The changes in air velocity, as a function of stacking of fruit pulp packages (100g), offering a resistance to air flow in commercial boxes were evaluated and the air flow rates estimated during blast freezing operations. Velocities were initially measured prior to passing the air through the multi-layer stacks of boxes in the chamber. Processing of the data was accomplished by applying a non-linear regression routine. Air flow rates were determined by numerical integration from adjusted air flow velocity profiles and appeared to be 10% higher than those obtained by the traditional procedure. Under constant operating conditions of the fan, the results for the 7-layer arrays of boxed products exhibited a 62% reduction in the flux of chilling air, in relation to the 3-layer arrays, and 50.9% decrease with respect to the 5-layer array. These values were directly proportional to the void space available for air flow.
frozen foods; fuit industries; fruit pulp
