Effective thermal conductivity of a high porosity model food at above and sub-freezing temperatures

The modelling of heat transfer within materials with high porosity is complicated by evaporation-condensation phenomena. The aim of this work is to develop a model for apparent thermal conductivity in these products. The effective thermal conductivity of a porous food model (sponge) having 0–60% moisture contents and 0.59–0.94 porosity was measured by a line-source heat probe system in the range −35 to 25 °C. Two predictive models of the effective thermal conductivity of porous food were developed (Krischer and Maxwell models). The effective thermal conductivity predicted by Krischer model were in good agreement with the experimental data. Also, it was shown that the model including the effect of evaporation-condensation phenomena in addition to heat conduction was useful to predict the effective thermal conductivity of sponges.