Research Initiation: Simultaneous Measurement of Transient Moisture Profiles and Structural Changes During the Drying, Tempering, and Cooling of Foods: REU Supplement

本研究考虑固体食品物料的干燥过程。磁共振成像系统将用于同时测量食品在干燥、回火和冷却阶段的瞬态水分分布和结构变化。在广泛的干燥条件下，均质和非均质食品的数据将被收集用于模型评估。干燥过程在许多不同的应用中都有发现，包括食品工业。由于缺乏对不透明物体内部的详细测量，对这种现象的理解受到了抑制。这项研究将提供三维湿度剖面和结构变化的磁共振成像无损测量。这些信息将为一个非常重要的工程过程提供以前无法获得的数据。

This research considers the drying process in solid food materials. A magnetic resonance imaging system will be used to simultaneously measure transient moisture profiles and structural changes in foods during the drying, tempering and cooling stages. Data for homogeneous and nonhomogeneous foods over a wide range of drying conditions will be collected for model evaluation. Drying processes are found in many diverse applications including the food industry. The understanding of this phenomena is inhibited by the lack of detailed measurements within opaque bodies. This research will provide nondestructive measurements of three dimensional moisture profiles and structural changes with magnetic resonance imaging. This information will provide previously unavailable data to a very important engineering process.