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THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY VARIATIONS OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN NATURAL

CONVECTION COOLING

Conference Paper · August 2014

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The 3rd International Symposium on Processing of Foods, Vegetables and Fruits (ISPFVF 2014)
Kuala Lumpur Teaching Centre, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, 11st – 13th August 2014

THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY VARIATIONS OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN NATURAL

CONVECTION COOLING

B Jamil1, N Ahmad2 and SN Ahmad3

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh-202002, Uttar Pradesh, India
Tel.:+919897752735, E-mail: basharat1986@gmail.com
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy Pvt. Ltd.,
Dhursur, Pokaran-345012, Rajasthan, India
Tel.:+919325997533, E-mail: naushad94@gmail.com
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh-202002, Uttar Pradesh, India
Tel.:+919410210569, E-mail: ahmadsn50@gmail.com

Abstract: Cooling is an important task in the food industry. Harvested agricultural produce
is subjected to precooling before packaging, processing and transportation. Heat moves to
surface of product in a mixed-mode of conduction and convection, and from surface to
environment by convection. Therefore, estimation of thermal properties (like thermal
diffusivity) is important to analyze heat transfer phenomena and design of refrigeration
and processing equipments. This work presents a simple method to estimate thermal
diffusivity variations of selected regular shaped food products subjected to natural
convection cooling. Experimental investigations were carried out on fruits and vegetables.
Samples chosen were melon, orange and potato (spherical) and bottle gourd (cylindrical).
The experimental setup consists of a deep-freezer maintained at -10˚C and 1 atm. The
variation of temperature within a product is measured along the radial direction using
copper-constantan thermocouples. The output of thermocouples is read on a digital
microvolt meter. The temperature of thermocouples was recorded at regular intervals of 5
minutes. Variation of surface temperature is obtained based on radial temperature profiles.
Thermal diffusivity (α) variation is calculated for each time interval using one-
dimensional Fourier’s equation. Correlation for thermal diffusivity as a function of surface
temperature is developed for each of the sample.

Keywords: Natural convection, Fourier equation, correlations, surface temperature,

thermal diffusivity.

INTRODUCTION Reduction of high wastage of fruits and vegetables

requires various measures to be adopted to minimize
Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable products.
these post-harvest losses. Proper handling, storage,
In developing countries, like India, each year up to
packaging and processing of fresh produce (fruits and
25 to 30% of the most perishable fruits and
vegetables) improves storage characteristics and shelf
vegetables are lost due to spoilage, physiological
life.
decay, water loss, and mechanical damage during
harvesting, packaging and transporting, or due to For many decades, refrigeration industry has found
transportation (Otero & Sanz, 2003). These losses its significant application in the preservation of food
have been estimated to be more than 40 to 50% in the and perishable products like fruits and vegetables,
tropics and subtropics. Post-harvest losses of fruits meat, canned products through storage at lower
and vegetables in developing countries is therefore of temperature (Heldman, 1975).
serious concern (Otero et al, 2007). Moreover, in
Harvested agricultural products are subjected to
many developing countries only a limited quantity of
‘precooling’ before packaging and transportation.
fruit and vegetable products are produced for local
Precooling involves placing field temperature (warm)
markets or for exportation due to lack of machinery
containers of produce in a cold room before
and infrastructure.

