International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 – 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online), Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2014), pp. 123-137 © IAEME 123 EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF AIRFLOW AND TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN A PROTOTYPE COLD STORAGE Qasim S. Mahdi, Husam Mahdi Hadi * Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Mustansiriyah University ABSTRACT Airflow and temperature distribution inside a cold store are investigated using experimental and computational fluid dynamic using CFX 14.5. In the present work a prototype cold storage for meat has been designed. Temperature distributions were determined for different storage temperature, -2°C, -10°C, -20°C and -21°C, inside empty cold store experimentally. The Air temperature distribution also been determined for storage temperatures -20°C and -21°C inside loaded cold storage with 10.8kg. The Mean air velocity distribution also been measured for empty cold store, by using a hot wire anemometer. Navier-Stokes equations, and the turbulence is taken into account using a standard ε κ - model, incompressible, symmetric cold store used to analysis the loaded and empty cold storage and the meat are presented as a solid domain with variable thermophysical properties as a function of temperature. Air flow distribution results in the three levels (bottom, medium and top) for empty cold store with relative error between experimentally and numerically equal to 20%. The relative error between the experimental and numerical for temperature distributions inside empty cold storage equal to 13%. Correlations have been developed for modeling the evaporator unit in numerical simulation, where the total error between the experimental results and the correlation that used in numerical is 8.8%. Keywords: Cold Store; Air Distribution; Temperature Distribution; CFX; Correlations for Modeling the Evaporator Unit. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (IJMET) ISSN 0976 – 6340 (Print) ISSN 0976 – 6359 (Online) Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2014), pp. 123-137 © IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijmet.asp Journal Impact Factor (2014): 7.5377 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com IJMET © I A E M E