Numerical Three Dimensional Heat Transfer Modeling in Ultrafilterated White Cheese

Temperature profile during the salting process play an important role in cheese quality since microbial and enzymatic activities, are thereby affected. In this work a three dimensional model was developed for heat transfer in the ultrafilterated cheese by using numerical solution of Fourier's second law with finite difference method (Explicit scheme) as a function of internal variable (cheese chemical composition in any point within the product) and of external variables (temperature, relative humidity and air velocity of storage) as well. The comparison of the experimental and predicted temperature values, using MATLAB software indicated a reasonable agreement between the model and the experimental values.