Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 569576

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

The morphological visualization of the water in vacuum

cooling and freezing process
H.-P. Cheng *, C.-T. Lin
Department of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec. 3,
Chung-Hsiao E. Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC

Received 19 April 2005; accepted 25 October 2005

Available online 13 December 2005

Abstract

This research studies the morphological changes of water in a vacuum cooling system in the course of vacuum chamber pressure step-
down. The experiment result shows that steam adhered to vacuum chamber due to the atmospheric pressure evaporates as the chamber
pressure decreases and produces a great amount of smoke after the vacuum pumping system is initiated for 20 s. After 115.2 s, the liquid
water in the vessel begins to produce tiny bubbles and then large bubbles at 121.2 s, and boils at 126.7 s. After the rapid boiling is over,
the liquid water enters the freezing stage at 181.5 s. When the vacuum pumping system is stopped at 480 s, the liquid water inside the
vessel is frozen into solid ice which is consisted of two layers, irregular porous layer on the top and dense layer on the bottom. The cool-
ing rate of liquid water in this experiment is between 0.330.38 C/s, and 0.040.07 C/s during the freezing process.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vacuum cooling; Vacuum freezing; Water morphological change

1. Introduction Literature review on vacuum cooling and freezing tech-

The main characteristic of the vacuum cooling technique
is its rapid evaporation of the water from liquid to vapor,
and quick removal of the heat contained in the product.
Now, the vacuum cooling technique is widely used in pro-
cessing of fruit, vegetables, meat, sh, sauces, soups, bak-
ery, and ready meals (McDonald & Sun, 2000). The
vacuum cooling turns into vacuum freezing if the vapor
pressure in the vacuum chamber is dropped below
0.6 kPa, the saturation pressure of water at 0 C (Cengel
& Boles, 2002). Although water is the most import refriger-
ant in the vacuum cooling process, to the best knowledge of
the author, there is no article published on visualization of
the boiling and freezing process of the water in a vacuum
cooling system.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 27712171x3519; fax: +886 2
27711686.
E-mail address: hpcheng@ntut.edu.tw (H.-P. Cheng).
nique is as follows. Wang and Sun (2002a) developed a
mathematical model of vacuum cooling process based on
the mass conservation of air and vapor in the vacuum
chamber. The comparison of the simulation and experi-
ment of the water shows agreement; the feasibility of the
model to be used predicting the vacuum cooling process
of food. Subsequently, Wang and Sun (2002b) also used
a three-dimensional transient nite element method, cou-
pled mass and heat transfer, to predict the vacuum cooling
process of the cooked meat. The simulation shows that a
rapid cooling can be achieved for large cooked meat joints
by using the vacuum cooling. Houska et al. (1996) devel-
oped a mathematical model to predict the temperature of
liquid foods during vacuum cooling. The comparison of
the chamber pressure, the liquid temperature and the mass
of condensed vapor with the experiment show agreement.
Landfeld, Houska, Kyhos, and Jiang-Qibin (2002) studied
the vacuum cooling process of selected cooked solid food
semi products by experimental method. The mass transfer
parameter is also investigated in details. McDonald, Sun,

0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2005.10.025
570 H.-P. Cheng, C.-T. Lin / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 569576

T: Temperature sensor
P: Vacuum gauge
V1: Water exhaust valve Ref CCD
CCD: CCD camera V4
V2: Gate valve
T T
RP: Roots pump
V3: Vent valve V3
WP: Water-sealed pump
V4: Gate valve
V2 Cond
Cond: Condenser P
Ref: Refrigerator CCD
V1 T

Control/visualization
stage

RP

WP

Control/visualization Vacuum pumping Vacuum chamber

system system

Fig. 1. Vacuum cooling system.

and Lyng (2002) investigated the thermo physical proper- in the range of 110 cm/sec. Shin, Lee, and Jurng (2000)
ties, including thermal conductivity, specic heat capacity, proposed a theoretical and experimental study to examine
thermal diusivity, porosity, true density, and apparent the water spray evaporation method for ice particle pro-
density, of a cooked beef product that is cooled by means duction. The spherical ice particles of size below 300 lm
of vacuum cooling, air blast, water immersion, and slow was obtained by spraying water droplets of ambient tem-
air methods. The results show signicant changes of the perature in the vacuum chamber where the pressure is
thermo physical properties due to loss of moisture and maintained below the freezing point of water. The pretreat-
development of porosity during vacuum cooling process. ment of wastewater by freezing under vacuum in a cool-
Khusnatdinov and Petrenko (1996) proposed a fast-growth thermal storage process was investigated by Chang
technique to create ice single crystal in a vacuum environ- (2002). The results show that the ice sublimation rate plays
ment. The crystallization rates along the water surface are an important role in determining the eciency and the pay-
o of the process. Lin (2000) proposed the vacuum freezing
ice production (VFIP) method to make ice thin lm in the
1.0E+004

1.0E+004 30
Case A
Case B Water temperature
1.0E+003 Case 1
Case 2
Case 3 20
Pressure of vacuum chamber (mbar)

1.0E+003 Case 4
Case 5
Case 6
Pressure of vacuum chamber (mbar)

1.0E+002
Temperature of water (C)
10

1.0E+002

0
1.0E+001
1.0E+001

-10

Chamber pressure
1.0E+000 Case 1
1.0E+000 Case 2
Case 3 -20
Case 4
Case 5
Case 6

1.0E-001 1.0E-001 -30

0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400 500
Time (sec) Time (sec)

Fig. 2. Vacuum chamber pressure and system operation time relation Fig. 3. Vacuum chamber pressure, water temperature and system oper-
chart (no vessel is placed inside the vacuum chamber). ation time relation chart (vessel is placed inside the vacuum chamber).