International Journal of Food Properties

ISSN: 1094-2912 (Print) 1532-2386 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ljfp20

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree at High

Temperatures

Cynthia Ditchfield , Carmen C. Tadini , Rakesh Singh & Romeo T. Toledo

To cite this article: Cynthia Ditchfield , Carmen C. Tadini , Rakesh Singh & Romeo T. Toledo
(2004) Rheological Properties of Banana Puree at High Temperatures, International Journal of
Food Properties, 7:3, 571-584, DOI: 10.1081/JFP-200032973

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1081/JFP-200032973

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 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD PROPERTIES
Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 571–584, 2004

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree at

High Temperatures

Cynthia Ditchfield,1 Carmen C. Tadini,1,* Rakesh Singh,2

and Romeo T. Toledo2
1
Laboratório de Engenharia de Alimentos,
Departamento de Engenharia Quı́mica,
Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo,
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Department of Food Science and Technology,
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

ABSTRACT

The rheological behavior of banana puree was determined using a dynamic stress
rheometer with a pressure couette fixture, which allowed experiments to be
conducted at high temperature. The pressure couette was pressurized with
compressed air to 206.8 kPa (gage pressure) and experiments were carried out at
temperatures ranging from 30 to 120
C. The shear stress values ranged from 10 to
170 Pa and the shear rate values from 105 to 103 s1. The model that best fitted
the experimental data at all temperatures was the Herschel-Bulkley model. There
was a usual tendency for the apparent viscosity to decrease with increasing
temperature but an increase in apparent viscosity with increasing from 50 to 60
C
and from 110 to 120
C was found. This could be due to interaction of
polysaccharides present in banana puree. There was a slight difference between
the apparent viscosity values for increasing shear stress sweeps and those for the
decreasing shear stress sweeps suggesting time dependency of the rheological

*Correspondence: Carmen C. Tadini, Laboratório de Engenharia de Alimentos,

Departamento de Engenharia Quı́mica, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo,
Caixa Postal 61548, CEP 05424-970, São Paulo—SP, Brazil; Fax: þ551130313020; E-mail:
catadini@usp.br.

571

DOI: 10.1081/JFP-120040211 1094-2912 (Print); 1532-2386 (Online)

Copyright & 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com
 ORDER REPRINTS

572 Ditchfield et al.

behavior. Models were proposed to correlate the parameters of the Herschel-

Bulkley model and viscosity with temperature.

Key Words: Banana puree; Rheology; High temperature; Herschel-Bulkley.

1. INTRODUCTION

Banana was one of the first fruits cultivated by man. Nowadays, it is planted in
all humid tropical regions and is the fourth largest fruit crop in the world. Bananas
have high energy content (100 cal/100 g of pulp) and are nutritious with readily
available carbohydrates, vitamins C, A, B1, B2, and the minerals potassium,
magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, and iron.[1]
The losses in banana production are extremely high (about 40% of the total global
production) because of its perishability and the precarious technology employed by
farmers. Processing rejected fruits can diminish this loss and one of the best
alternatives is banana puree. Banana puree has a longer shelf life than the fruit and can
be used as an ingredient for many foods such as baby food, gelatin, cake, bread, pie,
yogurt, juice, ice cream, pudding, among others.[1] In this case banana puree is
reprocessed, sometimes at a high temperature, for example in baby food production.
The viscosity of fluid foods is an important transport property, which is useful in
many applications, such as design of food processes and processing equipment,
quality evaluation and control of food products, and understanding of the structure
of food materials. Theoretical and semi-empirical models do not adequately predict
the viscosity of foods because of the complex chemical and physical structure.
Therefore, to characterize fluid foods experimental measurements and empirical
models are necessary.[2]
Banana puree undergoes thermal processing at high temperatures during its
manufacture. There is a significant change in apparent viscosity when the banana
puree is heated. This influences velocity and temperature profiles, as well as the
pressure drop inside the processing equipment. Therefore it is necessary to have
knowledge of the influence of shear rate and temperature, and their combined effect
on the rheological behavior of banana puree.
There are only a few studies on flow properties of banana puree and none has
considered temperature above 55
C. Charm[3] presented data on the rheological
behavior of two commercial brands of banana puree. The experiments were carried
out in a Merril co-axial viscometer and a tube viscometer at 25
C. The author
suggested that the power law model best represented the data.
Rao and Palomino[4] studied flow behavior of banana puree with a tube
viscometer at ambient temperature. The researchers concluded that banana puree is
a pseudoplastic fluid and that the power law model was the best model to describe its
behavior. The power law model was also used for describing the rheological behavior
of banana puree at 26.5
C by Holdsworth.[5] Barbosa-Cánovas and Peleg[6] tested
commercial banana puree from two different brands in a Haake coaxial viscometer
at 25
C. The Herschel-Bulkley model was the best mathematical representation of
most experimental curves and for some, the modified Casson model was better,
though both models had good fit. Kaletunc-Gencer et al.[7] studied banana puree
 ORDER REPRINTS

