Numerical simulation of the rheological behaviour of pizza dough

It has been considered a typology of pizza dough obtained in standard conditions (raw materials and technology of production), and a study has been performed on the base of mechanical parameters obtained by experimental tests performed with an alveograph. It has been possible to obtain the diagrams p - v and to evaluate some characteristic parameters,, max (of break-up),, ,,, . They have allowed to individualize the mechanical characteristics of the considered material. Besides, in such way, the acting load and the strain parameter have been detected in every instant considered (load and strain time history). A constitutive stress-strain equation derived from Lade's elastoplastic theory was used to model pizza dough behaviour. Alveograph tests were performed on standard test piece of a optimal pizza dough, at a moisture content of 35 % and an initial bulk density of 917 kg/m3 to evaluate the material property parameters. The estimated parameters were used in the constitutive equation to calculate stress-strain relationships for pizza dough. Results showed that Lade's theory adequately describes the stress-strain behaviour of pizza dough for the conditions tested. By an opportune computational code it has been individualized a virtual material that gives the same values of the strain obtained by the experimental tests under the action of the load .By a comparison of the diagrams obtained by the experimental tests with those obtained by the numerical simulation it has been possible to individualize the material that numerically simulates the pizza dough considered