Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

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Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size,
air direction, and air velocity
A.M. Elansari a,⇑, Yehia S. Mostafa b
a
Department of Agriculture and Bio-systems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Elshatby, Egypt
b
Department of Pomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Orange is an important commercial crop, which is being exported from Egypt. Citrus packhouses in Egypt
Received 26 March 2018 receive, ship excessive quantity to overseas during glut. Since most of the facilities have limited refriger-
Revised 9 June 2018 ation capacity to deal with this situation, one approach is to apply pre-cooling on the citrus plastic bin.
Accepted 26 June 2018
These bins have more vented area and therefore represent less air resistance to refrigerated air requiring
Available online xxxx
shorter time cycles. Hence, the objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of the cooling
rate of the Navel orange as a function of fruit size, air direction (vertical forced and vertical induced) and
Keywords:
air velocity, on weight loss and electrolyte leakage. A cold store with an air temperature of 4 °C was used
Orange
Pre-cooling
to host the supplementary experimental set-up and provide the supply air temperature. The fruit temper-
Air velocity ature for different treatments was monitored and recorded at equal time intervals (1 min). The seven-
Forced air eighths cooling times ranged from 217 to 76 min. The forced-air pre-cooling with the highest air velocity
Postharvest of 1 m s
1 resulted in the shortest significant cooling time in all fruit sizes. The forced air cooling at the
three rates did not significantly affect either the fruit weight loss percentage or the electrolyte leakage of
the three fruit sizes of navel orange after 2 weeks at 5 ± 1 °C + 1 week at room temperature. The indices
presented in the present work could be used to estimate cooling time for another pre-cooling process for
batch types of citrus under similar circumstances.
Ó 2018 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Pre-cooling is defined as the removal of field heat from freshly
harvested produce in order to slow down metabolism and reduce
deterioration prior to transport or storage (Brosnan and Sun,
2001, Elansari, 2009). Pre-cooling additionally limits pathogen
growth, reduces water loss and increases shelf-life. The importance
of pre-cooling is essential, especially at the peak of the season
where there is a need to normalize and stabilize fruit picking and
packaging as well as overseas shipping. Pre-cooling is an important
step of the cold chain, which is a shortened term encompassing all
temperature management programs and other steps and processes
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: atef.elansari@alxu.edu.eg (A.M. Elansari).
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
that perishable must pass through to ensure they reach the end-
consumer in a safe, wholesome and high-quality state.
The time required to cool fresh produce is an important factor
for the designing of various elements of the system to be feasible
and cost-effective (Rao, 2015). In the literature, there are various
methods for predicting cooling times based on the numerical, ana-
lytical, and empirical analysis. The parameters of the pre-cooling
process that lead to an accurate prediction of the cooling time from
the experimental data are very well established (Tan et al., 2012;
Elansari and Siddiqui, 2016). Using the experimental data approach
for pre-cooling could be a simplified and powerful tool in predict-
ing cooling rates and cooling pattern.
During the forced air cooling process, the cooling cycle depends
on several factors such as size, shape, and thermal properties of the
fruit, supplied air temperature, and air velocity. Therefore, and for
the latter, it is well recognized that different air velocities affect the
produce temperature distribution during forced-convection cool-
ing of individual fruits. It was found that increase in airflow veloc-
ity increases the cooling rate and heat transfer fluxes across the
apple surface, which means decreasing the cooling time (Han
et al., 2017). The results indicated that a reasonable increase in
cooling rate is obtained by an increase in airflow velocity to 2.5

