Assessment of airflow patterns inside six industrial beef carcass chillers

Airflow patterns determine process efficiency in beef carcass chilling. An experimental study of air velocity in six industrial chillers (three batch and three continuous systems) afforded a diagnosis of their overall operation. However, the original experimental method did not provide an ideal chiller design: only configurations that were a priori more favourable for carcass chilling than others were identified. To complete the study, calculations were performed using computational fluid dynamics techniques. Applied to a continuous beef carcass chiller, this helped correct a dysfunction revealed in the experimental diagnosis, resulting in a marked lack of ventilation throughout about half the volume of the plant. Le flux d'air determine l'efficacite du procede de refroidissement des carcasses. L'etude experimentale de la vitesse de l'air a ete effectuee dans 6 chambres froides, 3 chambres etant munies de systemes en continu et les 3 autres de systemes discontinus. Des etudes de dynamique des fluides dans un systeme de refroidissement en continu a permis de corriger les dysfonctionnements a l'origine d'une ventilation insuffisante dans la moitie du volume de la chambre.