A Method for estimating the Surface Area of Ellipsoidal Food Materials

Estimating the surface area of food materials is an essential step in resolving many food engineering problems. Some of the common food materials are ellipsoidal in shape which can be defined by its length, breadth and thickness. Surface area of such materials is being estimated by adopting experimental or numerical techniques involving a number of assumptions and approximations. In the current investigation, a simple and theoretically sound method for determining the surface area of ellipsoidal food materials is proposed. A single integral model, which can be solved numerically, is developed to evaluate the required surface area. The proposed method is verified with special cases of ellipsoids, having standard analytical solution. Surface area of some food grains, computed using the developed model, is compared with the results reported under experimental and numerical investigations.