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 573

with a Haake coaxial viscometer at 25
C. The authors concluded that both the
Herschel-Bulkley model and the modified Casson model could be used to represent
the flow curves for banana puree. However, the Casson model did not provide an
adequate fit.
The rheological behavior of banana puree with addition of glucose, sodium
bisulfite, potassium sorbate, ascorbic acid, and orthophosphoric acid was studied
with a Haake concentric cylinder viscometer at 5
C and at 25
C[8] and the results
were best fitted by the Herschel-Bulkley model. Since the banana puree is also a
thixotropic fluid, the Weltmann model also fits the results. Another investigation
was carried out to study the influence of pH, temperature, soluble solids
concentration, and water activity change by glucose addition on the flow behavior
of banana puree. Experiments were conducted with banana puree at pH 3.0 and 5.1,
at temperatures ranging from 10–55
C, concentrations from 21.4–50.9
Brix and
enough glucose added to achieve the water activity values of 0.89, 0.93, and 0.97.
The puree showed a shear thinning behavior with an appreciable yield stress
value, following the trend of Herschel-Bulkley model. The addition of glucose
decreased the apparent viscosity and increased the temperature dependency of the
flow properties. The pH presented no pattern with respect to its effect on flow
characteristics, while temperature and concentration greatly influenced the flow
properties. An equation was proposed to calculate the consistency coefficient at
different temperatures and concentrations.[9]
This study was aimed to obtain the data on flow properties of banana puree
from 30 to 120
C and fit appropriate predictive models. This temperature interval
was chosen because the reprocessing of banana puree is done at temperatures within
this range.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1. Banana Puree

Banana puree was obtained from a commercial source as acidified single

strength aseptic banana puree in 225 kg drums. The puree had been acidified with a
combination of citric and ascorbic acid to an average pH of 4.49  0.03, heat treated
for enzyme inactivation and aseptically packaged in plastic bags within the drums.
The average soluble solids concentration of the puree was of 22.1  0.9
Brix. The
composition of the puree can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1. Composition data of banana puree.

pH 4.49
Soluble solids content (
Brix) 22.1
Total solids (%) 23.7
Water content (%) 76.3
Starch (%) 0.9
Total fiber (%) 2.4
 ORDER REPRINTS

574 Ditchfield et al.

Also, raw bananas were bought at the local market and pureed. The banana
puree was pushed through a 1 mm screen and acidified with 0.2%(w/w) ascorbic acid
and sufficient citric acid to lower the pH to 4.5. The corrected soluble solids content
of the puree was 22.2
Brix and the composition of the puree was similar to that
shown in Table 1.

