Using advanced modelling techniques to reduce the cold spillage from retail display cabinets into supermarket stores to maintain customer comfort

Abstract

Chilled foods are increasingly popular on supermarket shelves. For marketing reasons, chilled products are displayed in retail display cabinets where there is no physical barrier between the customer and the product. Cold air from the cabinet falls out of the cabinet on to the floor, causing the customer's feet to become cold, commonly known as the ‘cold feet’ effect.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) funded a 3 year project to study the effects of retail display cabinets on supermarket store environments using experimental measurements and computational fluid dynamics. This paper provides an overview of the work and its findings.

Initially a computer model of the whole sales area of a supermarket store was numerically modelled. This proved to be too large to model small detail in the store and the time taken for convergence of the solution was too long to carry out many ‘what if’ scenarios in a limited time.

A smaller, more detailed model looking at just the coldest aisle (chilled produce aisle) was produced. This model was a good simulation of three different stores measured. The model was then used to predict the effect of different ventilation systems and did so with varying degrees of accuracy.