ANALYSIS OF THE AIR FLOW, HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN CHICORY ROOT COLD STORES BY MEANS OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

摘要

Losses of chicory roots after extended 9 months period storage are a result of poor temperature management during post harvest treatment, with the non-uniformity of the storage conditions in particular. In this study, a transient three-dimensional airflow, heat and mass transfer model for a cold store fully loaded with chicory roots in bins is presented. The model consists of the full system of conservation equations of momentum, energy and species for the two-phase air-product matrix. Effects of swirls created by fans have been modelled. A finite volume code (CFX, Harwell, UK) is used to solve the model equations. The model is able to capture the cooling process inside bins and the cooling uniformity in the cold store. Cold and hot spots are detected. The model prediction on the temperature inside bins is then compared to the experimental data. Underprediction of the cooling rates in the whole domain is found. However, the model can be used for design analysis to see the effect of different configurations to the cooling process to find the optimal configuration.