Size and shape effect on nonuniformity of temperature and moisture distributions in microwave heated food materials: Part II experimental validation

Experiments were conducted to determine temperature and moisture distributions in brick-shaped, cylinder-shaped and hexagonal prism-shaped products. Center heating for cylindrical shapes, corner heating for brick-shapes and surface drying in all the shapes considered were predicted by the finite element model (FEM) and were observed in the experimental data. The slow rate of heating in the case of hexagonal-prism shaped products predicted by the FEM was validated by the experimental study. The FEM calculated moisture distributions matched the experimentally measured values closely for brick (maximum % error = 9.3% and standard error = 0.9%), cylinder (6.9% and 0.6%) and hexagonal prism (1.5% and 0.15) shaped products. The FEM calculated temperature distributions and experimentally measured values were closer in the case of brick-shaped products (maximum % error = 24.7% and standard error = 4.3C) and cylinder-shaped products (22.0% and 2.8C) when compared to hexagonal prism-shaped products (57.3% and 3.3C).