Modelling of heat and mass transfer during cooking in steam-assisted hybrid oven

• Simultaneous heat and mass transfer during cooking of Semitendinosus muscle was modelled.
• Temperature and moisture profiles were predicted as functions of both position and time.
• Thermal conductivity of Semitendinosus muscles was determined by line heat source method.
• The predicted results agreed well with the experimental temperature and moisture profiles.

Semitendinosus muscle in a cylindrical shape was cooked in a domestic steam-assisted hybrid oven, and the simultaneous heat and mass transfer during the cooking process was modelled using commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics (version 3.5a). The temperature and moisture profiles of the product were predicted as functions of both position and time, and the predicted results were compared with the experimental ones. The surface convective heat transfer coefficient was determined experimentally using the lumped capacity method, and the surface convective mass transfer coefficient was calculated by simulation of the developed model at different temperatures. Also, the thermal conductivity of muscles was determined as a function of the temperature and moisture content by the line heat source method. The convective heat transfer coefficients were found to be in the range of 17.31–18.35 W/m2K, and the calculated surface convective mass transfer coefficients were in the range of 1.7 × 10−7-2.2 × 10−7 m/s at 180, 210 and 240 °C cooking temperatures. The predicted results for the steam-assisted hybrid cooking process agreed well with the experimental temperature and moisture profiles, and the developed model is considered to be suitable for predicting cooking times in a steam-assisted hybrid oven.