A parametric study and performance evaluation of the different vent hole configuration for fruit storage packaging box using Computational Fluid Dynamics

摘要

The post-harvest life of fresh horticulture products mainly depends on the cold storage, as the temperature isthe primary element in affecting the shelf life of these highly perishable goods. A rapid removal of field heatand preserve the desired temperate consistency throughout the cold chain management is the deciding factorfor the quality of the products. Forced air cooling is the most commonly used technique to remove the fieldheat in post-harvest storage. Energy-efficient cold storage mainly depends on the time taken to remove theheat and it can be achieved by optimizing the Vent hole, size, shape, and position in the packaging box. Thiswork aims to develop a model to improve the cooling rate and uniformity by modifying the vent hole design.Six different vent hole modifications are proposed to predict the airflow and thermal behavior of the productsusing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This multi-parameter study was performed to improve the futurepost-harvest cold storage to be energy smart and resource-efficient.