A reliable method of extracting the rheological properties of fruit purees from flow loop data

Abstract

A method based on Tikhonov regularization is used to process the volumetric flow rate against pressure drop data of different fruit purees generated by large-scale flow loops. These data are converted into shear-rate-against-shear-stress curves. Curves from flow loops with different dia are compared to verify that they are independent of dia. They are also compared against that obtained by a conventional method. Tikhonov regularization will simultaneously extract the yield stress of the purees from the flow loop data. The results obtained by Tikhonov regularization show it to be a very efficient way of processing the flow loop data of rheologically complex foods.