Modeling coupled heat and mass transfer for convection cooking of chicken patties

A 2-D axisymmetric finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate coup led heat and mass transfer during convection cooking of regularly shaped ch icken patties, given actual transient oven air conditions. Transient temper ature and moisture distributions inside the product were predicted, and 98 chicken patties were cooked in a convection oven for model validation. The predicted transient center temperature under various cooking conditions had an error of 3.8-5.7 degrees C, as compared to experimental data. The predi ction error for the cooking yield was 1.2%. For the same cooking conditions , the prediction error would increase to 5.9-12.9 degrees C if mass transfe r were ignored in simulation. The best prediction was obtained when both th ermal conductivity and specific heat were modeled as state-dependent functi ons in the simulation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.