SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE AIR FLOW AND HEAT LOADS OF DIFFERENT REFRIGERATOR CABINET DESIGNS

Abstract

As the economy has been growing in the past decade, consumers in Taiwan start to consider how to raise living quality. As people tend to adopt the westerners' living style of purchasing food once every week or two weeks. Large grocery stores, hence, have been built both in urban and suburban areas. This change results in a growing need of better-designed refrigerator-freezers (RFs). Consequently, consumers need RF models with better or more cooling functions, larger volumetric capacity, and efficient energy use A 1997 top-mount refrigerator with a volume of about 460 liters was selected as the baseline model. This study used computer aided finite element methods (FEM) to analyse and establish designs for RFs. These designs included different insulation properties and various cool air flow rates and outlets in the freezer and fresh food compartments. The following outcomes were investigated in the simulating work: •The thermal responses of the insulation material on RF cabinets •The effect of a modified cool air outlet on the air flow distribution and heat loads The simulation results were then compared with experimental data. Agreement was found between simulation and experimental results. This suggested that computer-aided simulation could serve as a reliable tool for other designs similar to cases practiced in this RF study.