Modeling the Coupled Mass Transfer Phenomena During Osmotic Dehydration of Fresh and Frozen Mango Tissues

This paper presents a mathematical model for simulating the mass transfer during the osmotic dehydration of mango cubes. The effect of the previous freezing of the fruit pieces was also investigated. The model was implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics TM using 1-D, 2-D and 3-D geometries to compare the results. The mass balance equation for the transport of each constituent is established separately for intracellular and extracellular volumes but taking into account the mass exchange across the cell membrane and the shrinkage of whole tissue. The paper also presents the computational difficulties encountered and techniques used to overcome them. The best quantitative agreement was obtained between the experimental and calculated results for the sugar and water loss with both fresh and frozen mango tissues using the full 3-D simulations, provided the correct values are chosen for the parameters describing the cell structure properties.