Simplified model of airflow and heat transfer in a pallet of food product generating heat
Abstract
During storage, pallets of food product generating heat (e.g., cheese, fruit, and vegetable) are exposed to low velocity ventilation. In addition, the boxes have often little perforation. Therefore airflow is weak inside the boxes located downstream of the pallet; and if the product generates heat, its temperature can rise above the recommended one. Computational fluid dynamics modeling can predict these phenomena but needs an expertise of numerical fluid flow, a detailed description of product and packaging and leads to expensive computational costs. A simplified model is here