Improvement of ventilation homogeneity in an industrial batch-type carcass chiller by CFD investigation

This paper discusses the application of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach, first to predict air velocities in an industrial batch-type carcass chiller, and second to designing low-cost technical solutions to improve ventilation homogeneity around the carcasses. Comparisons between calculations and measurements revealed close agreement in the qualitative prediction and some inaccuracies in the quantitative prediction of airflow velocities in both the current and the modified chiller configurations. Adding deflectors at the air-conditioning blower outlet and a plastic wall behind the last row led to a marked improvement in ventilation homogeneity within the plant by both reducing the standard deviation of airflow velocities onto each row and improving airflow velocity onto the last row. Compared with the experiments, CFD is therefore a low-cost option well suited to testing new technical solutions designed for improving the operation of food plants. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.