i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 7 e2 5

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Experimental characterization of airflow, heat and

mass transfer in a cold room filled with food
products
S. Duret a,b,*, H.-M. Hoang a, D. Flick b,c, O. Laguerre a
a

Irstea, UR GPAN, 1 rue Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, 92761 Antony, France

AgroParisTech, UMR 1145-GENIAL, F-91300 Massy, France
c
INRA, UMR 1145-GENIAL, F-91300 Massy, France
b

article info

abstract

Article history:

Temperature and moisture heterogeneity, with non-uniform airflow in cold rooms was

Received 27 January 2014

observed in several studies. This heterogeneity can lead to a deterioration of food quality

Received in revised form

and safety. Heat and mass transfer in cold rooms is a complex phenomenon because of the

1 July 2014

presence of the product (airflow modification, heat of respiration) and the coupling be-

Accepted 12 July 2014

tween heat transfer and airflow. Temperature, velocity, humidity and heat transfer coef-

Available online 19 July 2014

ficient measurements were carried out in a ventilated cold room filled with four apple
pallets. The front pallets near the cooling unit were submitted to higher air temperatures

Keywords:

compared to the rear ones, leading to product cooling rate and temperature heterogeneity.

Cold room

The experimental results allow the understanding of mechanism of airflow as well as heat

Airflow

and water exchanges between product and air.

Temperature

2014 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Humidity
Weight loss

risation expe

rimentale de l'e

coulement d'air, du
Caracte
transfert de chaleur et de masse dans une chambre froide
remplie de produits alimentaires

rature ; Humidite

; Perte de masse
Mots cl
es : Chambre froide ; Ecoulement d'air ; Tempe

* Corresponding author. Irstea, UR GPAN, 1 rue Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, 92761 Antony, France. Tel.: 33 1 40 96 61 21; fax: 33 1
40 96 60 75.
E-mail addresses: steven.duret@irstea.fr, steven.duret@hotmail.fr (S. Duret).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2014.07.008
0140-7007/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

18

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 7 e2 5

Nomenclature
A
Acr
Bi
C
a
h
Hresp
kta
K
T0
Tair
Tavg
Tc
Teq
Text
Tinlet
Tint
Toutlet

1.

product surface, m2
surface of the cold room walls, m2
Biot number Bi h$Rp/l
heat capacity, J kg1 K1
thermal diffusivity, m2 s1
convective heat transfer coefficient, W m2 K1
apple heat of respiration, W kg1
moisture transfer coefficient of the apple skin,
m s1
global heat transfer coefficient of the walls of the
cold room, W m2 K1
product initial temperature,  C
air temperature,  C
product average temperature,  C
product core temperature,  C
product equilibrium temperature,  C
external temperature,  C
air inlet temperature,  C
air temperature in the cold room,  C
air outlet temperature,  C

Introduction

In order to provide food products of high organoleptic quality

and safety, attention must be paid to every aspect during the
cooling process and storage. However, uniform storage conditions in cold stores are difficult to attain in practice. Several
studies have shown temperature or moisture heterogeneity,
with non-uniform airflow in cold rooms (Mirade and Daudin,
2006; Chourasia and Goswami, 2007; Kolodziejczyk and
Butrymowicz, 2011), in refrigerated trucks (Moureh et al.,
2009), in display cabinets (Cortella, 2007; Laguerre et al., 2011;
Laguerre et al., 2012) or in domestic refrigerators (Laguerre
et al., 2002, 2010a, 2010b). This uneven distribution of airflow
is related to the presence of the product and the cooling
equipment (Ho et al., 2010). Variation of heat transfer coefficient
between the air and the product at different positions in the cold
room was also observed by Flick et al. (1999) and Mirade (2007),
leading to different product cooling rates. The heat transfer
phenomena involved during product cooling and storage are
conduction within the product, convection (between cold air
and product surface) and radiation (between product surface
and cold room walls) (Hu and Sun, 2000). Another source of
temperature heterogeneity is the heat of respiration of the
product (Ben Amara, 2005). Simultaneously, moisture evaporation from the product surface can be significant which causes
product weight loss. In the case of beef carcasses for example,
this loss is around 1.5e2.3% by weight and represents around 20
times the cost of the process function (Gigiel and Collett, 1989).
In a cheese ripening room, Mirade et al. (2006) observed that the
characteristics of the blowing duct could greatly influence the
product weight losses. Both the heat and moisture transfers are
influenced by flow characteristics (such as cooling air temperature and velocity), air properties (viscosity, density,