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
1658-077X/Ó 2018 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
2 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

m s
1; where any further increase in airflow velocity simply is con-

sidered a mismanagement of energy due to the lower increase of
cooling rate and heat transfer fluxes across the apple surface.
Nalbandi et al. (2016) confirmed the same trend in strawberries.
The effect of air velocity on the temperature profile of food product
was observed where the optimum choice of cold air velocity can
minimize the cooling time of certain food products significantly
(Albayati et al., 2007; Barbin and Junior, 2011). O’Sullivan (2016),
reported that forced air cooling within the produce pallet is influ-
enced by both air temperature and airflow distribution into each
package.
Oranges are subtropical fruits and susceptible to chilling injury
during cold storage (Kader and Arpaia, 1992). Orange is one of the
most important exported commercial crops from Egypt, which
likely to remain world’s Orange largest exporter (Gain, 2015). In
2015, the total exported volume exported out of Egypt was 1109
Fig. 2. An example for the 7/8 cooling time in 9 h.
thousand tons out of the total production that was 3136
(FAOState, 2015) worth of $ 492.7 million and represent 11.1% of
worldwide shipments (Hamza, 2015). With newly distant markets behavior can be obtained by plotting the ratio of the unaccom-
such as China and the Far East, pre-cooling becomes a standard plished temperature difference against time, on semilogarithmic
procedure required by these markets. In Egypt, excessive quantity axes. The fractional unaccomplished temperature difference ‘‘Eq.
of orange is received and exported from the citrus packhouses and (1)”, Y, is expressed as follows:
this is the main problem in the citrus industry. Since most of the
facilities have limited refrigeration capacity to deal with this situ- Tm
T T
Tm
Y¼ ¼ ð1Þ
ation, one approach is to apply pre-cooling on the citrus plastic bin, Tm
Ti Ti
Tm
which, has the more vented area (about 51% from the bottom) and
where
therefore represents less air resistance to refrigerated air where
naked fruits in bulk arrangement are subjected to such process.
T: temperature at a given time, °C.
Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the effect of
Ti: initial temperature, °C.
the cooling rate of the Navel orange as a function of fruit size, air
Tm: cooling medium temperature, °C.
direction (vertical forced and vertical induced) and air velocity
on weight loss and electrolyte leakage.
The rate of change in temperature of the fruit per unit change in
the temperature difference between the product and the medium
2. Mathematical analysis is called the cooling coefficient, which is minus the slope of the lin-
ear portion of the cooling curve, and it is as indicated in (Eqs. (2)
All pre-cooling processes display analogous performance. Fol- and (3)). It is used as a uniform basis to compare the set of pre-
lowing an initial ‘lag’ period, the temperature at the thermal center cooling methods tried.
of the produce item decreases exponentially (Fricke and Becker,
C ¼ ðlnYÞ=h ð2Þ
2004). Typical pre-cooling curve (Fig. 1) that illustrates this
where

C: cooling coefficient, (min
1).

h: time elapsed during cooling, min.

The initial ‘lag’ between the onset of cooling and the exponen-
tial decrease in the temperature of the produce item is known as
the j factor, and it is as shown in Fig. 1. The linear portion of the
cooling curve as illustrated in Fig. 1 can be expressed as follows:

Y ¼ J expð
ChÞ ð3Þ
The seventh-eights cooling time as shown in Fig. 2 is the time
required to reduce the differences between the initial and the cool-
ing medium temperature by the seven-eighths.

3. Martials and methods

3.1. Plant material

Fig. 1. Typical Pre-cooling curve.
The forced air cooling tests were conducted using freshly har-
vested Washington Navel orange fruits at the ripe stage obtained
from commercial citrus packinghouse at El-Beheira governorate.
The fruits were prepared for the fresh fruit market; washed, sani-
tized with Ortho-phenylphenol (OPP) and waxed with water wax
emulsion (WATERWAXÒ UE) Fomesa Fruitech Co. Spain. Fruit batch
(10–12 kg) was packed in plastic boxes. Three sizes of orange were

Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
selected where the sizes represent the most common classes used
for sorting and grading orange in the commercial packhouse and
they were: large size (110–90 mm), medium size (85–70 mm),
and the small size (60–50 mm).
One hundred and twenty-five kg of orange fruits from each size
was used and divided into three groups, 40 kg per group. Each
group was used for one treatment (air velocity rate at the two air
directions (forced or induced)) with three replicates (6–7 kg per
replicate).
3.2. Forced air apparatus
The experiments were carried out at Alex. Post-Harvest Center,
Pomology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria Univer-
sity. A cold store (2.5  2.5  2.7 m) with an air temperature of
4 °C was used to host the supplementary experimental (Fig. 3)
set-up and provide the supply air temperature required where it
was located under the evaporator. The dimensions of the test
chamber that contained the fruits were 60  51  70 cm. A plenum
or modulated chamber was left in both, the top and the bottom of
the test chamber in order to grantee a homogenous distribution of
the either forced or induced air. The vented area on both bottom
and top of the test chamber was about 50% to match and simulate
the plastic bin used to handle the citrus in the cold store. The cold
store was equipped with a humidifier in order to keep the relative
humidity constant at 85–90% to avoid weight loss. First, the initial
temperature of the cold store was tuned up via a thermocouple
suspended in the center of the cold store until it was stabilized
while the airflow was adjusted by the control valve until obtaining
the required airflow rate. The forced-air cooling experiment was
initiated by switching over the fan. The fan created an under pres-
sure, which sucked air from the cold store through the test cham-
ber after which the air was blown back into the cold store.
The weight for each batch from different sizes was about (6–7
kg). The thermostat was sealed with wax on the surface of the pro-
duce where the core temperatures for three fruit were recorded in
1-min intervals during the forced air cooling process in each batch
for each size. Temperatures measured for a total of nine fruits of
the same size were averaged. The pre-cooling process lasted until
the temperature of the produce decreased to approximately
12.5% of the difference between the initial temperature of the dates
and the temperature of the supplied air within the cold store which
corresponds to the seven-eighth cooling time. The initial tempera-
tures of the fruits ranged from 18.5 to 21 °C, while the final core
Fig. 3. The trial chamber placed inside the cold store and the position in the fruits
where temperature was measured.
Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
3
desired temperature was approximately in the range of 5–6 °C.
After the center temperature of fruit reached a steady state, the
lot was withdrawn from the chamber and cold stored at 5 ± 1 °C
and 85–90% RH for two weeks as shipping time, followed by a
week at room temperature as shelf life.
Five orange fruits per replicate (15 per treatment) were labeled
and the initial weight was recorded and reweighted directly after
the pre-cooling and at the end of the experiment (2 weeks at 5 ±
1 °C and 85–90% RH + one week at room temperature). The average
percent weight loss was calculated for each treatment, according to
the following equation:
weight loss ð%Þ ¼ ½ðw0
w1 Þ=w0   100
where w0 is the initial weight and w1 is the weight measured at
sampling date.
Samples of five fruits per replicate from each treatment were
taken to follow up the changes of the fruit peel electrolyte leakage
at the initial (0 time), after the pre-cooling and at the end of the
experiment (2 weeks at 5 ± 1 °C and 85–90% RH + one week at
room temperature). Three disks (26 mm in diameter) of orange
fruit peel (flavedo + albedo) were taken from each fruit, and three
replications were made for each treatment. The taken disks were
immediately washed three times in deionized water for 1 min then
blotted dry with paper towels, put into 50 mL tubes with 25 mL of
mannitol solution (0.2 mol L
1) and gently shaken for 1 h. After
shaking, the initial conductivity of the solution (mS cm
1) was
measured with a digital conductivity meter (Accumet AR20, Fisher
Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) and the tubes were frozen at
20 °C.
For total conductivity, the frozen samples were held at room tem-
perature for 24 h, shaken for 1 h, and conductivity measured. Elec-
trolyte leakage of the samples was calculated as the ratio between
initial conductivity and total conductivity according to (Buccheri
and Cantwell, 2014).
3.3. Instrumentation
The platform scale method (Mohsenin, 1986) was utilized to
measure the volumes of the fruit. A digital electronic vernier cali-
per (Absolute digital, model CD-15CW, Mitutoyo Corporation,
Japan) was used to measure the outside fruit dimensions, length
(L) and diameter (D). The mass (M) was measured with an elec-
tronic scale (Mettler-Toledo, model AB204, Mettler-Toledo,
Switzerland, 0.1 g accuracy).
A (0.6) kW centrifugal fan was attached to the pre-cooling mod-
ule where the total airflow rate of the fan is 900 m3 h
1 at 100 Pa
head pressure. The desired air velocity was obtained by varying
in the module inlet using a gate valve. A hot wire anemometer
was used to measure the speed of air as well as the pressure drop
(CEM, DT-8893, China). Three Air velocity values that are common
in the industry were applied: 0.2, 0.5 and 1 m s
1 (Teruel, 2000;
Ladaniya, 2008; Defraeye et al., 2014).
The core temperatures for orange fruits were monitored using
data loggers (ML 2e data logger, Delta-T Devices Ltd, UK). The log-
ger is equipped with thermistor probes (RS pro T Type, UK). Each
insulated thermostat was inserted longitudinally into the product
flesh using a hypodermic needle. The standard mercury filled ther-
mometer was used to calibrate, ±0.1 °C for the measurement
accuracy.
3.4. Statistical analysis
The experimental design was a split-split plot with three repli-
cations in a randomized complete block design where the main
plots were occupied by fruit size with 3 levels. The sub-plots were
allocated to air direction with two levels. The sub-sub plots were
assigned to air velocity with 3 levels. F-test and analysis of variance
4 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

