Airflow distribution in an apple storage room

Publication date: Available online 30 September 2019Source: Journal of Food EngineeringAuthor(s): Ulrike Praeger, Reiner Jedermann, Marc Sellwig, Daniel A. Neuwald, Nico Hartgenbusch, Mykhailo Borysov, Ingo Truppel, Holger Scaar, Martin GeyerAbstractIn refrigerated stores of fruit and vegetables, cooling air is circulated by air coolers attached to the ceiling. Uniform airflow and even temperature distribution in the product stacks is important for quality maintenance. However, the air speed close to the produce inside the bins in industrial cold stores is unknown. Airflow distribution was measured with newly developed sensors at different ventilation levels inside bins and in vertical gaps between the bins in a common apple storage room. The air speed between the fruit was low (≤0.3 m/s) compared to the average air velocity in the neighboring gap (1.15 m/s) at 100% fan power. In the bins of the upper stack area, the air speed was about 7 times higher than that in the bins at the bottom. The airflow pattern in the vertical gaps showed the formation of an air roll with relatively uniform air velocity across the height of the bin stack. Reducing the fan power immediately lowered the airflow between the fruit and in the gaps. However, airflow was detected at all measuring positions, even when the fan power was reduced to 44%.
Source: Journal of Food Engineering - Category: Food Science Source Type: research