Extrudate Expansion Modelling through Dimensional Analysis Method

A new model framework is proposed to correlate extrudate expansion and extrusion operation parameters for a food extrusion cooking process through dimensional analysis principle, i.e. Buckingham pi theorem. Three dimensionless groups, i.e. energy, water content and temperature, are suggested to describe the extrudates expansion. From the three dimensionless groups, an equation with three experimentally determined parameters is derived to express the extrudate expansion. The model is evaluated with whole wheat flour and aquatic feed extrusion experimental data. The average deviations of the correlation are respectively 5.9% and 9% for the whole wheat flour and the aquatic feed extrusion. An alternative 4-coefficient equation is also suggested from the 3 dimensionless groups. The average deviations of the alternative equation are respectively 5.8% and 2.5% in correlation with the same set of experimental data.