Explicit Finite Difference Solution of Heat Transfer Problems of Fish Packages in Precooling

Abstract

The present work aims at finding an optimized explicit finite difference scheme for the solution of problems involving pure heat transfer from the surfaces of Pangasius Sutchi fish samples suddenly exposed to a cooling environment. Regular shaped packages in the form of an infinite slab were considered and a generalized mathematical model was written in dimensionless form. An accurate sample of the data set was chosen from the experimental work and was used to seek an optimized scheme of solutions. A fully explicit finite difference scheme has been thoroughly studied from the viewpoint of stability, the required time for execution and precision. The characteristic dimension (half thickness) was divided into a number of divisions; n = 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 respectively. All the possible options of dimensionless time (the Fourier number) increments were taken one by one to give the best convergence and truncation error criteria. The simplest explicit finite difference scheme with n = (10) and stability factor (ΔX)²/Δτ = 2) was found to be reliable and accurate for prediction purposes."