Date of Award

1-29-2016

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Cooling Tunnel, Experimental, Heat Transfer, Porous Media, Produce Cooling

Supervisor

Rankin, Gary

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The goal of this research is to numerically and experimentally investigate the performance of a forced air agricultural produce cooling tunnel. A porous medium approach is used to represent the produce within the containers in the numerical model. The pressure loss coefficients associated with the porous media are determined experimentally, while the heat transfer coefficients are obtained using empirical relationships from the literature. Full scale experimental studies, within a production setting, indicate a high variation in initial product temperatures and varying cold room temperatures over time. The numerical model is modified based on these findings and compared with experimental results. The numerical model shows good agreement with experimental values of pressures and the discrepancies are reduced if leaks are estimated. The numerical and experimental transient temperature variations are shown to be in significant disagreement, which indicates that alternative methods of determining the heat transfer coefficient are required to accurately determine the performance.

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