Computational fluid dynamics prediction and validation of gas circulation in a cheese-ripening room

Abstract This paper discusses the application of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to predicting air velocity patterns and circulation of an exogenous gas inside a pilot cheese-ripening room in 3 dimensions (3D). Comparison of numerical results with experimental data showed a fairly close agreement in the qualitative prediction and a few inaccuracies in the quantitative prediction of the air velocity patterns, with mean absolute differences of 0.12 m s −1 in half the volume of the ripening room and about 0.05 m s −1 inside the stacks filled with cheese models. A sensitive study revealed that using the standard k – e model for modelling the turbulence of the flow in combination with the first-order upwind differencing scheme offered a good compromise solution between accuracy of results and computation time, given the 3D mesh of 1.2 million cells created. Moreover, numerical calculations indicated that using the blowing duct for adding an exogenous gas seemed to provide a more efficient solution for levelling off the gas distribution throughout the whole volume of the room than an injection performed directly into the core of the stacks.

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