54
packaging and processing to reduce bacteria and
delay enzymatic activities (Lill, 1980).
Cooling is achieved by circulation of cold fluid
around the containers. Different modes of cooling
available in industries are refrigerated room cooling,
forced air cooling and hydro-cooling. In each case,
the heat moves to the surface in mixed mode of
conduction and convection and from the surface to
cooling medium by convection (Dincer, 1994). Heat
loss by convection is dependent on the type of
cooling process selected and the composition of
product.
Cooling of a product is therefore, an important task
in the food industry. Knowledge of thermal
properties is of fundamental importance to analyze
heat transfer phenomena and to design food
processing equipment, such as heat exchangers,
chillers and evaporators (Dincer, 1994; Clary et al,
1968; Cleland & Earle, 1976; Daudin & Swain,
1990).
One engineering aspect of the cooling process is to
predict the time required for a product to cool to its
surrounding temperature. Cooling time of the
products depends strictly on the thermal
characteristics like thermal conductivity, thermal
diffusivity, specific heat etc. This calculation for food
products is often complicated by irregular geometries
and non-homogeneous distribution of pulp under the
skin.
In the present study, food products are approximated
as a cylindrical or a spherical body because
temperature response curves for these geometries are
available in literature for comparison.
Most of the work available in literature concerns with
meat products. Thermal properties of a very few
fruits and vegetables are available in literature. The
objective of this work is to device a simple method to
determine the thermal diffusivity of selected food
products as a function of surface temperature of the
product.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thermal diffusivity (α) is involved in all unsteady
heat-conduction problems and is a property of the
solid object. The time-rate of change of temperature
depends on its numerical value. Thermal diffusivity
is the controlling transport property for transient
diffusion. This thermal property is the ratio of the
thermal conductivity to the specific heat and density.
The physical significance of thermal diffusivity is
associated with the diffusion of heat into the medium
during changes of temperature with time. The higher
the thermal diffusivity coefficient, the faster the
penetration of heat into the medium and the less time
required to take heat out of the solid. Also, a large
value of this thermal diffusivity implies that the body
is more effective in transferring energy by
conduction than it is in storing energy. The
determination of the thermal diffusivities of products
is required to minimize energy expenditures in
cooling and refrigeration operations. Accurate
estimations of thermal diffusivity of food products
are unavailable for many semi-solid and multi-phase
food products.
Experimental Setup
Experiments were carried out on regular shaped
(cylindrical and spherical) food products. The main
aim of these investigations is to analyze the heat
transfer behavior during pre-cooling of solid food
products. For this purpose experimental measurement
of transient time-temperature behavior during pre-
cooling of food products is done.
Experimental setup consists of a deep freezer,
microvolt meter, thermocouples and a stop watch.
The specifications of deep freezer are provided in
Table 1.
Table 1. Specifications of the deep freezer
Model RQF-265(D)
Volume 265 lt.
Voltage stabilizer 2 KVA
Minimum temperature -35 to -40°C
Frequency 50 Hz
Compressor make Tecumsha
Model MCB 2410
Discharge pressure 150
Back pressure +5
Compressor fan motor 1/83Hb AC/E
Fan blade 9 inch (Al)
Before exposing the fruits and vegetables to the deep
freezer, constant temperature of -10°C was
maintained by operating the deep freezer for
sufficient time to attain steady state.
The experimental scheme for the measurement of
temperature within a product is shown
diagrammatically in Fig. 1. The actual laboratory
view of the setup is depicted in Fig. 2.
Product temperatures were measured using Copper-
Constantan thermocouples. These thermocouples
were inserted in the food product radially (Fig. 3).
Temperature variations with time were measured at
five locations from center to skin. The data for
temperature variation was recorded at regular
intervals of 5 minutes using a stop watch. The sample
was suspended at the center of the deep freezer with
the help of hook as shown in Fig. 4.
55
Fig.1. Experimental scheme for measurement of
temperatures in a food product
Fig. 4. Sample (potato) in deep freezer suspended
with the help of hook
Samples Preparation
Experiments were performed on selected regular
shaped food products. The samples chosen include
melon, orange and potato, with an approximate
spherical geometries, and bottle gourd, with an
approximate cylindrical geometry.
Samples were acquired from a locallo market. The
fruits were rinsed with tap water and stored at room
temperature prior to use in experiments. The
dimensions of the sample were measured using
Vernier calipers (Table 2) below.

Table 2: Dimensions of the sample food products

Fig. 2. Laboratory view of the experimental setup
Product Geometry r0 l
Gourd Cylindrical 3.50 23.20
Melon Spherical 6.80 -
Orange Spherical 4.30 -
Potato Spherical 3.05 -
Assumptions
(i) Heat transfer is unidirectional i.e. it occurs only in
the radial direction (from center to surface)
(ii) The composition of the food product is
homogeneous below the skin.
(iii) There is no effect of latent heat on the heat
transfer rate due to quite low moisture content of the
cooling medium.
Fig. 3. Sample with thermocouples inserted along
radial direction (iv) Transpiration losses from the surface of the
product are negligible.

OBSERVATIONS
Temperatures
emperatures along the radial direction were
observed at five different locations (from center to
skin) within the product. These temperatures were
recorded at regular intervals of 5 minutes. The

56
observed temperatures were non-dimensionalized
dimensionalized by Further, these radial temperature profiles were

 extrapolated upto surface (i.e. x = 1) of the product
the following equation:
 (1)

 providing the surface or skin. The surface
These dimensionless temperature difference (DTD)
temperature profiles of the samples are shown in Fig.
were plotted against x (dimensionless radial distance)
6.
which represents the position of thermocouple within
a product. Radial temperature profiles of the products
are shown graphically in Fig. 5.

