Characteristic analysis of humidity control in a fresh-keeping container using CFD model

•The effects of parameters on humidification were investigated by CFD methods.•Introduce a device used to measure the ventilation resistance characteristics.•Humidifying time and humidity difference were affected seriously by atomizer number.•The structure of humidifier had no significant difference on humidification rate. Humidity control, which is affected by the performance of humidifying device and structure of the container, is very important for delaying water loss of fresh products. Humidifying rate and humidity distribution uniformity in fresh-keeping container were investigated to evaluate the characteristic of humidity control by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models. A pressure gauge was adopted to measure the ventilation resistance of products, by which the inertial resistance and viscous resistance values were obtained. The results of humidity performance were evaluated by entropy method. The results showed that the number of ultrasonic atomizers and sensor location had a significant effect on the humidifying rate. The effects of spray height, deflector angle and products quantity on humidifying rate are not significant, but they showed significant difference in the humidity distribution uniformity on products. The results of this study provide a better understanding of humidity control, which will help for the environment control in a fresh-keeping container.