BEE 4630 - Digital Food Physics and Engineering

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: Fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and mass transfer, or permission of instructor. The graduate version of the course (BEE 6630) will require prior coursework in at least fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Co-meets with BEE 6630.

A. Datta.

Mechanistic, model-based understanding and digital tools critically innovate in the design cycle for products and processes, food manufacturing is no exception. The course will introduce tools such as computational modeling, digital twins, and predictive knowledge bases, exploring deeper into the underlying universal physics-based frameworks describing transformations in food during processing. BEE 6630: The graduate version of the course will require the project to be substantially more challenging computationally or in physical detail. In addition, in several places throughout the syllabus, graduate version of the course will have more advanced content (there will be separate web modules for undergraduates and graduates).

Outcome 1: Explain a food physics framework in terms of its basic building blocks that can describe many food processes.

Outcome 2: Compare and contrast between simpler and more comprehensive physics frameworks for understanding food processes.

Outcome 3: Apply a food physics framework to complex food processes for their understanding and optimization.

Outcome 4: Create framework-based computational model of a food process that speeds up the design cycle.