Ts
Tw
T*
M
MH2 O
m_
m_ inf
R
Rp
RH
rw
rw,
t
V
Vp
aw
w

s
l
t

product surface temperature,  C

wall temperature,  C
dimensionless temperature T* (T  Teq)/(T0  Teq)
mass, kg
molar mass of water, kg mol1
air mass flow rate, kg s1
mass flow rate of air infiltration, kg s1
universal gas constant, 8.314 J mol1 K1
product radius, m
relative humidity, %
vapour density of the apple surface, kg water m3
vapour density of the surrounding air,
kg water m3
time, s
air velocity, m s1
product volume, m3
water activity of the apple
water content in air
emissivity
Boltzmann constant, 5.67$108 W m2 K4
thermal conductivity, W m1 K1
characteristic time, s

conductivity and specific heat), product properties, shape,

dimension and arrangement of the load.
The comprehension of the heat/mass transfer and airflow
in cold stores is a complex task because of several interdependent factors acting simultaneously (Smale et al., 2006).
Failure to understand the phenomena taking place in the
equipment results in excessive weight loss, reduced shelf life
or deterioration in product quality (James, 1996). This deterioration rate is more significant in the case of high product
respiration rate at warm zone or by chilling injury at cold zone
(James, 1996).
Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models can confirm
experimental results and help correct a dysfunction revealed
in the experimental diagnosis as shown in the study of industrial chillers of beef carcass carried out by Mirade and
Picgirard (2001). CFD which can be used to study different
cooling conditions and package designs can be very useful to
understand and improve cooling processes (Ambaw et al.,
2013; Defraeye et al., 2013) and reduce energy consumption
(Defraeye et al., 2014). CFD models (Nahor et al., 2005; Mirade
and Daudin, 2006) or simplified models (Wang and Touber,
1990) were developed to predict temperature, humidity and
air velocity in refrigerated cold rooms. However, in most of the
cases, only experimental temperatures were used to compare
with the numerical values. The interacting aspects of airflow
direction, air velocity, air and product temperature, heat
transfer coefficients, product cooling rates and product quality evolution (weight losses) are rarely studied simultaneously. Concretely, the objective of our study is to
understand the transfer phenomena in a ventilated cavity
filled with food products of a complex configuration (stack of
food in pallets) that exchange both heat and water with air in
the room. The experimental results will be used for the validation of future models (CFD and simplified).

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 7 e2 5

2.

Materials and methods

At first, the cold room and product characteristics will be

presented in this part. Then the experimental conditions and
measurement methods (air velocity, heat transfer coefficient,
temperature, humidity and weight loss) will be explained.

2.1.

Description of the cold room

The cold room was 3.4 m long, 3.4 m wide and 2.5 m high (i.e. a
total volume of 29 m3). Inside the cold room, 4 pallets (1.2 m
long, 1 m wide and 1.75 m high) were placed. Each pallet was
composed of 64 bins (0.5 m long, 0.3 m wide and 0.2 m high)
with a vent hole ratio of 33%, each one was filled with 34 apples (Jonagored variety). The total weight of the apples was
about 2560 kg. The cooling unit, located at the ceiling of the
(a) - top view

0.33

1.08

19

room, included two axial fans of 30 cm of diameter rotating at

1320 RPM. The flow rate of the cooling unit in the operating
conditions was 2450 m3 h1 (measured data). Position and
dimensions of pallets and cooling unit are presented in Fig. 1.
At first, the apples were placed in a room in which temperature was set at 20  C during 3 days to homogenize temperature in pallets and instrument the products. Then, the
pallets were transferred in a cold room previously set at 4  C
and remained in this room for four months.

