Study on the Storage Humidity in Controlled Atmosphere Storage of Apple

Abstract:

A three dimensional physical and mathematical model of flow，heat and mass transfer in atmosphere-controlled storage rooms inside the Apple Controlled Atmosphere （CA） Storage Technology Research Center No.1 was established in this paper using k-ε turbulence model. The effect of air cooler's supply air velocity，supply air temperature and humidifying device on the storage humidity was investigated. There was a significant impact of supply air temperature on the relative humidity （RH） of CA storage room，which notably increased with the decrease of supply air temperature. The humidity gradient decreased while the RH of cargo area increased if the supply air velocity increased. A higher humidity gradient was observed in the gas zone compared with that of the cargo area without any humidifying device. The RH of the gas zone was mostly around 85%~90% which was not suitable for Apple CA storage. It was suggested that the supply air temperature should be adjusted to 273 K and the supply air velocity was 5 m/s for apple CA storage. The humidifying device could improve the RH in storage room and reduced the weight loss.