Heat Transfer Related to the Discontinuous Cooling Tunnel
The notion heat transfer includes all phenomena which contains a spatially transport of heat. Heat transfer ensues always due to a temperature gradient from the higher to the lower temperature following the principle of the second law of thermodynamics. Three types of heat transfer can be distinguished: convection, heat conduction and heat radiation. In the cooling tunnel are the effects of the heat conduction and convection of relevance.
The heat transfer in the tunnel ensues between the cooled flowing air and the yogurt pots by the principal of forced convection. The air is forced to its movement because of the commitment of the high performance fans. By the convection occurs next to the molecular heat conduction also energy transfer through to energy transport in form of enthalpy and the kinetic of the fluid.
(Here would usual come an equation, but im not allowed to put it in)
The heat transfer coefficient is not a material constant, it depends on geometrical circumstances, the flow velocity, the type of flow and the property values of the surrounding fluid. The covered equation is a possibility to calculate only the local heat transfer coefficient. The calculation is in the most cases only approximately possible and shall be in cause of the complicated geometrics, the various air temperatures in the pallet and of the unknown speed of the air not closer examined. It may be assumed, that the type of flow is of turbulence nature due to the many different ways trough the pots and trays inside a pallet.
It should be also the unsteady heat conduction in a particular yogurt pot be short observed. The yogurt pots can be seen as solids, it occurs no movement anymore to the filled yogurts. By contribution of the around 21°C warm yogurts in the tunnel with 0°C air temperature alters the temperature of the yogurt in a pot as well temporally as locally. The air leads the air away from the surface of the yogurt pots in relation to its heat transfer coefficient and the temperature difference between the pots and the air. The surface cools down and it develops a temperature gradient and subsequently a heat flow within the yogurt. Consequently decreases the temperature from the middle to the outside of a pot and would declines with passing time until the middle temperature achieves the surrounding temperature of the cooled air.