Introduction to Food Engineering

Home Syllabus
Material Balances Energy Balances
Fluids Laminar and Turbulent Flow Volumetric Flow and Friction Bernoulli's Equation and Pump Power Flow Measurement
Thermodynamic Properties
Modes of heat transfer Conduction in walls Conduction in multilayered walls Convection heat transfer Forced Convection Free Convection Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient Heat Exchangers Unsteady State Heat Transfer Heisler Charts
Decimal Reduction Time F value General Method Improved General Method
Properties of Air and Water Vapor Psychrometric Chart
Moisture Content and Drying Rates Drying Time
Single Effect Evaporator Multiple Effect and Industrial Evaporators
Refrigerants Vapor Compression Refrigeration System Ideal and Non-Ideal Cycle
Ice Crystallization Freezing Time Freezer Selection
Instructions List of Experiments

Course Goals

The specific goals of this course are for you to:

  1. learn the use of engineering principles to solve problems encountered in food processing
  2. recognize the importance of heat, mass, and momentum transfer in designing food processes
  3. gain proficiency in using numerical approaches to design equipment for food processing and distribution

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Conduct mass and energy balances on processing equipment and operations
  2. Determine flow characteristics of fluids in pipes
  3. Determine the energy requirements of pumping water
  4. Measure flow rates of fluids in pipes
  5. Calculate the enthalpy of steam
  6. Describe and compute heat transfer in solids
  7. Compute heat transfer during fluid flow
  8. Apply fundamental principles of heat transfer to design heat exchangers
  9. Estimate unsteady-state heat transfer in heating and cooling applications
  10. Determine D- and z- values
  11. Compute thermal death time
  12. Calculate a thermal process using General method
  13. Determine properties of air and water vapor mixtures
  14. Describe constant and falling rate periods of drying
  15. Conduct mass and energy balance to design evaporators
  16. Apply principles of refrigeration to design refrigeration equipment
  17. Describe underlying mechanisms of ice crystallization
  18. Compute freezing time of foods
  19. Describe characteristics of freezing systems

Instructor's Notes

This online course is based on the lectures that I gave to teach introductory courses on food engineering at the University of California, Davis. Each module is equivalent to a 50-75 minute class-period. The contents of this online course will be regularly updated with additional numerical examples to strengthen students’ problem solving skills. A recommended textbook for this course is:

Singh, R. P. and D.R. Heldman. 2014. Introduction to Food Engineering. 5th edition, Elsevier Inc.

R. Paul Singh

August 4, 2020