Controlled Stress Rheometer

A dynamic stress controlled rheometer (model SR 5000, Rheometric Scientific,

Piscataway, NJ) was used to obtain the flow behavior of banana puree. A pressure
couette fixture, which allowed high temperature experiments, was used. The
pressurized chamber was connected to the rheometer head by a magnetic coupling
(indirect drive) system. A test was carried out to determine the resistance of the
bearings so that this could be accounted for in the measurements as recommended by
the manufacturer. A water bath (model F34-MD, Julabo USA Inc., Allentown, PA)
with a Thermal H10S fluid (Julabo USA Inc., Allentown, PA) was used to heat the
couette. The rheometer chamber has a jacket through which the heating fluid
recirculates for heating the couette.

Brookfield Rheometer

A Brookfield rheometer model RVT-III was used to perform tests on the banana
puree made from raw bananas. The small sample adapter was used with a SC4-28
spindle and a SC4-13R chamber. The temperature was controlled by a UH water
bath (MLW, Germany).

Experimental Procedure

The water bath temperature was set to the experimental temperature, from 30
to 120
C. For the higher temperatures (above 80
C), the water bath was closed off
from the rheometer jacket, so the heating fluid would remain in the water bath and
heat up faster, and the connections to the jacket were only reopened when the
temperature was reached. A 10 mL sample of banana puree was loaded into the cup
of the pressure cell. The cell was closed and pressurized with compressed air to
206.8 kPa. The cell was loaded onto the rheometer and the stage containing the
rheometer head was lowered to make sure that the magnet on the head was aligned
to the bearing.
When the temperature of the pressure cell reached the desired experimental
temperature, additional ten minutes were allowed to make sure that the temperature
of the puree inside was the same as that of the couette. The magnetic upper fixture of
the rheometer was turned 10 times in each direction to ensure even distribution of the
puree inside the couette and also guarantee a more even temperature distribution.
 ORDER REPRINTS

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 575

A steady stress sweep was performed to determine the dependence of apparent

viscosity and shear stress with shear rate. The sweep was performed first by increasing
shear stress up to a certain value, which ensured that the shear rate remained within an
acceptable range, and then the shear stress was decreased back to the initial value
using the same sample. The range for the shear stress variation was determined by tests
conducted at each temperature. The minimum shear stress was determined by back-
calculation from apparent viscosity of the banana puree set at 10 Pa s, which is the
maximum viscosity recommended by the manufacturer for use with the pressure
couette fixture, so that the bob shaft is not damaged. The maximum shear stress was
set to cover a wide range while ensuring that the shear rate would not exceed the
instrument’s capability, which is 2000 s1. A logarithmic stress sweep mode was
chosen with 200 points per decade and a maximum time per data point of 10 s.
For temperatures up to 70
C experiments were repeated three times at each
condition with a fresh sample each time. For the temperature of 80
C and above
experiments were repeated five times at each condition with a fresh sample each time.
A total of 45 experiments were conducted with an average of 80 points each. The
maximum variability allowed between replicates was 5%. Additionally at least two
experiments were run at each temperature to determine minimum and maximum
shear stress values.
The experiments carried out in the Brookfield rheometer with raw banana puree
were at 50, 55, and 60
C. A sample was placed in the chamber and the chamber
was fitted into the water jacket. The rheometer was zeroed and the spindle was
placed in the sample. The amount of sample used was such that the surface of the
puree was level with the top of the chamber. The sample was heated to the desired
temperature (approximately 5 min were sufficient to ensure that the temperature was
reached) and an up and down test was performed. The speed was increased from
10 rpm (shear rate of 2.8 s1) to 250 rpm (shear rate of 70.0 s1) and then decreased
back to 10 rpm. The shear stress was measured every 10 s. A new sample was used
for each temperature and furthermore, at each temperature three replicates were
carried out with a new sample each time with a deviation of less than 5% between
replicates.

