Numerical model of cake baking based on enthalpy–porosity method

This study proposes a numerical model of the cake-baking process, including its heat and mass transfer processes and the phase change process of water, using the enthalpy-porosity method. The specific heat and thermal conductivity of the cake dough were measured as functions of temperature using a differential scanning calorimeter and the hot plate method with a probe, respectively, for a numerical evaluation of the variations in the thermo-physical properties of the cake dough. The internal and upper-surface temperatures of the cake were measured using thermocouples and an infrared camera, respectively. The mass loss of the cake was measured to determine its water content fraction. The commercial computational fluid dynamics software Fluent 19.2 was used to develop the numerical model of cake baking. The experimental and numerical model results were compared quantitatively and showed excellent agreement. In general, the temperature in the central region of the cake was lower than the internal temperature close to the cake pan. The upper-surface temperatures of the cake exceeded 100 °C and tended to increase toward the cake edge. The water content initially decreased linearly with time. Finally, the correlation between the upper-surface temperature and brightness of the cake dough was examined to determine the cake-baking performance.