COMPARATIVE STUDY AND OPTIMIZED DESIGN OF REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT OF FISH IN INDIA

Abstract

Rapid stride in fish production in last decade has brought India to Qoventh largest fish producing country in the world, It Yes become even etporter of fish and fish products but the earning from fish industry are not comfor- mablo with the production becauso of high rate of spoilage duo to inadequate preservation and preservation during transport. Beside this it is not able to supply fish to its masses to meet the demand. In India fish is consumed fresh in nearly areas of e atch. Other areas receive not enough- supply and get a second grade product. So India needs a good transportation system inoorporated with preserving facilities„ It has been found on the basis of time and cost that Rail-Road transportation is the beat transport media to distribute fish throughout the country. FishQ In India, is transported in wooden cartons packed with crushed ice in uninsulated wagons through rail road. In the present work total cooling load has been computed for a journey,, from Trivendram to Neti Delhi1, in different months of the year, On the basis of highest coo- ling load,, oncountered a cost comparison to done between various available methods of preservation during transport,, opga dry. icofl tsater ice and liquid Nitrogen to find the best method to be employed in an insulated railway wagon. Proper iv material selection for insulation is done with computa-tion of optimal insulation thickness to give minimum total annual cost of the transpox lation. In last it is recommended that dry.-ice must be used as cooling medium and expanded polyurathene should be used to insulate the wagon with a thickness of 60 mm. In last Design of the wagon is done including Heat--Sink Enclosures [HSF a] and air channels to circulate air inside the wagon.