New correlations for heat transfer coefficients during direct cooling of products

An analytical method for determining the heat transfer coefficients of food products being cooled in water and in air flows is presented. Food products are idealized as geometrical solid objects of regular shapes. New correlations between heat transfer coefficients and cooling coefficients are developed in simple forms for practical use in the refrigeration industry. These correlations are then used to determine the heat transfer coefficient for a cylindrical carrot cooled in air flow as an illustrative example. In addition, evaluating the heat transfer coefficients for several products using the available experimental cooling coefficient values from the literature, two new correlations between the heat transfer coefficient and the cooling coefficient are also obtained for water and air cooling applications. The results show that the correlations presented in this article can determine the heat transfer coefficients of food products forced-convection cooling in a simple and accurate manner.