2.2.

Measurements

2.2.1.

Temperature measurements

T-type thermocouples (1 mm diameter, precision 0.2  C) were

used. These thermocouples were previously calibrated at 5
different temperatures (10  C, 0  C, 10  C, 20  C and 30  C).
82 temperature points were measured in the cold room and 1
temperature outside: 16 products (core and surface) and 50 air
temperatures. For each pallet, the temperature (core, surface
and air) of the apple located in the centre was measured. For the
pallets B and D (side view of Fig. 1), six other apple temperatures
were measured (3 at the top, 3 at the bottom).

0.46

1.10

0.33

D
0.41

1.00

1.20

2.2.2.

0.16

0.16

Cross
section n2
Cross
section n3
y

1.13
0.33

: Position of velocity measurements

(b) - side view

Air
return

Air
supply

Set
temperature

DT1

0.50

DT2

DT3

0.75
BT1

Front

DB2

BT3

Rear
1.60

DC

DB1

BT2

DB3

BB1

Cross
section n1

BC

BB2

Velocity measurements

Velocity measurements were performed to describe the

airflow in the entire cold room in terms of magnitude and
direction (the identification of the turbulence intensity was
out of the objective). A hot wire anemometer (TESTO 435-4)
was used because of its good balance between cost, accuracy
and convenience (Melikov et al., 2007). Its velocity range is
0e20 m s1 and the calibrated accuracy assured by the supplier is 5% of the read value or 0.03 m s1 which restricts the
accuracy at the low boundary of the range. Velocity measurements still remain a tough task at low velocity using hot
wire anemometer due to fluctuations in turbulent flow, and no
robust and accurate instrument has yet been developed
(Hoang et al., 2000). Measurements were carried on 24 points
at three different heights (0.25 m, 0.9 m and 1.75 m) in the cold
room (Fig. 1a). For each point, velocity was measured in the
three directions x, y, and z by changing the orientation of the
sensor, to determine the airflow direction. The velocity
magnitudeq
(V)
was
calculated
then
using:V Vx2 meas Vy2 meas Vz2 meas . It is to be emphasised

BB3

0.15
(c) Top view of a bin

Fig. 1 e Dimensions (in meter) and position of the pallets in

the cold room (a) e top view (b) e side view (c) e top view of
a bin.

Fig. 2 e Measurement of the x component of the air

velocity.

20

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that this calculated velocity does not precisely match the air
velocity but is only an approximation. In fact, measurements
in the three directions are not exactly the velocity components because of the hot wire measurement principle. For
example, Fig. 2 presents the velocity measurement in the x
direction (Vx meas). There is a difference between the real
!
magnitude of the x component of V (Vx) and the value read by
the anemometer (Vx meas) because the sensor is also influenced by y and z components (Vy, Vz). In spite of this inconvenience, this method allows identifying the areas of high or
low air velocity and the global airflow direction.

2.2.3.

Heat transfer coefficient measurements

The convective heat transfer coefficient was measured in

transient regime using an aluminium heating sphere (conductivity l 237 W m1 K1, diameter D 0.07 m, emissivity
0.12). The sphere, instrumented by a thermocouple (Ttype), was placed in the stack of product and it was surrounded
by white celluloid hollow spheres. In this manner, the heat
transfer by conduction and radiation between the aluminium
sphere and the surrounding area is limited. The sphere was
heated by supplying power to the resistance until its temperature was about 15e20  C above the air temperature. The
power supply was then turned off and the sphere was cooled
by convection with the surrounding air. The convective heat
transfer coefficient, h (W m2 K1) can be calculated from the
slope of the curve (hA/mC) describing the evolution of
ln(T*) ln(T  Teq/T0  Teq) in function of time. Measurements
were carried out in 14 positions in the pallets.