Analysis of Results

A statistical program (STATGRAPHICS version 4.0, Manugistics, Inc.,

Rockville, MD) was used to perform regressions on the data for the upward and
downward shear rate curves separately at each temperature. Yield stress values were
determined at low shear rate and the values compared with those obtained by
regression analysis. The models tested were the Bingham and the Power Law as
two-parameter models, and the Herschel-Bulkley as a three-parameter model.
The Bingham model is described by the equation[5]:
 ¼ 0 þ K _ ð1Þ
where  is the shear stress in (Pa) and _ is the shear rate in (1/s). The parameters
that characterize the flow behavior are the yield stress ( 0) and the consistency
coefficient (K ). The yield stress is defined as the point at which there is an abrupt
 ORDER REPRINTS

576 Ditchfield et al.

change in slope of the stress/strain curve[5] and it is measured in (Pa). After the yield
stress is overcome, the fluid will flow as a Newtonian fluid and the consistency
coefficient is equivalent to the viscosity of Newtonian fluids with units of (Pa s).
The Power Law model has the following equation[5]:
 ¼ K _ n ð2Þ
where n is the flow behavior index (dimensionless). The flow behavior index indicates
the behavior of the fluid if n is less than 1, the fluid has a pseudoplastic or shear-
thinning behavior, that is its apparent viscosity decreases with increasing shear
stress. Most non-Newtonians foods are pseudoplastic. If n is more than 1 then the
fluid is dilatant, that is its apparent viscosity increases with increasing shear stress.
If n is equal to 1 the fluid has a Newtonian behavior. If n is close to 1 the fluid
behavior is close to a Newtonian behavior, as the n value moves farther away from 1,
the behavior becomes more and more non-Newtonian.
The Herschel-Bulkley model is an extension of the Power Law by including a
yield stress term:
 ¼ 0 þ K _ n ð3Þ
These models have been widely used in the literature and it is well known that
K and n are affected by temperature, though K tends to be more sensitive to
temperature changes than n.[5]

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The rheological curves obtained by the upward and downward shear rate change
for banana puree within the 30–120
C show that for some temperatures (30 and
70
C), there is practically no change in the values of shear stress at corresponding
shear rate for the upward and downward curves indicating that the rheological
behavior is not time dependent (as seen in Fig. 1). At other temperatures, there seems
to be indication of time dependency of the rheological behavior, and thus there is
indication of thixotropy for all conditions, except that for 90
C. At 90
C, there is an
indication that a structural change happened while the rheological measurement was
taking place. At this point, starch gelatinization is normally complete and the peak
apparent viscosity of banana starch has been reached.[11]
The upward and downward curves at temperatures from 30 to 120
C were fitted
with the three models, Bingham, Power Law, and Herschel-Bulkley, by regression
analysis. As reported by other authors[8,9] the best model to describe the behavior at
all temperatures was the Herschel-Bulkley model. Table 2 presents the parameters
obtained. The values of yield stress obtained in this article are considerably larger
than those reported by other authors.[3–7,9] This could be due to the fact that the
puree studied in this article had already undergone heat treatment. However, values
of the consistency index, and flow behavior index are similar to those obtained by
these authors. There is a large variation between the literature values for yield stress,
consistency index and flow behavior index, which can be attributed to different
techniques employed by the authors, different temperatures and also soluble solids
content of the purees studied.
 ORDER REPRINTS

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 577

30 °C 80 °C
Shear stress (Pa) 180 140

Shear stress (Pa)

160 120
140
up 100 up
120
down 80 down
100
80 60

60 40
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
-1 -1
Shear rate (s ) Shear rate (s )

40 °C 90 °C
150 120
Shear stress (Pa)

110

Shear stress (Pa)

140
130 100
up 90
120 up
down 80
110 down
70
100
60
90 50
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
-1
Shear rate (s ) Shear rate (s )
-1

50 °C 100 °C
180 120
110
Shear stress (Pa)

160
Shear stress (Pa)

100
140
up 90
120 80 up
down
100 70 down
60
80
50
60
40
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
-1
Shear rate (s ) Shear rate (s )
-1

60 °C 110 °C
140 65
130 60
Shear stress (Pa)

Shear stress (Pa)

120 55
110 50
up 45
100 up
down 40
90 down
35
80
30
70
25
60 20
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
-1
Shear rate (s ) Shear rate (s )
-1

