and cellular shrinkage within a wide range of moisture content. The model contains two main components: cell fluid and cell wall. The cell fluid model is based on SPH and represents the cell protoplasm as a homogeneous Newtonian liquid. The cell wall model is based on DEM and approximates the cell wall as an incompressible Neo-Hookean solid. The sensitivity and the consistency of the model towards mass transfer parameters of the system have been studied via simulating the cell inflation under different conditions.