A commercial finite element solution package was used to determine pressure and velocity distributions of airflow through a three-dimensional orange carton using a porous media flow analysis. To verify the porous media analysis for this problem, an indirect method of comparison was developed. Temperature was measured for 12 different test conditions during cooling of oranges packed in an experimental orange carton. An existing heat transfer model was modified to incorporate the calculated velocity distribution and provided a predicted temperature response. The experimental and predicted temperature responses for the 12 tests were compared and this comparison was used to indirectly evaluate the flow information calculated by the porous media flow analysis. Although several areas for improvement were noted, the porous media flow analysis was found to provide adequate information if variable porosity within the orange carton was considered.

KEYWORDS: pressure, speed, air flow, fruits, food industry, food storage, testing, temperature, calculating, packing.