variavel0=Jaime Vilela Resende - jvresende@mecanica.ufu.br Universidade Federal de Uberlāndia
Vivaldo Silveira Jr. - vivaldo@ceres.fea.unicamp.br Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Abstract. The changes in the air velocities caused by the resistance for the air flow due to fruit pulp model packaged (100 grams)  and  conditioned  in  multi  layers  boxes  in  air  blast  freezers  were  evaluated  and  air  flow  rate  were  estimated  using a  method  of  treatment of the experimental data. The air velocities were measured before the air pass through the pillage of multi layer boxes in  the air stream. For the measurements processing was used a non linear regression routine. Air flow rate measured by the present  method resulted of the numerical integration of air velocities adjusted profile. Results presented a relative difference 10 % higher  than the standard procedure, which consists in averaging the air velocity measurements performed at each point of the section. In  the same fan operation conditions, the results shown for the 7 layers arrays of product in the boxes which the air velocity was 62%  lower than the 3 layers arrays and 50,9 % lower than the 5 layers arrays of product. These results were proportional to the bulk  area for the air flow.
Keywords. frozen foods, fuit industries, fruit pulps, air flow, air blast.