of treatments difference were performed according to Steel and

Torrie (1980). Statistical analysis was done by, SAS software pack-
age (version 9.13 2007).

4. Results

Figs. 4–9, demonstrate the relationships between time and the

average temperature of the fruit in three sizes at the three air
velocity for both directions of the cold air, forced and induced.
The values of cooling coefficients, lag factor, and the seven-
eighth cooling time calculated are given in Table 1 along with Fig. 7. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the fastest
induced air velocity.
the respective regression coefficients.
The temperature ratio versus time relationships plotted in a
semi-log format is carried out for each run as presented previously
in Fig. 1. Linear regression was used to determine the line of a best-
fit line through each set of measured temperatures (Elansari,
2008), where the slope of the regression line is the cooling coeffi-
cient (C). The seven-eighth cooling times (for each run) was deter-
mined by taking the time from the semi-log plots at which the
temperature ratio was equal to 7/8. As shown in Table 1, the aver-
age seven eighth cooling time (time for the pre-cooling process)
under different conditions ranged from 217 to 76 min. Fruits with
small size and higher forced airflow rate, cooled faster due to their
relatively low heat content and the minimum resistance to airflow
Fig. 8. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the medium
induced air velocity.

Fig. 4. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the fastest

forced air velocity.

Fig. 9. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the slowest

induced air velocity.

rate. In other words, the time period would be longer depending on

Fig. 5. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the medium
forced air velocity.
Fig. 6. Time–temperature response of different sizes of citrus during the slowest
forced air velocity.
the size, air velocity, and direction in addition to the final temper-
ature intended for the product. For the forced direction, the cooling
rate for the small size was double compared to the large size fruit
for all air velocities tested while in the induced air, this effect was
significant. In each test trial following the initiation of the pre-
cooling process, the temperature ratio versus time curves
approached a straight line and cooling was rightly logarithmic. Ini-
tially, the temperature dropped quite rapidly, latter the rate slo-
wed as the citrus temperature declined. It was correspondingly
evident from the temperature measurements at the core of the
fruit that the time lag projected before the temperature at this
point began to decrease to a minimum for all tested sizes, airflow
rate and air direction (whether it was forced or induced). Eq. (3)
represents the straight-line asymptote to the true cooling curve.
The lag factors for all the experiments are listed in Table 1 and it
ranged from 1.196 to 1.3. The estimated values as shown in Table 2,
furthermore incorporated the cooling coefficient, C, which deter-
mines the cooling rate and therefore the period of time or the cool-
ing cycle required for lowering the product temperature to the
desired value. The cooling coefficient has a unit of inverse time
and a steeper slope indicates a faster rate of cooling. The cooling

Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 5

Table 1
The obtained values of pre-cooling parameters for different fruit size, different air velocity and direction.

