Sheeting of wheat flour dough

A combined experimental, analytical and numerical study of sheeting of wheat flour dough was performed. The material behaviour was defined using a non‐linear viscoelastic model calibrated with data obtained from uniaxial compression, loading–unloading and stress relaxation tests. Tests were performed using an instrumented small‐scale rolling rig. The roll speed and roll gap were varied to determine the effect on the steady‐state vertical force and exit thickness. Experiments were performed using one‐stand as well as a two‐stand roll set up. The analytical model which assumed perfect plasticity led to significantly lower forces than the experimental data. The numerical predictions were accurate at small reduction ratios. The exit thickness of the dough sheet was predicted accurately from the numerical model. For the two‐stand rolling, the numerical data were not accurate when a significant level of stress developed in the dough between the two roll stands.