2.2.4. Measurement of the thermal insulation of cold room (K

coefficient)
The thermal insulation was measured inside the switch off
empty cold room. A heating device associated with a fan to
ensure a homogeneous air temperature was placed inside the
cold room. The heating power was adjusted in such a manner
that the average internal air temperature Tint was maintained
at 40  C while the external ambient temperature Text was
18  C. The temperatures and the power supplied (Q 1380 W)
were recorded during 3.5 h when the steady state was attained
(after 10 h). The thermal insulation of cold room can be
calculated using average values (K Q/(Tint  Text)/Acr) where
Acr is the total surface of the cold room wall (57 m2). The K
value was 1.1 W m2 K1.

2.2.5.

Humidity measurements

The air relative humidity was measured at 16 positions using

hygrometers (Vaisala HMP110). These hygrometers were previously calibrated in three ambiences of known relative humidity and temperature (saturated salts at 20  C): LiCl (11.3%
RH), NaCl (75.4% RH) and K2S04 (97.4% RH). T-type thermocouples were used to measure the air temperature at each
hygrometer position to calculate the water content in air.

2.2.6.

Weight loss measurements

Measurements were carried out in order to compare the apple

weight loss at different positions in the cold room and in
subsequent work, to validate a model of quality evolution. The
apples weight was measured at 8 different positions in the
pallets using a digital balance (Sartorius, CPA 34001 P,

accuracy 0.1 g). Before each measurement, two weight references (0.2 and 1 kg) were used to estimate the derivation of the
experimental device. For each position, a batch of six apples
was measured inside the cold room to avoid apple manipulation and temperature fluctuations during weighing.

2.2.7.

Cooling rate model

A simple model for estimating temperature evolution of regular shaped food product was used to calculate the cooling
rate. This model developed by van der Sman (2003) allows the
calculation of the average temperature of high moisture food
product with or without evaporation (eq. (1)). This author
considered that the average temperature of the product can be
estimated by the temperature at the position r 3/4Rp, with Rp
the sphere radius.


Tair meas t  Tavg
dTavg


A
(1)
rCVp
dt
Rp =4
h1
l
The equation was solved using a fourth-order RungeeKutta method (Gerald and Wheatley, 1999) (ODE 45 function in Matlab software vR2012a; The MathWorks Inc., Natick,
MA, USA). The thermo-physical properties of apple (Jonagold
variety) are presented in Table 1.
This approach is acceptable for Bi < 10 (van der Sman, 2003)
where Bi h$Rp/l. In our case, the convective heat transfer
coefficient h is expected to be around 10 W m2 K1 so that Bi
is around 1. Therefore, the internal heat resistance: (Rp/4)/l
cannot be neglected compared to the external one: 1/h. Heat of
respiration was not included because of its low value (around
60 W t1 at 20  C, IIR, 1971). Moreover, it would not have a
significant impact on the cooling rate during forced convective
cooling (Defraeye et al., 2013). The radiative heat transfer was
calculated only for apples located at the top of the pallets.
Considering that only half of apples exchanged by radiation
with the walls of the cold room, the radiative heat transfer
coefficient was calculated with eq. (2):
hr



1 s T2s T2w Ts Tw
1
2
1s  1
w

(2)

The radiative heat transfer coefficient was found negligible; the order of magnitude thermal resistances are presented in Table 2.
In further work (not presented in this study), this model
could be used to estimate temperature evolution in all positions in the cold room.
The calculated temperature is the average temperature of
the product whereas measurements were performed at the
core and at the surface. To compare the calculated and the
measured values, a parabolic temperature profile was
assumed in the apple and the experimental average temperature can be estimated using eq. (3):

Table 1 e Thermo-physical properties of apple (Jonagold

variety) (Lisowa et al., 2002).
l thermal conductivity (W m1 K1)
r density (kg m3)
C heat capacity (J kg1 K1)

0.463
898
3829

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3.1.

Table 2 e Thermal resistance of cooling.

Internal
resistance
R (m2  C W1)

0.02

External resistance
Convective
resistance

Radiative
resistance

0.07e0.1

0.4

 2
3
Tavg Tc Ts  Tc
4

3.

