Food Freezing and Thawing Calculations [Paperback]

Freezing time and freezing heat load are the two most important?factors determining the economics of food freezers. This?Brief will?review and describe the principal methods available for their?calculation. The methods can be classified into analytical methods,?which rely on making physical simplifications to be able to derive?exact solutions; empirical methods, which use regression techniques to derive simplified equations from experimental data or numerical?calculations and numerical methods, which use computational?techniques such as finite elements analysis to solve the complete set? of equations describing the physical process. The?Brief will?evaluate the methods against experimental data and develop guidelines?on the choice of method. Whatever technique is used, the accuracy of?the results depends crucially on the input parameters such as the heat transfer coefficient and the product's thermal properties.?In addition, the?estimation methods and data for these parameters will be reviewed and?their impacts on the calculations will be evaluated. Freezing is often?accompanied by mass transfer (moisture loss, solute absorption),?super cooling and nucleation and may take place under high pressure?conditions; therefore methods to take these phenomena into account?will also be reviewed.

Preface.- Nomenclature.- Introduction to the Freezing Process.- Heat Transfer Coefficient and Physical Properties.- Introduction.- Analytical Solutions.- Approximate and Empirical Methods.- Numerical Methods.- Modeling Coupled Phenomena.- Conclusions.- References.- Index.

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