Abstract
In cold storage facilities of fruit and vegetables, airflow is necessary for heat removal. The design of storage facilities influences the air speed in the surrounding of the product. Therefore, knowledge about airflow next to the product is important to plan the layout of cold stores adapted to the requirements of the products. A new sensing device (ASL, Air speed logger) is developed for omnidirectional measurement of air speed between fruit or vegetables inside storage bins or in bulk. It consists of four interconnected plastic spheres with 80 mm diameter each, adapted to the size of apple fruit. In the free space between the spheres, silicon diodes are fixed for the airflow measurement based on a calorimetric principle. Battery and data logger are mounted inside the spheres. The device is calibrated in a wind tunnel in a measuring range of 0–1.3 m/s. Air speed measurements in fruit bulks on laboratory scale and in an industrial fruit store show air speeds in gaps between fruit with high stability at different airflow levels. Several devices can be placed between stored products for determination of the air speed distribution inside bulks or bin stacks in a storage room.
Highlights
The knowledge of the spatial distribution of airflow in complex geometries is essential for optimization in several technical applications
The objective of this study was to develop a sensor for measuring air speed between such measuring system would be applicable in industrial field tests as well as allow continuous horticultural produce in bulks and storage bins with random stacking of the products
The air speed values measured by the ASL in the apple bin with unknown upstream air speed are in a much lower range than in the wind tunnel forced through the airflow fruit bulk
Summary
The knowledge of the spatial distribution of airflow in complex geometries is essential for optimization in several technical applications. A widely applied method for indirect fields with PIV in different horizontal planes of a transparent model of a typical retail clamshell estimation of airflow inside packages or produce stacks is the determination of the convective heat filled with synthetic spheres. The objective of this study was to develop a sensor for measuring air speed between such measuring system would be applicable in industrial field tests as well as allow continuous horticultural produce in bulks and storage bins with random stacking of the products. It is measurement to record adaptation of air speed next to the produce with changing airflow conditions envisaged that such measuring system would be applicable in industrial field tests as well as allow in cold stores. New device was tested for airflow measurement between fruit dummies in a wind tunnel at laboratory scale and between fruit in an apple bin in a commercial storage room
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