70 °C 120 °C
160 70
Shear stress (Pa)

140 65
Shear stress (Pa)

120 60
up
100 55
down up
80 50 down
60 45
40 40
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 35
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
-1
Shear rate (s ) -1
Shear rate (s )

Figure 1. Rheological curves for upward and downward shear rate change at temperatures
ranging from 30 to 120
C obtained for banana puree.
 ORDER REPRINTS

578 Ditchfield et al.

Table 2. Parameters obtained from experimental data fitting for banana puree flow curves to
the Bingham, Power Law, and Herschel-Bulkley models for the upward and downward curves
at temperatures from 30 to 120
C.

Bingham model Power Law model Herschel-Bulkley model

Temperature 0 K K 0 K
(
C) (Pa) (Pa s) R2 (Pa sn) n R2 (Pa) (Pa sn) n R2

30 Up 101.10 0.103 0.902 76.74 0.104 0.890 81.04 4.67 0.442 0.985
Down 91.14 0.129 0.920 44.40 0.198 0.976 31.91 21.44 0.281 0.987
40 Up 100.36 0.081 0.918 64.94 0.116 0.830 82.20 3.15 0.457 0.956
Down 78.53 0.110 0.889 74.08 0.071 0.593 50.03 9.12 0.354 0.983
50 Up 86.52 0.054 0.890 43.35 0.163 0.869 74.76 1.06 0.614 0.992
Down 68.85 0.056 0.896 79.10 0.055 0.584 58.47 1.32 0.594 0.950
60 Up 83.64 0.119 0.843 81.71 0.054 0.724 68.98 4.92 0.412 0.957
Down 77.54 0.085 0.946 82.41 0.041 0.534 67.90 1.70 0.552 0.996
70 Up 72.43 0.071 0.859 55.00 0.108 0.747 56.30 2.02 0.542 0.997
Down 69.44 0.046 0.834 73.77 0.054 0.605 55.38 1.79 0.556 0.996
80 Up 65.21 0.063 0.902 71.68 0.046 0.745 56.35 1.71 0.523 0.971
Down 57.12 0.055 0.925 24.60 0.216 0.874 52.38 0.13 0.889 0.952
90 Up 60.42 0.035 0.849 69.27 0.031 0.599 54.93 0.32 0.701 0.960
Down 46.48 0.045 0.787 45.16 0.080 0.389 44.57 0.30 0.787 0.988
100 Up 59.11 0.040 0.874 71.60 0.035 0.713 50.86 0.17 0.809 0.932
Down 42.67 0.056 0.871 45.78 0.073 0.578 35.17 0.43 0.709 0.998
110 Up 27.81 0.031 0.891 35.85 0.053 0.748 30.85 0.06 0.871 0.976
Down 18.21 0.035 0.932 16.81 0.149 0.832 12.21 1.13 0.539 0.993
120 Up 36.21 0.031 0.798 47.27 0.054 0.702 40.94 0.03 0.966 0.9528
Down 27.91 0.033 0.846 28.53 0.092 0.803 28.82 0.97 0.516 0.9764

Banana puree has a complex rheological behavior that changes drastically with
temperature. In general the puree will flow easier at higher temperatures but there
are changes that can be seen particularly from 50 to 60
C and from 110 to 120
C,
where the shear stress vs. shear rate graphs are actually above those obtained at
other temperatures. A marked change in the rheological behavior of banana puree
with increasing temperature was observed. From 50 to 60
C and from 110 to 120
C
the behavior was opposite of the expected that would be for the fluidity to increase
with increasing temperature. From 90 to 100
C there was small change as seen by the
values of shear stress at corresponding shear rate.
The bananas used for making the puree were ripe bananas, which contained
0.9% starch.[10] The pasting temperature for banana starch varies from 49.8 to
51.8
C,[11] which is the temperature in which the viscosity starts to increase
significantly, so the change at this temperature is probably due to the presence of
starch in banana puree. The change from 110 to 120
C might be caused by
interaction of the polysaccharides that are present in banana puree.
The change in behavior from 50 to 60
C has also been observed in experiments
carried out with raw banana puree using a Brookfield rheometer. Figure 2 shows
that the fluidity has decreased with increasing temperature.
 ORDER REPRINTS

