PC-based and microcontroller- based multi-channel temperature profiler for canned food products.

Date

10-2010

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Nelio C. Altoveros

Abstract

A temperature profiler for canned food products was designed, implemented and evaluated. The system was made up of a data acquisition unit and a user interface. The data acquisition unit contained two UP-IRC slimboards, voltage amplifiers, and voltage attenuators. The UP-IRC slimboard utilizes the Z8F6421 Flash Microcontroller including its 10-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) to read and transmit temperature and pressure. The voltage amplifiers and attenuators were used as signal conditioning devices for the temperature and pressure reading. C programming language was used to program the microcontroller module while Microsoft® Visual Basic (VB) 2008 was used for the user interface. Temperature and pressure data were read by the microcontroller module. The VB program accepts user inputs, performs thermal processing, and displays and records the results. Exchange of commands and data between the microcontroller and the computer were done regularly. Calculations of the sterilizing parameters using the General Method and Formula Method were performed by the Visual Basic program. The sensors used were Type-T thermocouple for temperature and pressure transducer with a pressure range of 0 to 50 pound-force per square inch gauge (psig) for pressure. Calibration results showed a seventh degree polynomial relation between temperature and thermocouple voltage with a correlation of 1.00000 and a percent error of 0.102%. Moreover, it was also found that a ninth degree polynomial relation between the transducer's voltage output and pressure resulted to a 0.99997 correlation. The voltage to pressure equation has a 0.00243 average standard deviation and 0.429% average percent error. An average of -1.95°C offset temperature resulted from the thermocouple calibration. Verification of the results by the conventional method was performed. Aside from the lethality (F0) and heating parameter over the lethality multiplied by the ratio of equivalent time in minutes at heating medium to the time in minutes at 121°C (fh/U) which yielded percent differences of 0.059% and 0.084%, respectively, all the General Method variables and the majority of the Formula Method variables showed 0.000% percent differences.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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