Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite

Massecuite is a liquid mixture that is boiled to produce raw sugar. When formed from poor-quality sugar cane, massecuite can be difficult to boil, leading to factory shutdowns lasting several weeks. This "hard-toboil" (HTB) massecuite is rich in long-chained polysaccharides and thus exhibi...

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Main Authors: Hennessy, M, Moyles, I, Thomson, S
Format: Journal article
Published: Elsevier 2018
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author Hennessy, M
Moyles, I
Thomson, S
author_facet Hennessy, M
Moyles, I
Thomson, S
author_sort Hennessy, M
collection OXFORD
description Massecuite is a liquid mixture that is boiled to produce raw sugar. When formed from poor-quality sugar cane, massecuite can be difficult to boil, leading to factory shutdowns lasting several weeks. This "hard-toboil" (HTB) massecuite is rich in long-chained polysaccharides and thus exhibits a rheology that is dominated by elasticity. We examine how the rheology of massecuite affects the onset of boiling by proposing an extension of classical nucleation theory that accounts for the elastic energy of fluids containing a deformable solid network. The elasticity of a fluid is shown to suppress the onset of boiling through an increase in the boiling temperature, which is calculated to be a linear function of the shear modulus. Using experimental data, the model correctly predicts that regular and HTB massecuite should and should not boil under standard operating conditions. By coupling the boiling problem to a heat transfer model, the thermorheological properties of HTB massecuite are shown to greatly increase the time it takes to reach the boiling temperature. We propose further experiments that can be used to validate the theoretical results obtained here.
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spelling oxford-uuid:df822eba-80ea-4315-b009-6504f18015572022-03-27T09:39:52ZElastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuiteJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:df822eba-80ea-4315-b009-6504f1801557Symplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2018Hennessy, MMoyles, IThomson, SMassecuite is a liquid mixture that is boiled to produce raw sugar. When formed from poor-quality sugar cane, massecuite can be difficult to boil, leading to factory shutdowns lasting several weeks. This "hard-toboil" (HTB) massecuite is rich in long-chained polysaccharides and thus exhibits a rheology that is dominated by elasticity. We examine how the rheology of massecuite affects the onset of boiling by proposing an extension of classical nucleation theory that accounts for the elastic energy of fluids containing a deformable solid network. The elasticity of a fluid is shown to suppress the onset of boiling through an increase in the boiling temperature, which is calculated to be a linear function of the shear modulus. Using experimental data, the model correctly predicts that regular and HTB massecuite should and should not boil under standard operating conditions. By coupling the boiling problem to a heat transfer model, the thermorheological properties of HTB massecuite are shown to greatly increase the time it takes to reach the boiling temperature. We propose further experiments that can be used to validate the theoretical results obtained here.
spellingShingle Hennessy, M
Moyles, I
Thomson, S
Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title_full Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title_fullStr Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title_full_unstemmed Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title_short Elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids: a mechanism for hard-to-boil massecuite
title_sort elastic suppression of boiling in network fluids a mechanism for hard to boil massecuite
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AT moylesi elasticsuppressionofboilinginnetworkfluidsamechanismforhardtoboilmassecuite
AT thomsons elasticsuppressionofboilinginnetworkfluidsamechanismforhardtoboilmassecuite