Experimental measurement and numerical modelling of cooling rates of bulk-packed chicken drumsticks during forced-air freezing

摘要

The cooling of polylined bulk-packed drumsticks during forced-air freezing was examined experimentally and numerically. The experiments showed that, when contained within the liner bag, the packing arrangement of the chicken drumsticks within the tray did not have a significant impact on freezing rate. However, the presence of the liner bag had a significant impact on freezing times, increasing them by more than a factor of three. A 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict the temperature profile of bulk-packed drumsticks, based on 3D computed tomography images of the chicken, was also developed and validated against the experimental cooling data. By using temperature-dependent thermal properties of chicken meat, the mean differences between the predicted average drumstick temperatures and corresponding experimental results were less than 1.1 degrees C for all tested conditions. Based on the validated model, a correlation was proposed to estimate the effect of operating conditions on freezing time and that correlation may be used to optimise the design of the freezing tunnel for chicken products. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.