A new original mathematical model was developed to calculate and starting from Ball’s formula method of thermal process calculations. The new model was based on ten equations to be sequentially solved, in an easy and fast way, even on a spreadsheet to obtain , and on the modified Ball’s formula (29) to calculate the thermal process time .
The ten equations are based on various modification and improvements of Ball’s mathematical model, such that the new model results converge on those values obtained from Stumbo’s tables [7].
The mathematical model of this work allows the computerization of 18,513 Stumbo’s data, avoiding the use of 57 lookup tables and interpolation among the three data parameters associated with the use of these tables.
The thermal process time, calculated using the from the mathematical model presented in this work and using the modified Ball’s formula (29) here proposed, closely followed the time calculated from the tabulated values ( min, average absolute min with an of 0.380 min). This high prediction accuracy, better than ANN models, allows practical applications, such as an easy evaluation of the parameters for thermal processes controlled by computers.