(3)

Results and discussion

The experimental air velocity results will be presented firstly

because the airflow governs the others physical phenomena.
Then, based on the airflow pattern, the discussion will be
developed in three parts. The first part will be focused on the
transient heat transfer to study apple cooling rate. The
steady state regarding air and product temperatures in the
cold room will be presented in the second part. Finally, the
weight loss of apples in function of the position will be
discussed.

21

Air velocity

Fig. 3a shows the air velocity field on the symmetry plan between the two rows of pallet (cross section n 2 on Fig. 1).
Maximum velocity was found near the top of the rear pallets
(zone 1) while low velocity was observed near the top of front
pallets (zone 2) and at the corners of the cold room. At the top
of the front part, the air was driven by the jet provided by the
cooling unit (air supply). Near to the rear part, air tended to go
down and flowed back to the cooling unit (air return).
Fig. 3b shows the top view of the air velocity field (cross
section n 1 on Fig. 1). It points out a slight dissymmetry in the
cold room with velocity on the side of pallets B and D
(0.72e1.16 m s1) higher than the opposite side
(0.53e0.66 m s1). This difference could be explained by the
same rotation direction of the two fans at the air supply. The air
velocity between pallets A and C (0.24 m s1) and between
pallets B and D (0.22 m s1) was lower than the air velocity on
the symmetry plan (0.43e0.78 m s1) and in the sides of the cold
room which means that most of the air passed outside the
pallets. However, it can be assumed that the flow pattern inside the pallets was quite similar to that on the symmetry plan
(Fig. 4). The cooling unit blew air at high velocity (4.8 m s1) with
a mass flow rate m_ 1 0.86 kg s1. Due to the entrainment effect
of the jet, the flow rate of air circulating above the pallets
increased (m_ total m_ 1 m_ 2 ). Part of this air flowed throughout
the rear pallet and then throughout the front pallet. The other
part flowed around the pallets (between the two rows of pallets
or between the lateral wall and the pallets). The fraction of air
circulating inside the pallets depends on the ratio of internal
and external friction loss. Finally, the airflow was divided into
two parts, m_ 1 and m_ 2 :m_ 1 returned directly to the cooling unit
while m_ 2 was driven by the supply air.

3.2.

Transient state heat transfer

The cooling of products was driven by two parameters: the

local convective heat transfer coefficient number and the
surrounding air temperature.

3.2.1.

Convective heat transfer coefficients

Table 3 presents the measured heat transfer coefficients between air and apples of the pallets B and D. The supply air

Fig. 3 e Air velocity (m s1) and flow direction in the cold

room (a) e side view, cross section n 2 of Fig. 1 (b) e top
view, cross section n 1 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 e Simplified airflow scheme in the cold room.

22

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Table 3 e Measured values of convective heat transfer

coefficient (W m2 K1), half cooling time (h) and weight
loss of apples (%) after 87.
Position

BT1
BT2
BT3
BM
BB1
BB2
BB3
DT1
DT2
DT3
DM
DB1
DB2
DB3

Convective heat
transfer coefficient
(W m2 K1)

Half cooling
time (h)

Weight loss
(%) after
87 days

12.6
14.6
15
9.5
10.4
13.8
13.1
9.9
12.9
11.9
9.2
10.4
10.6
11

2.2
1.4
1.1
4.9
3.8
4.1
1.3
2.2
1.6
1.1
7.7
3.7
6.1
3.2

1.4
1.5
1.6
1.6

1.7
1.6
1.7
1.8

induced highest air velocity at the top of rear pallets (Positions

BT) where high convective heat transfer coefficients were
measured (15 W m2 K1). Lowest convective heat transfer
coefficients were observed in the centre of the pallets and at
the top of the front pallets, where the lowest velocities were
measured.

3.2.2.

