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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Volume change of cereal materials caused by moisture migration is studied by Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) using videomicroscopy and stereoscopy in combination with image processing. It is shown that the in situ volume change can be monitored by following the change of projection area, assuming isotropic volume change. Also the volume change measured by stereoscopy matches well with the measurement of the projection area change by videomicroscopy (after normalization). It is concluded that volume changes more in a higher relative humidity (RH) region with more active kinetic behavior. The exact volume change in between two relative humidities can be obtained by interpolating the equilibrium volumes. All the sorption/desorption curves can be well described by the ‘parallel exponential kinetics’ model (PEK model), which described two independent, parallel processes.