Impact of Warming on Heat and Mass Transfer in Chilled Sweetened Carbonated Beverages: A Thermodynamic Study

This investigation explores the mass and heat transfer mechanisms governing warming of a chilled Sweetened Carbonated Beverage (SCB) bottle for various ambient conditions. Two primary phenomena are identified as contributing factors to the warming process: Mass Transfer by Condensation Driven: The temperature difference between the external layer of the cold bottle and the ambient air practice resulting in the condensation of the water droplets from the air to the surface of the cold bottle. The warming effect from this mass transfer process is large. Ambient Heat Transfer: In addition to free convection, the air’s natural circulation is driven by temperature differences, and the condensation of water vapor helps direct the heat from the external environment to the bottle. These phenomena are concomitant and affected by external environmental temperature and humidity. In this work, the mass transfer and heat coefficients associated with these phenomena were evaluated using a novel theoretical experimental methodology. Measuring the temperature rise and mass of condensed water in SCB bottles over time, subjecting the bottles to both conditioned and unconditioned temperature and humidity fluctuations is controlled. The results show that the convective HT coefficient significantly depends on the adjacent temperature and relative humidity. Interestingly, temperature appears to have a more substantial impact on the mass transfer coefficient. This research serves as an important guide to the factors that control the temperature of SCB bottles and paves the way for designing more accurate models to predict bottle temperature changes across various environmental settings.