Abstract

The resistance to air flow through fruits and vegetables in bulk was an important consideration in the design of the pressure cooling system. The amount of resistance to air flow through produce in bulk normally depended upon air flow rate, stacking depth, porosity, stacking patterns and shape and site of product. But, there was not enough information relating the effects of those factors on air flow resistance. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of stacking depth, stacking patterns, porosity and airflow rate on airflow resistance and to develop a statistical model to predict static pressure drop across the produce bed as a function of air flow rate, stacking depth, bed porosity, and product size. Mandarins and tomatoes were used in the experiment. The airflow rate were in the range of 0.1~1.0 ㎥/s.$m^2$, the porosity were in the range of 0.25~0.45, the depth were in the range of 0.3~0.9m and the equivalent diameters were 5.3cm and 6.3cm for mandarins, and 6.5cm and 8.5cm for tomatoes. Three methods of stacking arrangement were used i.e. cubic, square staggered, and staggered stacking arrangement. The results were summarized as follows. 1. The pressure drops across produce bed increased in proportion to stacking depth and superficial air velocity and decreased in proportion to porosity. 2. The increasing rates of pressure drop according to stacking patterns with the increase of superficial air velocity were different one another. The staggered stacking arrangement produced the highest increasing rate and the cubic stacking arrangement produced the lowest increasing rate. But it could be assumed that the stacking patterns had not influenced greatly on pressure drops if it was of equal porosity. 3. The statistical models to predict the pressure drop across produce bed as a function of superficial air velocity, stacking depth, porosity, and product diameter were developed from these experiments.

Keywords

• Air Flow Resistance;
• Pressure Pre-cooling

• 송풍저항;
• 차압통풍 예냉;