Abstract

One of the main concepts of the fourth industrial revolution is the digital twin which helps to build a bridge between the physical and the digital world and becomes a fundamental component to check the status of machines, perform predictions, or make decisions to modify their behavior. In this talk, I will present a mathematical model of bread leavening in a warm chamber by coupling heat transfer, yeast growth, and carbon dioxide production and diffusion with the deformation of baking paste. The corresponding system of partial differential equations will be analyzed and discretized by using a semi-implicit Euler method and FEM in the time and space domain, respectively. Numerical simulations will be employed to identify the energy consumption necessary to achieve a target volume under different settings of the leavening chamber and different concentrations of yeast in the baking paste, thereby providing a tool for identifying cost effective protocols. Finally, I will show how the previous model will be useful in the perspective of building a digital twin of bread leavening to the end of avoiding energy waste.

Mathematical Physics and Dynamical Systems Seminar