Food and biomaterials exhibit porous, polymeric and often living (e.g. plant and animal cells) nature. Often the macroscale behavior of these materials results from the physical mechanisms taking place at molecular, micro and cellular scales. To improve the quality of foods and the efficiency of processing operations, it is important to incorporate the physical mechanisms at different spatial scales into the engineering models. During the past several years of research, my research group has been using the framework of continuum thermodynamics to incorporate the effect of viscoelastic relaxation of biopolymers at microscale (of the order of 1 pore diameter; scale of pores in cellular components such as cell walls, membranes, protein and starch bodies), hydration forces (due to adsorption of water by the polymers) at mesoscale (of the order of millimeters), and exchange of thermodynamic properties at macroscale on transport of fluids and species. The research resulted in several novel equations for modeling transport of fluids, species, heat transfer, and thermomechanical phenomenon in biomaterials (see TIPM 53(1):1-24 and Chem Eng Sci, 58:4017:4035). The general fluid transport equation could successfully predict Fickian and non-Fickian modes of fluid transport in biopolymers (see Chem Eng Sci. 58(11): 2409-2419 ). Solution of the transport and stress equations via computer simulations validated the previously known facts and provided new insights into the role of glass transition on fluid transport and stress development (see Singh et al, 2003, J. of Math. Biol., Parts I & II). We have experienced that in a continuum thermodynamics based theoretical and experimental study, the amount of information one obtains in few years, would require several decades via purely experimental approaches.
Refer to the following selected publications for details:
1.Lalam, S., J. Sandhu, P. S. Takhar*, L. Thompson and C. Alvarado (2012). Experimental Study on Transport Mechanisms During Deep Fat Frying of Chicken Nuggets. LWT-Food Science and Technology (In Press).
2.Takhar, P. S., D. E. Maier, O. Campanella and G. Chen (2011). Hybrid mixture theory based moisture transport and stress development in corn kernels during drying: Validation and simulation results. Journal of Food Engineering 106: 275-282.
3.Takhar, P. S. (2011). Hybrid mixture theory based moisture transport and stress development in corn kernels during drying: Coupled fluid transport and stress equations. Journal of Food Engineering 105(4): 663-670.
4.Hundal, J. and P. S. Takhar (2010). Experimental study on the effect of glass transition on moisture profiles and stress-crack formation during continuous and time-varying drying of maize kernels. Biosystems Engineering 106 (2): 156-165.
5.Maneerote, J., N. Athapol and P. S. Takhar (2009). Optimization of processing conditions to reduce oil uptake and enhance physico-chemical properties of deep fried rice crackers LWT - Food Science and Technology 42(4): 805-812.
6.Hundal, J. and P. S. Takhar (2009). Dynamic viscoelastic properties and glass transition behavior of corn kernels. International Journal of Food Properties 12(2): 295 - 307
7.Chen, G., D. E. Maier, O. H. Campanella and P. S. Takhar (2009). Modeling of Moisture Diffusivities for Components of Yellow–dent Corn Kernels. Journal of Cereal Science 50: 82-90.
8.Takhar, P. S. (2008). Role of glass-transition on fluid transport in porous food materials. International Journal of Food Engineering 4(7): 5: 1-15.
9.Kaur, A., P. S. Takhar, D. M. Smith, J. Mann and M. Brashears (2008). Fractional Differential Equations BasedModeling of Microbial Survival and Growth Curves: Model Development and Experimental Validation. Journal of Food Science 73(8): E403-E414.
10.Singh, P. P., D. E. Maier, J. H. Cushman, K. Haghighi and C. Corvalan (2004). Effect of viscoelastic relaxation on moisture transport in foods. Part I: Solution of general transport equation. Journal of Mathematical Biology 49(1): 1-19.
11.Singh, P. P., D. E. Maier, J. H. Cushman and O. Campanella (2004). Effect of viscoelastic relaxation on moisture transport in foods. Part II: Sorption and drying of soybeans. Journal of Mathematical Biology 49(1): 20-35.
12.Cushman, J. H., P. P. Singh and L. S. Bennethum (2004). Toward Rational Design of Drug Delivery Substrates: II. Mixture Theory For Three-Scale Biocompatible Polymers and a Computational Example. Multiscale Modeling and Simulation: A Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Interdisciplinary Journal 2(2): 335-357.
13.Cushman, J. H., L. S. Bennethum and P. P. Singh (2004). Toward Rational Design of Drug Delivery Substrates: I. Mixture Theory For Two-Scale Biocompatible Polymers. Multiscale Modeling and Simulation: A Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Interdisciplinary Journal 2(2): 302-334.
15. Singh, P. P., J. H. Cushman and D. E. Maier (2003). Three scale thermomechanical theory for swelling biopolymeric systems. Chemical Engineering Science 58: 4017-4035.
16. Singh, P. P., J. H. Cushman and D. E. Maier (2003). Multiscale fluid transport theory for swelling biopolymers. Chemical Engineering Science 58(11): 2409-2419.
17. Singh, P. P., J. H. Cushman, L. S. Bennethum and D. E. Maier (2003). Thermomechanics of swelling biopolymeric systems. Transport in Porous Media 53(1): 1-24.
*Has previously published as Pawan P. Singh