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Characterization of heat transfer and airflow within a pallet of heat-generating product : applied to cheese pallets.

Caractérisation aéraulique et thermique au sein d'un empilement de produits dégageant de la chaleur : application au cas des palettes de fromage

Author(s) : PHAM A. T.

Type of monograph: Doctoral thesis

Summary

Cheese, like any fresh product, must be kept at a low temperature throughout the cold chain. A particularity of soft cheeses (Camembert, for example) is that they generate a significant amount of heat due to the respiration of the microorganisms. From a thermal point of view, cold air must flow within a cheese pallet to remove the heat released in order to achieve better production temperature control. From an airflow point of view, heat generated by the product induces natural convection inside the pallet. Several convection modes are therefore present: the forced convection imposed by the fans of the cold room around the pallet and the mixed convection, combination of forced and natural convection, inside the pallet. This therefore increases the complexity of the airflow. The mixed convection regime appears mainly at low fan speed which is often the case during storage. In addition, the system is influenced by many parameters: the orientation of the pallet, the opening area of the cartons, the blowing speed, the heat flux...The aim of the PhD is to provide inner knowledge on air flows and heat transfer within pallets of heat-generating products with low ventilation. This knowledge also aims to answer industrial problems. The PhD’s results should contribute to improve the design of vented cheese packaging and palletizing methods, which is currently done empirically. It should also be noted that the scientific topic addressed in this project related to aerodynamic and thermal interactions between forced and natural convection around and within the pallet has applications in other areas such as the cooling of electronic circuits.The PhD consists of two main parts: an experimental and a numerical study. In the experimental approach, a full scale pallet was built in which the products were replaced by plaster blocks inserted with heating resistance to simulate the heat flow generated by cheese. The experiments were carried out in a controlled temperature and air velocity room for two air inflow velocities: 0.31 and 0.73 m.s-1, three heat fluxes: 0.05 W, 0.15 W and 0.30 W per product (0.25 kg) and two orientations of the palette. The use of a laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and a hot-wire anemometer allowed characterizing airflows (velocity profiles, air flow rate in the vent holes) according to the air inflow velocity and the heat flux. The implementation of 200 thermocouples distributed throughout the experimental set-up also made it possible to obtain the temperature levels of the air and the products within the pallet according to these same parameters.The numerical study was performed by two approaches: a detailed model by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with several millions of elements and a zonal model (about twenty zones) assimilating the system to a hydraulic network. Both models were validated using experimental data. The CFD gave complement information which is not accessible by the experimental measurements, which facilitated the understanding of the phenomena. The zonal approach, by its simplicity of use and its low computing time is more suitable for an industrial use.

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Pages: 217 p.

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  • Original title: Caractérisation aéraulique et thermique au sein d'un empilement de produits dégageant de la chaleur : application au cas des palettes de fromage
  • Record ID : 30032283
  • Languages: French
  • Subject: Technology
  • Publication: AgroParisTech - Antony - France
  • Edition statement: Institut agronomique, vétérinaire et forestier de France
  • Publication date: 2019/04/09

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