Cold rooms of varying sizes are used to chill and store food. The air in these rooms is usually cooled by a heat exchanger which draws warm air with the aid of a fan which in turn circulates cool air. The air from the fan takes the form of a turbulent jet which is obstructed by the shelving containing the food leading to a complex flow and heat transfer problem in a difficult (and time varying) geometry. FRPERC came to the Study Group looking for a simple model of the resulting air flow and of the temperature distribution, which would let designers assess the impact of different room configurations in a reasonable time and which could also be used to simulate the cooling of food placed in the room.

Problem presented by
Andrew Gigiel (Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre)

Study Group contributors
J.M.Aitchison (Cranfield University)
C.J.Budd (University of Bath)
D.Fidler (Heriot-Watt University)
A.D.Fitt (University of Southampton)
N.D.Fowkes (University of Western Australia)
A.Grief (University of Oxford)
S.Khan (University of Cambridge)
D.M.Leppinen (University of Cambridge)
C.P.Please (University of Southampton)
C.Wang (Lancaster University)
A.Waugh (Heriot-Watt University)
J.F.Williams (University of Bath)