LAUSR

Abstract The objective of all manufacturers and users of ovens is to achieve uniform browning of various baked foods. In recent years, manufacturers have found it difficult to achieve this, due to the rapid appearance of new trends and due to progressively shorter development times. In this paper, we present the development and validation of a time-dependent 3D computational fluid dynamics model, which enables the numerical prediction of the baking performance and grade of browning of a forced convection oven. Flow and heat transfer of hot air in an oven, where a round heating element and a fan are both operating, are simulated. Radiative and convective heat transfer is taken into account. We found, that it is necessary to include water evaporation in the model. The numerical model was validated by performing experimental measurements of temperature and by performing baking tests of shortbread. After baking, the grade of browning was measured for the shortbread. To determine the grade of browning, the method of identification of colour contrasts was used, based on the colour space CIE L∗a∗b. Based on the results, we proposed a linear model, which enabled the prediction of the grade of browning based on the results of the fluid dynamics simulation.