ANALYSIS OF FOOD BLOCK FREEZING USING A PC-BASED FINITE-ELEMENT PACKAGE

Variable boundary condition problems characteristic of food block free zing in plate freezers present complications in computer simulations. This paper explores the application of a commercial PC-based finite el ement package as an alternative to programming complete heat-transfer models. Results of the package gave reasonable agreement with measured data. The sensitivity of freezing-time calculation to important model parameters was also investigated. The parameters in decreasing order of influence were apparent specific heat, geometric dimension, overall heat transfer coefficient, ambient temperature, thermal conductivity, and density.