Dr. N. Mukhopadhyay Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 1, ( Part -6) January 2015, pp.13-17 www.ijera.com 13 | Page Theoretical Convective Heat Transfer Model Developement of Cold Storage Using Taguchi Analysis. Dr.N.Mukhopadhyay 1 , Suman Debnath 2 , 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College 2 Post Graduate Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering,Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, India. Abstract Energy crisis is one of the most important problems the world is facing now-a-days. With the increase of cost of electrical energy operating cost of cold storage storing is increasing which forces the increased cost price of the commodities that are kept. In this situation if the maximum heat energy(Q) is absorbed by the evaporator inside the cold room through convective heat transfer process in terms of –heat transfer due to convection and heat transfer due to condensation, more energy has to be wasted to maintain the evaporator space at the desired temperature range of 2- 8 degree centigrade. In this paper we have proposed a theoretical heat transfermodel of convective heat transfer incold storage using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. Velocity of air(V), Temperature difference(dT), RelativeHumidity(RH)are the basic variable and three ranges are taken each of them in the model development. Graphical interpretations from the model justifies the reality Keywords: cold storage, convective heat transfer model, heat absorbed by evaporator, Taguchi Analysis. I. Introduction Demand for cold storages have been increasing rapidly over the past couple of decades so that food commodities can be uniformly supplied all through the year and food items are prevented from perishing. India is having a unique geographical position and a wide range of soil thus producing variety of fruits and vegetables like apples, grapes, oranges, potatoes, chilies, ginger, etc. Marine products are also being produced in large quantities due to large coastal areas. The cold storage facilities are the prime infrastructural component for such perishable commodities. Besides the role of stabilizing market prices and evenly distributing both on demand basis and time basis, the cold storage industry provide other advantages and benefits to both the farmers and the consumers. The farmers get the opportunity to get a good return of their hard work. On the consumer sides they get the perishable commodities with lower fluctuation of price. Very little theoretical and experimental studies are being reported in the journal on the performance enhancement of cold storage. Energy crisis is one of the most important problems the world is facing nowadays. With the increase of cost of electrical energy operating cost of cold storage storing is increasing which forces the increased cost price of the commodities that are kept. So it is very important to make cold storage energy efficient or in the other words reduce its energy consumption. Thus the storage cost will eventually comes down. In case of conduction we have to minimize the leakage of heat through wall but in convection maximum heat should be absorbed by refrigerant to create cooling uniformity thought out the evaporator space.If the desirable heat is not absorbed by tube or pipe refrigerant then temp of the refrigerated space will be increased, which not only hamper the quality of the product which has been stored there but reduces the overall performance of the plant. That’s why a mathematical modeling is absolutely necessary to predict the performance. In this paper we have proposed a theoretical heat transfer model of convective heat transfer model development of a cold storage using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. Velocity of air (V), Temperature difference (dT), Relative Humidity (RH)are the basic variables and three ranges are taken each of them in the model development. Graphical interpretations from the model justifies the reality II. Model development Relationship between heat gain & energy consumption is given by E= (Q t)/COP [M.S.Soylemez, M.Unsal ](1997) [1] E=energy consumption of refrigeration system (kw/h), t=equivalent full load hours of operation of refrigeration system(hrs), COP= co efficient of performance of refrigeration plant., Q= heat energy extracted from cold room (Joule) Response variableis heat transfer due to convection and condensation and predictor variables are Velocity of air (V), Temperature difference (dT), Relative Humidity (RH) .With the help of Taguchi methodology we construct our design matrix. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS