Numerical study of apple cooling in tandem arrangement

Abstract

The conjugated cooling of apples in tandem arrangements on trays was studied in this work by numerical simulation using a CFD code. The governing equations were discretized and solved using the finite volume method on unstructured triangular meshes; and a coupling scheme for the fluid and solid heat transfer problems was proposed. The computational model was validated using two test cases in which local and average Nusselt numbers are reported in the literature. The local Nusselt number for each apple was obtained during one hour of air cooling as a function of the Reynolds number. Nusselt number and temperature distribution were found to vary in the apples due to the conjugate behavior of the problem. The conjugate approach showed itself to be a powerful tool for optimizing the convective heat transfer correlations reported in the literature.