Experimental characterization of airflow, heat and mass transfer in a cold room filled with food products

Temperature and moisture heterogeneity, with non-uniform airflow in cold rooms was observed in several studies. This heterogeneity can lead to a deterioration of food quality and safety. Heat and mass transfer in cold rooms is a complex phenomenon because of the presence of the product (airflow modification, heat of respiration…) and the coupling between heat transfer and airflow. Temperature, velocity, humidity and heat transfer coefficient measurements were carried out in a ventilated cold room filled with four apple pallets. The front pallets near the cooling unit were submitted to higher air temperatures compared to the rear ones, leading to product cooling rate and temperature heterogeneity. The experimental results allow the understanding of mechanism of airflow as well as heat and water exchanges between product and air.

[1]  Pierre-Sylvain Mirade,et al.  Effect of design of blowing duct on ventilation homogeneity around cheeses in a ripening chamber , 2006 .

[2]  Da-Wen Sun,et al.  Computational fluid dynamics in food processing , 2007 .

[3]  S. Amara.  Ecoulements et transferts thermiques en convection naturelle dans les milieux macro-poreux alimentaires application aux refrigerateurs menagers , 2005 .

[4]  Thijs Defraeye,et al.  The use of CFD to characterize and design post-harvest storage facilities: Past, present and future , 2013 .

[5]  Pierre-Sylvain Mirade,et al.  Assessment of airflow patterns inside six industrial beef carcass chillers , 2001 .

[6]  Denis Flick,et al.  Study of water evaporation and condensation in a domestic refrigerator loaded by wet product , 2010 .

[7]  Denis Flick,et al.  Air velocity characteristics within vented pallets loaded in a refrigerated vehicle with and without air ducts , 2009 .

[8]  Denis Flick,et al.  Experimental study of heat transfer and air flow in a refrigerated display cabinet , 2012 .

[9]  S. Touber,et al.  Distributed dynamic modelling of a refrigerated room , 1990 .

[10]  Thijs Defraeye,et al.  Forced-convective cooling of citrus fruit: package design , 2013 .

[11]  Muhammad M. Rahman,et al.  Numerical simulation of temperature and velocity in a refrigerated warehouse , 2010 .

[12]  Jean Moureh,et al.  A review of numerical models of airflow in refrigerated food applications , 2006 .

[13]  S James,et al.  The chill chain "from carcass to consumer". , 1996, Meat science.

[14]  Denis Flick,et al.  Temperature prediction in a refrigerated display cabinet: deterministic and stochastic approaches , 2011 .

[15]  Bart Nicolai,et al.  Analysis of the air flow in a cold store by means of computational fluid dynamics , 2000 .

[16]  Paul Collett,et al.  Energy consumption, rate of cooling and weight loss in beef chilling in UK slaughter houses , 1989 .

[17]  R.G.M. van der Sman,et al.  Simple model for estimating heat and mass transfer in regular-shaped foods , 2003 .

[18]  M. Wujec,et al.  Influence of temperature and variety on the thermal properties of apples , 2002 .

[19]  Tridib Kumar Goswami,et al.  Steady state CFD modeling of airflow, heat transfer and moisture loss in a commercial potato cold store , 2007 .

[20]  Thijs Defraeye,et al.  Forced-convective cooling of citrus fruit: Cooling conditions and energy consumption in relation to package design , 2014 .

[21]  Giovanni Cortella,et al.  cfd-aided retail cabinets design , 2002 .

[22]  Denis Flick,et al.  Numerical simulation of simultaneous heat and moisture transfer in a domestic refrigerator. , 2010 .

[23]  Da-Wen Sun,et al.  CFD simulation of heat and moisture transfer for predicting cooling rate and weight loss of cooked ham during air-blast chilling process , 2000 .

[24]  Curtis F. Gerald.  Applied numerical analysis , 1970 .

[25]  Martine Baelmans,et al.  CFD model of the airflow, heat and mass transfer in cool stores , 2005 .

[26]  Manuel Gameiro da Silva,et al.  Accuracy Limitations for Low-Velocity Measurements and Draft Assessment in Rooms , 2007 .

[27]  B. Palagos,et al.  Study of domestic refrigerator temperature and analysis of factors affecting temperature: a French survey , 2002 .

[28]  Pierre-Sylvain Mirade,et al.  Computational fluid dynamics prediction and validation of gas circulation in a cheese-ripening room , 2006 .