Characterization of heat transfer in nutrient materials with forced convection utilizing convection oven design

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1976

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Abstract

A heat characterization study for nutrient materials being processed in the convective oven of a space shuttle food system is presented. The study is limited to the case of foodstuffs stored in the cylindrical cans and thermostabilized to the ambient temperature of a space shuttle. A thermal model is developed to evaluate various methods of solution for the assumed configuration of the food heating process. It is observed that an explicit finite-difference solution is the most appropriate one due to (1) simplified computation, (2) ease of programming for a digital computer system, and (3) applications for parametric studies. A computer program is developed and its validity established by testing with known exact solutions. A parametric evaluation process is aimed at determining the effect of various parameters on the assumed "base" configuration. The analysis is used to determine "recommended” conditions for the food heating process. These conditions are derived by obtaining a balance between (1) the heating period and (2) the hot-spot and the cold-spot temperature differential in the food mass. Several temperature response charts are presented that establish the design guidelines. These charts provide a very practical tool to understand the effects of parameters like temperature of the heating medium, convection heat transfer coefficients at the boundaries of the can, thermal diffusivity of the substance, and aspect ratio of the food can on the heat transfer process.

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