Potential for damage to fruits during transport through cross-section constrictions

Fruit preparations are used in various forms in the food industry. For example, they are used as an ingredient in dairy products such as yogurt with added fruit. The dispersed fruit pieces can be described as soft particles with viscoelastic material behavior. The continuous phase is represented by fluids with complex flow behavior depending on the formulation. Characterization has shown that the fluids exhibit a yield stress and pseudoplastic behavior, which can be described by the Herschel–Bulkley model. Since damage to fruit pieces is undesirable in industrial transport processes, the potential for damage to fruit pieces during transport of pipes in cross-sectional constrictions is analyzed. The analysis is performed numerically using the homogenized lattice Boltzmann method and validated by an experiment on industrial fruit preparations at pilot plant scale. The results show a strong dependence of the damage potential on the (local) Metzner–Reed Reynolds number. • Analysis of fruit damage potential during industrial transport through pipes. • Investigation of multiple cross-sectional constrictions. • Fruit parameters such as size and Young’s modulus contribute to the damage potential. • The damage potential is strongly dependent on the Metzner–Reed Reynolds number. • Local increases in Reynolds number should be avoided in system design.