Postharvest Technologies and Facilities

Name: Choong Wen Kang Iain

Short report on cooling experiment

1. Summarize the experiment (material, method, procedure)

Material: radish, potato, cooling box, cooling media, thermometer
Method/ procedure:
(a) Cut sample round like a ball.
(b) Measure diameter of sample.
(c) Make hole to the center of sample by drill.
(d) Insert thermocouple with grew.
(e) Remain untouched to be uniform temperature of sample.
(f) Calculate dimensionless temperature of measured data Y with the following
equation.
𝑇−𝑇𝑜
Y=𝑇𝑠−𝑇𝑜

(g) Calculate dimensionless temperature of theoretical model y with the sphere model
equation by using VBA.
(h) Determine the value of thermal diffusivity by fitting y to Y changing the value of a
gradually.
(i) Compare the differences in the thermal diffusivity among samples.
2. Find the thermal diffusivity of samples for each material.

1.200

1.000 A (meas)
Dimensionless temperature

A (cal)
0.800

0.600

0.400

0.200

0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time (min)

Condition A

1.200
Dimensionless temperature

1.000 A (meas)
A (cal)
0.800

0.600

0.400

0.200

0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time (min)

Condition B
Dimensionless temperature 1.200

1.000 A (meas)
A (cal)
0.800

0.600

0.400

0.200

0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time (min)

Condition C

1.200
Dimensionless temperature

1.000 A (meas)
A (cal)
0.800

0.600

0.400

0.200

0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time (min)

Condition D
3. Discuss the differences in thermal diffusivity among samples.
Based on the experiment, when the diameter of the material increases, the thermal
diffusivity also increases. Therefore, potato with 45.8 mm has good thermal diffusivity.