Fruit size Air direction Air velocity m s
1 Cooling coefficient, C (min
1) Lag factor (J) 7/8 cooling time, h7=8 (min)* R2

Large Forced 1 0.030 1.268 140 i 0.99

0.5 0.031 1.390 181 c 0.95
0.2 0.022 1.361 216.33 a 0.99
Induced 1 0.024 1.284 173 de 0.99
0.5 0.022 1.251 200.33 b 0.99
0.2 0.019 1.234 217.33 a 0.99
Medium Forced 1 0.023 1.369 108.33 k 0.99
0.5 0.022 1.392 139 i 0.96
0.2 0.013 1.181 171.33 ef 0.99
Induced 1 0.018 1.314 153.33 g 0.99
0.5 0.015 1.196 175.33 d 0.99
0.2 0.011 1.106 202 b 0.99
Small Forced 1 0.017 1.268 76.33 m 0.99
0.5 0.015 1.247 87 l 0.99
0.2 0.009 1.113 124 j 0.99
Induced 1 0.013 1.201 122 j 0.99
0.5 0.012 1.231 146.33 h 0.99
0.2 0.011 1.176 169 f 0.98
L.S.D. at 0.05 2.878
*
Means followed by the same letters are not significant, but different letters are significant at 0.05 level of probability according to L.S.D. method.

Table 2
Effects of fruit size, air direction and air velocity on weight loss (%) after pre-cooling
and 2 weeks @ 5 ± 1 °C and 85–90% RH and 1 week at room temperature for bulk
backed navel orange fruits.

Fruit size Air Air velocity After Pre-cooling* After 2 w @

direction m s
1 5 ± 1 °C + 1 w @ RT
Large Forced 1 0.126 bc 6.05
0.5 0.05 e 5.58
0.2 0.116 bc 5.98
Induced 1 0.173 ab 6.20
0.5 0.143 b 5.61
0.2 0.153 ab 5.65
Medium Forced 1 0.120 bc 5.67
0.5 0.053 e 5.18
0.2 0.100 c 5.40 Fig. 10. Effect of forced air velocity on the 7/8 cooling time for different size fruit.
Induced 1 0.173 ab 5.71
0.5 0.156 ab 5.61
0.2 0.186 a 5.71
Small Forced 1 0.096 cd 5.56
0.5 0.063 de 5.01
0.2 0.080 cde 5.24
Induced 1 0.173 ab 5.55
0.5 0.116 bc 5.37
0.2 0.163 ab 5.57
L.S.D. at 0.05 0.033 NS
*
Means followed by the same latters are not significant, but different letters are
significant at 0.05 level of probability according to L.S.D. method.

coefficient, C, ranged from 0.009 to 0.031 s
1 depending on size,
airflow rate and direction.
Variation of the seven-eighth cooling time at various airflow
rates, induced and forced, for different fruit sizes are shown in
Figs. 10 and 11 and Table 1. The cooling rate of the small fruits
was the highest at the forced air velocity of 1 m s
1 and it was
the least for the large size fruit at the induced air velocity of 0.2
m s
1. As the forced air velocity increased from 0.2 to 1 m s
1,
the cooling time was reduced by an average of 37% for the three
sizes. As the induced air velocity increased from 0.2 to 1 m s
1,
the effect of air velocity on cooling time was less significant, where
it reduced to an average of 26% for the three sizes. The same result
was reported by other researchers (Guemes et al., 1989; Ferrua and
Singh., 2011; Nalbandi et al., 2016). Likewise (Albayati et al., 2007;
Tutar et al., 2009) reported the same trends for the cooling time of
Fig. 11. Effect of induced air velocity on the 7/8 cooling time for different size fruit.
oranges, tomatoes and spherical products under different airflow
rates. For all the treatments, the pressure drop across the pallets
was between 53 and 60 Pa.
The fruit weight-loss percentage after pre-cooling was signifi-
cantly affected by the air direction and air velocity rates (Table 2).
The weight loss (%) was significantly lower with forced air pre-
cooling of large and medium having an air velocity of 0.5 m s
1
compared with those of 1 and 0.2 m s
1. The induced air increased
the weight loss after the pre-cooling with all fruit sizes and air
velocity rates as compared with those of forced pre-cooled fruits.
However, the differences of weight loss at the end of the experi-
ment (after 2 weeks at 5 ± 1 °C and 1 week at room temperature)
among treatments were not significant.

Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
6 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

Table 3 The results indicated that the cooling rates for smaller sized
Effects of fruit size, air direction and air velocity on electrolyte leakage (%) after pre- fruit and at a higher air velocity with vertical forced air were signif-
cooling and 2 weeks @ 5 °C and 1 week at room temperature for bulk backed navel
orange fruits.
icantly faster than the cooling rates for the largest size and the
lower air velocity with vertical induced air. The temperature
Fruit size Air direction Air velocity After Pre-cooling* After 2 w @ arrived at an endpoint for pre-cooling as 5 °C is the most widely
m s
1 5 °C + 1 w @ RT
recommended range of temperature for low-temperature storage
Large Forced 1 0.520 ab 0.573ab of citrus (Kader, 2002). As cooling starts, the initial temperature
0.5 0.486 bcd 0.560abc
0.2 0.483 bcd 0.556abc
drop was rapid, although during subsequent cooling times or seven
Induced 1 0.466 bcd 0.583a -cooling periods, this rate slowed down as shown in all treatments.
0.5 0.470 bcd 0.556abc The obtained results agreed well with Teruel et al., (2000) who
0.2 0.480 bcd 0.556abc showed that the seven-eighth cooling time was a mean between
Medium Forced 1 0.550 a 0.560abc 107 and 170 min, depending on the position of the fruit in the
0.5 0.480 bcd 0.550abc package.
0.2 0.503 ab 0.543bc
The pressure drop across the pallets was between 53 and 60 Pa
Induced 1 0.446 cd 0.573ab
0.5 0.443 cd 0.550abc for both, the forced and induced air direction and for different
0.2 0.433 d 0.560abc sizes. Therefore, the pressure drop across the test chamber could
Small Forced 1 0.546 a 0.566abc be considered negligible. The modulated chamber assured well-
0.5 0.466 bcd 0.536c distributed airflow rate in both cases, forced and induced.
0.2 0.496 abc 0.546bc Pathare et al. (2012) indicated that there is a large influence on
Induced 1 0.473 bcd 0.550abc pressure loss during forced-air cooling when the total surface
0.5 0.440 d 0.556abc
0.2 0.446 cd 0.553abc
openings in the wall of a plastic container are less than 25%.
Haas et al. (1976) found a similar conclusion opinion that the pro-
L.S.D. at 0.05 0.054 0.0334
duce becomes the greatest contributor to pressure drop when the
*
Means followed by the same latters are not significant, but different letters are surface area of the openings covers 27% of the container walls.
significant at 0.05 level of probability according to L.S.D. method. Therefore, larger holes produced higher air velocity, cooling rate
and air velocity uniformity and smaller air pressure drop. The
results showed heterogeneity of cooling, which could be explained
Generally, the electrolyte leakage increased with the posthar-
due to the minimum pressure drop since the total opening area of
vest storage (Table 3). The forced air pre-cooling at air velocity
less than 25% of the container surface restricts airflow considerably
rates of 1 and 0.2 m s
1 in both medium and small fruits and at
(Vigneault and Goyette, 2003).
1 m s
1 with large fruits increased the electrolyte leakage of fruit
This improvement in cooling performance was explained by the
peel after pre-cooling as compared with at 0.5 m s
1 and all veloc-
increase in the total vented area (around 50%) and by increasing
ity rates in induced air direction. No significant differences in elec-
the air velocity. The combination of high air velocity, fruit size,
trolyte leakage were occurring among all velocity rates in induced
and air direction was revealed as most advantageous for increasing
Pre-cooling. However, the pre-cooling with induced air at 1 m s
1
the cooling rate. Ferrua and Singh (2011) reported that the mean
of large fruits recorded the highest electrolyte leakage at the end
air velocity and pressure drop decreased as more holes were added
of the experiment (after 2 weeks at 5 ± 1 °C and 1 week at room
to the package. Study by De Castro et al. (2005) showed that total
temperature), but the differences were significant only with forced
