Cooling Optimization and Discrete Time Event Simulation

Like most universities, Texas A&M University-Kingsville has a public service mission to the constituents it serves. Here in South Texas, there is seafood, beef and vegetable processing. These can involve, to a lesser or greater extent, the freezing of products because major markets are not in the immediate region. We relate here a problem classical to chemical engineering, optimal heat transfer, which led to ramifications impacting other aspects of the overall enterprise. The heat transfer unit, a freezer, was optimized. However, it does not stand alone. It operates in a system in which upstream of the freezer there is variable input. The discrete time event simulation that evolved is a tool that chemical engineers should find useful, and the code SIGMA was especially helpful in constructing such simulations. What started as a classical chemical and food engineering problem in heat transfer evolved to also require techniques of operations research. As engineers in the food industry grow in their responsibility, they will increasingly encounter a need for more multidisciplinary expertise. We herein take the bold step of advancing this process.