Heat and mass transfer analysis in air-cooling of spherical food products

Abstract

The one dimensional transient heat conduction equation, in spherical co-ordinates, is solved with convective surface boundary condition, during air-cooling. The enthalpy potential concept is used to include the cooling effect of desiccation. A calculation scheme is proposed in which, up to half the cooling time, the calculation is made with both heat and mass transfer from the product surface, thereafter it is continued with heat transfer only. The calculated temperatures for apples and potatoes are compared with the measured values available in the literature, and good agreement is observed.