CFD Modeling for Heat and Mass Transfer on Potato in Cold Store

Higher energy consumption and storage loss beyond permissible limit are the two most important problems in Indian potato cold stores, which have been hindering with the further growth of this industry. The problems of energy consumption and storage losses are interrelated in nature and have direct relation with the intricacy of the coupled transport phenomena of heat, mass and momentum transfer in bulk-stored potatoes. The heat and mass transfer processes within the bags of potato in a stack depend on product properties, and operating as well as geometric parameters of the cold store. All these parameters influence the mechanism of heat and mass transfer in the storage facility, which ultimately affect the temperature of the packed product and humidity around the product.Therefore, an in-depth analysis of the relative importance of these parameters on the mechanism of transport phenomena within the bulk-stored potatoes in a cold store helps to overcome the problems of higher energy consumption and storage losses beyond permissible limit.