Simulation of the Moving Boundary during Freezing of a Finite One-Dimensional Food Slab.

To calculate the moving boundary (MB) of a finite 1D moist food slab, which is cooled by convection at the exposed surface, a finite difference model was employed, invoking the Stefan condition. The primary objective of this project was to generate synthetic data comprising MB position-time pairs. The MB time profiles were generated using a nearly orthogonal array, which accounts for the effects of the Biot number, dimensionless cooling-medium temperature, dimensionless latent heat, and thermal conductivity parameter. The last two parameters play a crucial role in controlling the temperature dependence of the effective heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the food material. The generated data will be utilized to develop statistical models of the MB, effectively accounting for the influence of temperature-dependent thermal properties