Abstract

Shrinkage during drying affects the porous shape and rehydration capability of a given deformable porous structure. Also shrinkage of some food materials has a negative consequence on the consumers’ perception of the final products. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the shrinkage during drying. We postulate that shrinkage is produced mainly by changes in the capillary pressure as drying proceeds in a deformable porous structure. In this paper we present experimental evidence accounting for the effect of capillary pressure in the geometrical changes and deformation of the porous structure as drying advances. Also we display experimental evidence of the liquid distribution phase in the pore structure during drying and simulation results of a drying model at pore scale considering the shrinkage as function of the capillary pressure.