Optimized Use of Grape Cryomacerating Plants

It has been performed a study of a plant for the grape cryo maceration, evaluating the different operational thermodynamic conditions obtained for three quantity of a same typology of considered grapes and fixing the process final temperatures at 12, 10, 8 and 6 °C, all that to be able to evaluate and to compare the products obtained under the conditions considered. For a best understanding of the problem, it has been set up a numerical model of the different products involved in the cryo-maceration process so that to be able to face from the theoretical-numerical-experimental point of view the whole research to be developed. Such model has been used during the numerical simulation of the process that also allows a best set up of the considered plant, over that to achieve an optimization of its use. Numerical analysis has been performed with the aid of the computational code CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Fluent. In this way it has been possible to obtain the temperatures and velocity distributions of the fluid inside the delivery pipe under the different considered operative conditions. Such distributions have found a good comparison with the experimental tests performed on the plant by using transducers that, applied on the delivery pipe, they have allowed the evaluation of the temperature distribution. The obtained results can be used to a possible optimization of such types of plant, in sight of the oenologist demands to achieve continuous improvement of the final product quality.