Oxygen transmission rate through micro-perforated films: Measurement and model comparison

Static and flow-through techniques were used to experimentally measure the oxygen transmission rate of micro-perforated films. The static method simulates the actual package conditions but is very time consuming. Whereas, the flow-through method is relatively simple and takes less time to give the results, but it gave higher values than that obtained by the static method. A regression equation was developed to correlate the data obtained by these two methods. Published models for predicting gas exchange through micro-perforations were evaluated. The predicted data by these models were compared with the experimental data obtained by the static method and the flow-through method for six different films. The model proposed by Fishman et al. (1996) (J = -D(c-c_A)/L_h; L_h = thickness of the film + radius of the perforation) had very good agreement with the experimental data from the static method.