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c)

(c)

(d)
Fig. 5. Experimentally observed temperature values
(radial temperature profile) of (a) Gourd (b) Melon
(c) Orange and (d) Potato
(d)
Fig. 6. Distribution of surface (or skin) temperature
with time for (a) Gourd (b) Melon (c) Orange and (d)
Potato

57
 CALCULATIONS
The governing equation for cooling of solid food
product (with characteristic dimension x), placed in
air medium at constant temperature &  is
essentially time-dependent
dependent heat conduction equation
(or Fourier’s equation) without internal heat
generation and moisture loss.

  
 (2)
   

where, (a)



  (3)



and,

 (4)


where,  is the radius of the sample under study. The


left hand side of equation (2), 
  , represents
the double derivative of temperature within the
product w.r.t x.. This term is evaluated as rate of (b)
change of the observed radial temperature profiles (in
Fig. 5.) w.r.t. the non-dimensional
dimensional radial distance.

While the differential on right hand side of the

equation (2) i.e. 
 represents single derivative of
temperature variation at surface of the product w.r.t
time. This is calculated from skin temperature plots
(Fig. 6) for each value of time. Thus, the thermal
diffusivity for each time (j) is thus obtained as:
 |!"#, "%
  
 
(5)
| "%
!
(c)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The calculated values of thermal diffusivity are
plotted against dimensionless surface temperature of
food product for each of the sample as shown in the
Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 contains the calculated data points of thermal
diffusivity and resulting final linear regression
equations for thermal diffusivity (α) as a function of
dimensionless surface temperature 
'.

(d)
Fig. 7. Correlation for thermal diffusivity (α)
(
dependence on dimensionless surface temperature
(
(  for (a) Gourd (b) Melon (c) Orange and (d)
Potato

58
 It is a general observation for all the samples that thermal treatments based on cold air cooling methods
thermal diffusivity shows strong dependence on for storage of perishable food products.
temperature. Changes in thermal diffusivity could be
attributed to one or more of the following reasons:
NOMENCLATURE
1. Change in the phase of various constituents of the l length of sample cm
products. r position of thermocouple cm
r0 radius of sample cm
2. Freezing of waters at some locations and release of t time s
latent heat. T Temperature ˚C
x Dimensionless radial distance -
3. Changes in thermal conductivity and specific heat
at low temperature. Greek letters
α Thermal diffusivity ms-2
4. Non-uniform density variations below freezing
θ Dimensionless temperature difference
temperatures.
Subscripts
Table 3. Summary of the empirical correlations of
c center
thermal diffusivity vs. dimensionless surface
i initial
temperature of samples
j time interval count
s surface/skin
αcalculated 10-7 αregressed 10-7 ∞ cooling medium
Sample R2
(m2/s) (m2/s)

Gourd 2.9670 -2.6154 0.5 θs + 2 0.994
Melon 6.7660 - 5.2020 2.0 θs + 5 0.991
Orange 3.3400 - 2.4100 1.0 θs + 2 0.997
Potato 1.7600 - 1.7000 0.07 θs + 2 0.962
CONCLUSIONS
A simple experimental approach to estimate surface
(or skin) temperature has been developed as the same
cannot be measured by ordinary means. The method
comprises of extrapolating the radial temperature
profiles within the product upto the skin. Also,
thermal diffusivities of food products have been
obtained using One-Dimensional Fourier’s equation.
Correlations for thermal diffusivity based on surface
temperature has been proposed and exhibited
graphically. The correlation coefficient shows that
the proposed linear regression model well represents
the calculated data.
Based on this study, it is concluded that the present
method is capable of determining thermal diffusivity
variation in terms of surface temperature for regular
shaped (cylindrical and spherical) food products
during air cooling in natural convection environment
in a simple and effective form.
Such temperature profiles and thermal diffusivity
distributions can be readily used with other
information such as degradation rate etc. to evaluate
REFERENCES
Clary, B. L., Nelson, G. L., Smith, R. E. Heat transfer
from hams during freezing by low temperature air.
Transactions of the ASAE 1968, 11 (4), 496–499.
Cleland, A. C., Earle, R. L., A new method for
prediction of surface heat transfer coefficients in
freezing. Bulletins of International Institute of
Refrigeration 1976, 1, 361–368.
Daudin, J.D., Swain, M.V.L., Heat and mass transfer
in chilling and storage of meat, Journal of Food
Engineering, 1990, 12 (2), 95–115.
Dincer, I. Development of new effective Nusselt-
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Otero, L., Sanz, P.D. Modeling heat transfer in high
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134.

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