Abstract
Thermophysical properties of wheat flour were measured by the transient heat flow method using a probe at various moisture contents, temperatures and bulk densities. Using the relation of probe temperature versus elapsed time, four parameters were determined by applying a least-square method to an approximate solution of the equation for heat conduction corrected for probe finite diameter. The measured transient probe temperature for wheat flour agreed well with the calculated temperature. Based on the obtained values of four parameters, effective thermal conductivity and effective thermal diffusivity of wheat flour were determined. In addition, using these values and bulk density, the specific heat of wheat flour was estimated. The effects of moisture content, temperature and bulk density on these thermophysical properties were discussed.
