NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE FREEZING OF A POROUS HUMID FOOD INSIDE A CAVITY DUE TO NATURAL CONVECTION

The conjugate heat transfer problem of food freezing inside a cavity was numerically investigated. A vegetable sponge has been considered as a food block freezing inside a square freezing chamber due to natural convection. The need for specifying the block surface convective heat transfer coefficients was eliminated by solving the surrounding cooling fluid and, therefore, a comprehensive understanding on heat transfer and airflow during freezing can be achieved. The 2-D unsteady Navier-Stokes and energy equations were solved using a finite volume method with the semi-implicit SIMPLE algorithm. Thermophysical properties of food block components were considered to be dependent on temperature, as well as moisture and ice content, which has been rarely considered in food freezing studies. The specific heat capacity method was employed to model the freezing process. The Krischer model was adopted for predicting the thermal conductivity of the food, which indicates that the model works with reasonable accuracy for humid porous foods. The mechanism of natural convection in the cavity was carefully studied and the effects of different parameters on the freezing time were examined. The food freezing curves were investigated for various Rayleigh numbers in the range of 10(4) <= Ra <= 10(6), with different area ratios of A = 1/16, 1/9, and 1/4, and food initial water contents of X-tw = 0.48, 0.58, and 0.68. It was concluded that increasing the Rayleigh number reduces the freezing time. On the other hand, area ratio and initial water content of the food were proved to extend the freezing time.