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ICHMT DIGITAL LIBRARY ONLINE

ISSN 961-91393-0-5

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Year 2004

• 3Thermal Sciences 2004
Proceedings of The ASME - ZSIS International Thermal Science Seminar II, Bled, Slovenia, June 13-16, 2004

1032 pages

Volume price - $246.00

Theoretical Prediction of the Thermal Conductivity of Frozen Foods

Fabio Gori
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy

S. Corasaniti
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy

Vlodek R. Tarnawski
Division of Engineering, Saint Mary's University, 923 Robie St, Halifax, Canada B3H 3C

ABSTRACT

Frozen food is theoretically modelled as a porous medium, consisting of an arrangement of cubic fibers surrounded by ice and unfrozen water. The original model, developed for frozen soils, has been improved for the prediction of the thermal conductivity of frozen foods as a function of water content, porosity and temperature.
The theoretical prediction of the thermal conductivity is carried out with the solution of the heat conduction equation under the assumption of a prescribed temperature or heat flux distribution. Two thermal conductivity values are then obtained, based on two thermal assumptions, i.e. parallel isotherms or parallel heat flux lines, in order to confine the real solution within the two extremes.
The amount of unfrozen water, present in the frozen food, has been taken from the experimental data, using an empirical relation dependent on the temperature.
The final comparison has been carried out between the theoretical solutions and the experimental data available in the literature, in the temperature range from 0° C to −40° C. The theoretical results show a fair agreement with the experimental data.