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 579

60

50

Shear Stress (Pa)

40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Shear rate (s−1)

50∞C 50∞C model 55∞C

55∞C model 60∞C 60∞C model

Figure 2. Shear stress dependency on shear rate for upward experiments at temperatures
from 50 to 60
C, in comparison to the Power Law model for raw banana puree.

Table 3. Models for correlating Herschel-Bulkley parameters (yield

stress ( 0), consistency index (K ), and the flow behavior index (n)) with
temperature for the upward curves obtained for banana puree.

Temperature (
C) Model R2

30–120  0 ¼ 99.81  0.53T 0.913

30–50 K ¼ 10.18  0.18T 0.992
60–120 K ¼ exp(7.01  0.088T ) 0.980
30–50 n ¼ 1/(3.29  0.032T ) 0.837
60–120 n ¼ 0.149 þ 0.009T 0.969

Models were proposed to correlate the dependency of the Herschel-Bulkley

model parameters with temperature. Table 3 shows the models for the yield stress
( 0), consistency index (K ), and the flow behavior index (n) for the upward curves of
banana puree. For K and n, two different models were used from 30 to 50
C and
from 60 to 120
C, because a single model was not able to explain the data fully since
there is a marked change in the rheological behavior from 50 to 60
C.
The graphs of the parameters  0, K, and n (Fig. 3) show that these models
can explain the data well. The parameters  0, K, and n were influenced by the
temperature of the banana puree. The yield stress ( 0) decreased with temperature as
expected. For K and n there was a discontinuity when the temperature of the banana
puree changed from 50 to 60
C. K tends to decrease with temperature, which is
expected since there is a general tendency for the viscosity to decrease with
temperature. From 50 to 60
C however, the viscosity increases and so K also
increases and then starts to decrease again but with a different model.
 ORDER REPRINTS

580 Ditchfield et al.

100
90
80
70
60
σ (Pa) 50
40
30
20
10
0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Temperature (∞C)

4
K (Pa.s )
n

0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Temperature (∞C)
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
n

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Temperature (∞C)

Figure 3. Influence of temperature on the Herschel-Bulkley parameters (yield stress ( 0),

consistency index (K ), and the flow behavior index (n)) for the upward curves obtained for
banana puree.

The flow behavior index (n) tends to increase with increasing temperature,
showing that the behavior of the puree tends to become closer to that of a
Newtonian fluid. From 50 to 60
C there is clearly a structural change in the puree
that causes a marked change in rheological behavior (probably due to starch gelation
which occurs within this temperature interval[11]) therefore n decreases again, since
the rheological behavior becomes more pseudoplastic. Then with increasing
temperature it increases again and at 120
C its value is close to 1 and the rheological
behavior is practically that of a Bingham fluid, once the yield stress is overcome the
behavior is Newtonian. This is very important for the thermal processing design of
 ORDER REPRINTS

Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 581

90
80
70
σ0 predicted (Pa)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100

σ 0 experimental (Pa)

up down Model up Model down

Figure 4. Comparison of predicted and experimental values of yield stress for upward and
downward experiments and the models for their correlation.