opening area of 14% generated a maximum cooling efficiency, with
pre-cooling at 0.2 m s
1 of medium fruit, and 0.5 and 0.2 m s
1 of
beneficial effects on product cooling rate and uniformity and
small fruit.
energy costs.
The forced air cooling at the three rates did not significantly
5. Discussion affect the fruit weight loss percentage and electrolyte leakage in
the fruits in all the three sizes of navel orange after 2 weeks at 5
As shown, increasing the air velocity lowered the seven-eighth ± 1 °C + 1 week at room temperature.
cooling time for both induced and forced airflow rate irrespective The indices presented in the present work are very useful in
of the fruit size. However, the cooling rate was slower for the relating cooling time, fruit size, air velocity and direction, and
induced direction compared to the forced one. By other words, could be used to estimate cooling time for another pre-cooling pro-
higher forced air velocity led to a lower pre-cooling time. There- cess for batch types of citrus under similar circumstances.
fore, using a higher air velocity may not be economical for the
induced air compared with the forced air.
The variation between the lowest and the highest cooling rate 6. Conclusion
(or the seventh-eighths cooling time) was narrow for the induced
direction where it ranged from 0.7 to 0.83%, while it was larger The fast cooling of fruits is generally ignored by many Egyptian
for the forced direction and ranged from 0.48 to 0.73%. The same citrus packhouses. However, it is a serious concern for different
trend was reported by Vigneault et al. (2005) where the forced markets in the light of improved fruit quality. To overcome the lim-
air to flow from bottom to top hastening its velocity distribution ited refrigeration facility specially during glut, present approach
compared to the cold air entered through the top openings could be applied for pre-cooling citrus fruits using plastic bins hav-
(induced). The inlet cold air was heated up as it crosses the warmer ing the more vented area and representing less air resistance to
citrus layers. This temperature rise drove less dense air to the refrigerated air. It can be concluded that the forced-air pre-
upper zones of the citrus chamber. Since the outlet openings were cooling with the highest air velocity of 1 m s
1 resulted in the
located on the top, forced and natural convection worked in the shortest significant cooling time in all fruit sizes. The average seven
same direction. They forced the air to flow from bottom to top eighth cooling times (time for the pre-cooling process under differ-
accelerating its velocity distribution. Therefore, it can be concluded ent conditions ranged from 217 to 76 min. The current study was
that both the correct orientation of the air velocity through and intended to quantify the time it takes for citrus to cool to target
around the product in addition to the position of a venting area temperatures over a specified temperature and vertical air velocity
can significantly reduce pre-cooling cycle (Cortbaoui et al., 2006). of cold air for a batch type arrangement. The detrimental effects of

Please cite this article in press as: Elansari, A.M., Mostafa, Y.S. Vertical forced air pre-cooling of orange fruits on bin: Effect of fruit size, air direction, and air
velocity. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.06.006
 A.M. Elansari, Y.S. Mostafa / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
forced and induced air cooling on the weight loss and chilling
injury during pre-cooling and cold shipping of Egyptian citrus
needs further investigation in order to cover more range of air
velocity and different medium temperature along with packaging
solution that fit this kind of vertical airflow rate. The information
obtained through the current work could additionally assist in
designing forced air systems for citrus and establish the technical
specification of the pre-cooling process parameters as well as the
corresponding refrigeration loads.
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