Half cooling time

The half cooling time corresponds to the time required to

reduce the temperature of the apple halfway between its
initial temperature and its final one (at the end of the cooling
process). Table 3 shows the half cooling time of average
temperature (eq. (3)) at various positions. This result was obtained by analysing the temperature evolution of the apples.
Generally, short half-cooling times (<3 h) correspond to apples
at the top of the pallets and long half cooling times to apples at
the centre and at the bottom of the pallets excepted at the
position BB3. At the position BB3, air came directly from the
blower at low temperature which explains the short cooling
time. The apples located at the top of the pallets were directly
in contact with the cold air blowing over them which explains
their short cooling time. The short cooling time at position
DT3 suggests that there was a cold air supply in the gap between the rear and the front pallet.
The values of half cooling time were not directly correlated
with the values of the measured convective heat transfer
which means that the cooling rate depended also on the local
evolution of the air temperature. Indeed, as air flowed
throughout the pallet, it warmed up.
In order to illustrate the transient heat transfer, Fig. 5
presents the evolution of the air and product temperature
for the apple located at the top of the rear pallet (BT3) (Fig. 5a),
at the centre of the front pallet (DC) (Fig. 5b) and at the bottom
of the pallet B (BB2) (Fig. 5c). At the position BT3, the air came
directly from the blower with a rather high velocity which
induced a relatively strong convective heat transfer coefficient. This also explains why Tair near the apple BT3 decreased
rapidly at the beginning (0e5 h). At t 30 h, Tair was about 5  C
which was slightly higher than the setting temperature
because the steady state was not completely attained.

Fig. 5 e Experimental core temperature evolution of three

apples during cooling; cross section 3.

In general, for the positions where Tair decreased rapidly,

the half-cooling time was short (2.2 h, Table 3: BT1, BT2, BT3,
BB3, DT1, DT2, DT3) even though low convective heat transfer
coefficients were measured at certain positions (i.e. DT1). The

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 7 e2 5

cooling of products located at the centre or at the bottom in

the pallets was limited by the local air temperature which was
higher than the setting temperature. As example, for the apple
DC, the air was warmed up due to the heat exchange with the
warm products when it flowed throughout the pallets. This
induced a slow product cooling even for positions where high
convective heat transfer coefficients were measured (BB2)
(Fig. 5c).
The calculated temperature (eq. (1)) was in agreement with
the experimental data to determine the half cooling time and
confirmed the importance of the air temperature on the
product cooling. However, a discrepancy was observed in
Fig. 5a between calculated and experimental mean temperatures. This could be due to the simple equation used to
calculate the experimental mean temperature (eq. (3)).
Despite this slight discrepancy, this approach seems to be
efficient to calculate the evolution of food products from air
temperature and convective heat transfer coefficients and will
be used in a further work (CFD and simplified models).

3.3.

Steady state heat transfer

Temperature

Fig. 6 presents the temperature field in the cold room for the
two pallets B and D (cross section n 3 on Fig. 1). The air jet of
the cooling unit induced a cold zone at the top of the rear
pallets. The temperature of this zone was slightly higher than
the blown air temperature because of the air recirculation (m_ 2 ,
Fig. 4). The air (m_ total ) was then heated by the walls, air infiltration and products while flowing through the pallets and
induced higher average temperature in the front pallet (warm
zone). The difference between the blowing air temperature
and the air return temperature was 1.9  C. This difference can
be explained by the apple heat of respiration, heat loss
through walls and air infiltration. The heat balance in the cold
room can be expressed by eq. (4):

(4)

with DT the temperature difference between blowing and return air. The dissipation of heat inside the fans was not
included since the blowing temperature was taken after the
fans. The apple heat of respiration Hresp is around 17.5 W t1
(IIR, 1971). Considering only its effect, the air temperature
increase DT' (eq. (5)) would be around 0.05  C.


DT0 mHresp =m_ 1 C

(5)

The global heat transfer coefficient of the wall of the cold

room was estimated experimentally (K 1.1 W m2 K1).
Considering only the heat loss through the walls, the air
temperature increase DT00 (eq. (6)) would be 1.24  C. Heat loss
through the walls represented 2/3 of the global heat balance.
00
(6)
DT KAcr Text  Tint =m_ 1 C
The air infiltration rate could not be measured. However,
by our approximate calculation, we can conclude that it represented less than 1/3 of the global heat balance.

