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Forced Cooling Experiment

This document outlines an experiment to determine the thermo-physical properties of food products through transient temperature measurements during forced convection pre-cooling. Equations are provided to calculate thermal diffusivity, surface heat transfer coefficient, and thermal conductivity from temperature-time data using empirical correlations. The experiment involves suspending a food sample in a chilled air duct, measuring its temperature over time, and using the data in the equations to determine thermo-physical properties.

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43 views5 pages

Forced Cooling Experiment

This document outlines an experiment to determine the thermo-physical properties of food products through transient temperature measurements during forced convection pre-cooling. Equations are provided to calculate thermal diffusivity, surface heat transfer coefficient, and thermal conductivity from temperature-time data using empirical correlations. The experiment involves suspending a food sample in a chilled air duct, measuring its temperature over time, and using the data in the equations to determine thermo-physical properties.

Uploaded by

shaham
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MEC4950 Energy Conversion Systems Lab

S.No: CLASS/SECTION:

NAME: Faculty. No:

Object: Determination of thermo-physical properties of food product through transient


temperature- time measurements during pre-cooling (forced).

Apparatus Used and Instrumentation:- Chilled air duct with vapour compression
refrigeration system and air blower, milli-voltmeter, anemometer, copper constantan
thermocouples.

Experimental procedure:- Run the vapour compression refrigeration system and air blower
in the chilled air duct and wait until a steady low temperature is reached inside the duct.
Suspend the regular shaped food sample (in the shape of infinite slab, infinite cylinder or
sphere),with copper constantan thermocouple embedded to a known depth in the test section.
Measure temperatures at time interval of 1min until the temperature approaches the cooling
medium(chilled air) temperature. Measure the characteristics dimension of the food (half
thickness of slab or radius of cylinder/sphere).

Fig.1 U duct for forced convection cooling

1.Blower, 2.Motor, 3.Iron Grid, 4.D.C Potentiometer, 5.Ice, 6.Thermos Flask, 7.Test Section, 8.Food
Sample, 9.Cooling Duct, 10.Insulation (Glass Wool), 11.Insulation (Thermo-Freeze), 12. Cooling
Coil, 13.Expansion Device, 14. Air Cooled Condenser, 15. Compressor.
Formula used:- With transient temperature time data, product thermal diffusivity can
calculated by the following empirical co relation stated by Gaffeny et al [1]:

τ= [ a+b.ln(1/ X+0.2)-ln U]/[c/(1+d/Bie) (1)

where,

Bi= Biot number (=h.x0/k)

h= surface film conductance(W/m2.K)

k= thermal conductivity (W/m.K)

U= normalised temperature[=(T-Tcm)/(Ti-Tcm)]

X= normalised space coordinate(= x/x0)

x=distance from central plane, central axis or center (m)

x0=half thickness or radius (m)

T=Temperature at any instant (0C)

Ti= Initial temperature(0C)

Tcm= Cooling Medium temperature(0C)

t=time (sec)

α=thermal diffusivity of (m2/s)

τ=Fourier number( α.t/x02)

cm represents cooling medium and i represents initial

a,b,c,d,ande are regression constants, numerical values of which for infinite slab,infinite
cylinder and sphere are given in Table 1.

TABLE 1

REGRESSION CONSTANTS IN EQUATION (1)

CONSTANT INFINITE SLAB INFINITE SPHERE


CYLINDER
a -0.042 0.121 0.296
b 0.167 0.201 0.228
c 2.467 5.783 9.870
d 2.24 2.45 2.700
e 1.02 1.040 1.070
Surface film conductance for regular shaped bodies, can be calculated by the following
generalized equation:

Nu= p+q.Rer.Prs (2)

The constants p,q,r and s in the equation (2) are different for different shapes. For the three
regular shapes, there values are given in Table 2, given below:

TABLE 2

CONSTANTS IN EQ. (2)

Constant Infinite Slab Infinite cylinder Sphere


p 0.0 0.0 0.1
q 0.664 0.26 0.3
r 0.5 0.6 0.5
s 0.33 -0.300 0.33

Nu= Nusselt number (=h.x0/kair)

Pr= Prandlt number

Re= Reynolds number (=v.x0/ϒ)

ϒ=kinematic viscosity of air at mean temperature (m2/s)

The chilled air properties used to solve equation (1) should be read from property tables at the
mean cold air temperature. The thermal conductivity of food product is determined from the
known water content, using the following empirical co relation given by Mascheroni [2]:

k= 0.1075+0.502W+5.052*10-4W.T (3)

Where W is product water content on % mass basis.

Observations:

Voltmeter (V): Initial reading =..................mv, corresponding Ti =.............................°C

Voltmeter (V): Cooling medium reading =...............mv, corresponding Tcm=.................°C


OBSERVATION TABLE

S.No Time,t (sec) Voltmeter reading,V (mv) Temperature, T (0C)

N.B.:- Start calculations from time= 11*60= 660s

If V is thermocouple emf in mv, temp in 0C will be

T= 0.011372033+25.945621*V-0.70318373*V2

Sample calculations:

Results and Discussion:

1. Draw the graph between temperature vs time.


2. Draw the graph between thermal diffusivity vs time.
3. Draw the graph between heat transfer coefficient vs time.
References:

1. Gaffeny, J.J., Baird. C.D and Eshleman, W.D., “Review and Analysis of the
Transient Method for Determining Thermal Diffusivity of Fruits and Vegetables,”
Trans. ASHRAE (1980).
2. Mascheroni R.H. and Calvelo A.(1980). “Relation between heat transfer parameters
and the characteristic damage variables for freezing of beef. Meat Science 4 (4), 267-
285.
3. ASHRAE, Handbook of Fundamentals (2001).
4. Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (Analysis and design) by Faye C.
Mcquiston, Jerald D. Parker and Jeffrey D. Spitler.
5. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Tata McGraw Hill by C.P Arora.
6. Food Preservation and processing Technologies, Tata McGraw Hill by B. Srinivasan.
7. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Tata McGraw Hill by W.F Stoecker.

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