banana puree. The Arrhenius model did not explain the temperature dependency
of any of the parameters of the Herschel-Bulkley model.
For the raw bananas the model that best correlated the data was the Power Law
model, there is no indication of an appreciable yield stress, which is expected since
this puree is unprocessed. The values of K obtained were 12.70 Pa sn at 50
C,
14.91 Pa sn at 55
C, and 13.79 Pa sn at 60
C, that is K increases reaching a maximum
at 55
C and then decreases again but to a value still above that at 50
C. This
confirms that there is a change in behavior, with an increase in K with temperature
between 50 and 60
C. The values of n were 0.30 at 50
C, 0.28 at 55
C, and 0.32 at
60
C. There is a decrease in the n value from 50 to 55
C, so the banana puree does
become more pseudoplastic, but at 60
C the value has increased again.
The yield stress measurements were compared to those obtained by regression
analysis for the upward and downward curves and a good agreement was found.
Figure 4 shows the comparison of the experimental and predicted values.
The downward curves for the temperatures from 30 to 120
C indicate that the
trend is the same as that observed for the upward curves except that the change from
90 to 100
C is marked, whereas the change from 80 to 90
C is small.

Apparent Viscosity Dependency on Temperature at Different Shear Rates

There is an usual tendency for the apparent viscosity to decrease with increasing
temperature but an increase in apparent viscosity with increasing from 50 to 60
C
and from 110 to 120
C was found (Fig. 5). The increase in viscosity from 50 to 60
C
 ORDER REPRINTS

582 Ditchfield et al.

1.0E+02

Apparent Viscosity (Pa.s)

10 s-1
1.0E+01 Model
100 s-1
Model
1.0E+00
300 s-1
Model
1.0E-01 600 s-1
Model
1.0E-02
20 40 60 80 100 120
Temperature (°C)

Figure 5. Temperature dependency of apparent viscosity of banana puree at shear rates

from 10 to 600 s1.

Table 4. Models for correlation of apparent viscosity with temperature at

different shear rates.

Shear rate (s1) Model R2

10  ¼ 17.82  1.38T1/2 0.877

100  ¼ 466.9T 1.50 0.916
300  ¼ 0.574  0.0036T 0.961
600  ¼ 0.325  0.0019T 0.920

and from 110 to 120
C was statistically significant, but a single model could still be
fitted to the data, considering that viscosity decreases with temperature for all shear
rates. This could be due to changes in the starch structure in banana puree. For a
shear rate of 100 s1 the change is more pronounced from 50 to 60
C. As the shear
rate increases the change in the apparent viscosity decreases, which is expected since
the banana puree has a pseudoplastic rheological behavior. In industrial operations a
product is submitted to a range of shear rates and it is important to know how the
viscosity will change with temperature at these shear rates to adequately design the
equipments for these operations.
The equations for the models that correlate apparent viscosity with temperature
at the different shear rates are shown in Table 4. The Arrhenius model did not
explain the temperature dependency of apparent viscosity of banana puree well.

CONCLUSIONS

Banana puree presents a complex rheological behavior that changes drastically

with temperature. The model that best represents the rheological behavior for
upward and downward curves at all temperatures was the Herschel-Bulkley model.
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Rheological Properties of Banana Puree 583

Correlations were found to show the temperature dependency for the parameters
and the apparent viscosity of banana puree to temperature. At some temperatures
there seems to be indication of time dependency of the rheological behavior (40, 50,
60, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120
C), there is indication of thixotropy, except for 90
C. At
90
C there is an implication that a structural change happens while the rheological
measurement is taking place. There is a marked change in the rheological behavior
from 50 to 60
C. It is very important to consider this for thermal process design of
banana puree. Further study should be undertaken to analyze variation of shear
stress at a constant shear rate with time and also within the range 50 to 60
C to
determine the exact flow behavior of banana puree.

NOMENCLATURE

K Consistency coefficient (Pa sn)

n Flow behavior index (dimensionless)
T Temperature (
C)
_ Shear rate (1/s)
 Apparent viscosity (Pa s)
 Shear stress (Pa)
 Yield stress (Pa)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the State of São Paulo Research Foundation

(FAPESP) and the Brazilian Committee for Postgraduate Courses in Higher
Education (CAPES) for the scholarships granted to author Ditchfield. Special
thanks to Mr. Carl Ruiz, David Peck, and Dr. Nepal Singh for providing laboratory
assistance during the experimental phase of this project.

REFERENCES

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