Effects of air supply operation on the distribution and spatial differences of airflow field in conditioned room: A CFD Study

Abstract

In air-blast freezer, there are differences in food freezing process at different locations due to the non-uniform airflow distribution in freezing chamber. In this paper, a decoupling method was used to simulate freezing process of food products at different locations. Firstly, the internal airflow distribution model of the freezing chamber was established to simulate the airflow field in freezing chamber under different velocities of air supply. The mainstream air flow rate around each food product was then calculated as the ambient air velocity at which the food freezes. Then, a validated lumped parameter model was used to simulate the freezing process of individual food product, and the effects of freezing conditions on freezing process at different locations were studied. The results showed that there were large differences in the freezing conditions of foods at different locations in freezing chamber, which were mainly reflected by the difference in ambient air velocity. Compared to air velocity, air temperature was distributed rather uniformly in freezing chamber. With the increase of supply air velocity of air coolers, the ambient air velocity around food products in freezing chamber increased almost linearly.