3.3.2.

The presented results correspond to the mean temperature of

measurements undertaken from April 30th, 2012 to May 7th,
2012. Mean temperatures were compared to other periods and
no differences were observed.

3.3.1.

m_ 1 CDT mHresp KAcr Text  Tint m_ inf CText  Tint

23

Water content in air

No significant heterogeneity of water content in air was

observed. In fact, the maximum difference (between blowing
and air return, 0.4 gwater kg1
dry air) was less than the measure
uncertainty (0.3 gwater kg1
dry air for each measurement). This is
probably due to the small volume of the cold room (29 m3) and
the high air circulation ratio (84 volumes per h). Moreover, the
water evaporation quantity of food products (2560 kg) was not
significant (about 18 g per hour). These factors explain the
homogeneous water content in air.

3.4.

Weight loss

The percentage of weight loss of apples after 87 days is presented in Table 3. In general, less weight loss was observed in
the rear pallet than in the front pallet. The difference between
the two positions could be explained by the higher temperature in the front pallet than in the rear pallet which induced a
slightly higher saturation pressure of water in apples in the
front pallet. Indeed, the weight loss of food products is driven
by the gradient in water vapour density between the apple
skin and the surrounding air. A simple model was given by
Gwanpua (2012):


dm
kta A rw  rw;
dt

(7)

kta was obtained from Gwanpua (2012), rw is related to the

saturated vapour pressure Psat(Pa) at product temperature T(K)
as:
rw

MH2 O Psat Taw

RT

(8)

The expression of rw, is the same as for rw by replacing the

water activity by the relative humidity (RH).

Fig. 6 e Product and air temperatures ( C) in the cold room

at steady state- side view; cross section 3.

rw;

MH2 O Pw;air
RTair

(9)

24

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 7 e2 5

4.

Fig. 7 e Evolution of the difference of partial water vapour

pressure between apple and air (position BC).

with Pw;air Psat Tair

RH
100

(10)

Considering that the water activity in the apples was close

to 1 and that the temperature of an apple and surrounding air
were close, the model suggests that the rate of weight loss is
proportional to DP Psat  Pw,air whose evolution is shown in
Fig. 7 for an apple located at the centre of pallet B.
From this evolution, we can expect a significant weight loss
at the beginning of the experiment (cooling time < 10 h) where
Psat(T) was great because of apple high temperature. During
steady state (cooling time > 40 h), the apple temperature and
water pressure of saturation were nearly constant which
induced an unchanged level of weight loss rate.
The calculated and measured weight losses of the apples at
the centre of the rear and front pallet (BC and DC) were in good
agreement (Fig. 8) at the centre of the pallets. A slight difference of weight loss was observed between the two positions.
The rear pallet (B) was cooled quicker than the front one (D).
This explains why the weight loss was less important in rear
pallet during the first three days. The weight loss during the
steady state phase was also smaller in the rear pallet due to its
lower temperature (the slope of the BC curve is less important
than of the DC).

Fig. 8 e Measured and simulated weight losses of apples at

positions BM and DM.

Conclusion

The experimental investigation was performed in a cold room

filled with four apple pallets. Based on the experimental air
velocity field, a simplified airflow pattern was proposed. The
understanding of heat and mass (water) transfer at different
positions in the cold room was achieved by interpreting the
measured values of air velocity, temperatures (air and product), convective heat transfer coefficient and weight loss. The
calculation of product cooling rate was undertaken using a
model proposed by van der Sman (2003) and was in agreement
with measured data. The weight loss could also be calculated
by a simple model. In general the physical phenomena
(product cooling, steady state temperature, weight loss) can be
interpreted by the simplified airflow pattern. A zonal model,
with some representative positions in the cold room, could be
developed on the basis of these results. A more complex
approach such as Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) could
complete this approach by providing better understanding of
phenomena in the cold room. This will be presented in further
work.

Acknowledgement
The research leading to this result has received funding from

gion Ile de France and European Community's Seventh
Re
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant
agreement n 245288.

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