Investigation of Ambient Factors Spatial Variability in Cold Stores by Using Management Zone Analysis

Özet

The main objective of this research was to determineand manage spatial variability of ambient temperature, relative humidity andair velocity in a cold storage using management zone analysis methods. Ambient temperature, relative humidity and airvelocity of an experimental cold storage were measured using 36 temperature andrelative humidity sensors. Sensor installation was performed on gridscale at three levels (base, middle and top) such as to monitor the coldstorage conditions of the total volume. Surfermapping system (Golden software Inc.) was utilized to create the maps of themeasured parameters and the collected data were analyzed by MZA software whichperformed fuzzy clustering to delineate the full cold storage, half full coldstorage and empty cold storage. Theresults indicated that there is significant spatial variation of the basic storageparameters such as temperature, relative humidity and air velocity in the coldstorage, which denotes the significance of management zones delineation inthese facilities so as to maximize the storage