Performance improvement in refrigeration systems using fin-reinforced phase change material

Authors

1 Mech. Eng., Babol University of Technology., Babol, Iran

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran

10.22044/jsfm.2023.13014.3737

Abstract

Domestic refrigerators have become an essential part of modern life.Since these devices are connected to the power grid and operate continuously throughout the day and year, they consume a lot of energy.Experimental studies show that adding phase change materials in refrigerators in different places improves the energy efficiency of these appliances.In this study, the effect of adding a phase change material(PCM)box on the thermal performance and electricity consumption of a single-door refrigerator/freezer is studied.The box of phase change material is attached to the bottom surface of the evaporator with different materials.Water with a melting temperature of zero degrees Celsius has been used as a phase change material.To study the effect of increasing the thermal conductivity of water, fins with the same material(copper, aluminum and steel)as PCM box are placed in the box to evaluate their effect on temperature distribution and power consumption.The results show that the presence of the water box in contact with the bottom surface of the evaporator helps to reduce the temperature of the cabin due to the potential of water as a phase change material in absorbing and releasing cooling energy.Also, the results show that copper is more suitable for water storage because of its higher thermal conductivity and it helps to more evenly distribute the temperature.Furthermore, using a fin inside the water chamber, in addition to limiting the temperature range of the cabin, on average causes a further reduction in energy consumption by 1 to 4% compared to the case without a fin.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] Joybari MM, Haghighat F, Moffat J, Sra P (2015) Heat and cold storage using phase change materials in domestic refrigeration systems: The state-of-the-art review. Energy Build;106:111-24.
[2]Cheng W-L, Mei B-J, Liu Y-N, Huang Y-H, Yuan X-D (2011) A novel household refrigerator with shape-stabilized PCM (Phase Change Material) heat storage condensers: An experimental investigation. Energy. 36(10):5797-804.
[3] Cheng W-L, Yuan X-D (2013) Numerical analysis of a novel household refrigerator with shape-stabilized PCM (phase change material) heat storage condensers. Energy;59:265-76.
[4] Wang F, Maidment G, Missenden J, Tozer R (2007) The novel use of phase change materials in refrigeration plant. Part 1: Experimental investigation. Appl. Therm. Eng . 27(17-18):2893-901.
[5] Wang F, Maidment G, Missenden J, Tozer R (2007) The novel use of phase change materials in refrigeration plant. Part 3: PCM for control and energy savings. Appl. Therm. Eng. 27(17-18):2911-8.
[6] Pirvaram A, Sadrameli S, Abdolmaleki L (2019) Energy management of a household refrigerator using eutectic environmental friendly PCMs in a cascaded condition. Energy.  181:321-30.
[7] Karthikeyan A, Sivan VA, Anderson A (2021) Performance improvement of vapour compression refrigeration system using different phase changing materials. Materials Today: Proceedings. 44:3540-3.
[8] Onyejekwe DC (1989) Cold storage using eutectic mixture of NaCl/H2O: an application to photovoltaic compressor vapour freezers. Sol. Wind Tech. 8-11:(1)6.
[9] Liu Z, Zhao D, Wang Q, Chi Y, Zhang L (2017) Performance study on air-cooled household refrigerator with cold storage phase change materials. Int. J. Refrig. 79:130-42.
[10] Mona Y, Thiangchanta S, Chaichana C. Electricity peak load reduction of a refrigerator using phase change material. Energy Rep. 2022;8:48-53.
[11] Oró E, Miró L, Farid M, Cabeza L (1984) Improving thermal performance of freezers using phase change materials. Int. J. Refrig. 91-984:(4) 35,2.201.
[12] You H, Sun J, Xie J (2022) Numerical simulation and experimental verification of a small refrigerated warehouse with PCM plates. Energy Rep. 8:15040-7.
[13] Gin B, Farid M, Bansal P (2010) Effect of door opening and defrost cycle on a freezer with phase change panels. Energy Convers. Manag. 51(12):2698-706.
[14] Abdolmaleki L, Sadrameli S, Pirvaram A (2020) Application of environmental friendly and eutectic phase change materials for the efficiency enhancement of household freezers. Renew. Energ. 145:233-41.
[15] Pavithran A, Sharma M, Shukla AK (2021) An investigation on the effect of PCM incorporation in refrigerator through CFD simulation. Mater. Today: Proc. 46:5555-64.
[16] Azzouz K, Leducq D, Gobin D (2008) Performance enhancement of a household refrigerator by addition of latent heat storage. Int. J. Refrig. 31(5):892-90.
[17] Azzouz K, Leducq D, Gobin D (2009) Enhancing the performance of household refrigerators with latent heat storage: an experimental investigation. Int. J. Refrig. 32(7):1634-44.
[18] Taher MB, Ahachad M, Mahdaoui M, Zeraouli Y, Kousksou T (2022) Thermal performance of domestic refrigerator with multiple phase change materials: Numerical study. J. Energ. St.55:105673.
 
[19] Tulapurkar C, Subramaniam PR, Thagamani G, Thiyagarajan R (2010) Phase change materials for domestic refrigerators to improve food quality and prolong compressor off time.
[20] Ghodrati A, Zahedi R, Ahmadi A (2022) Analysis of cold thermal energy storage using phase change materials in freezers. J. Energ. St. 51:104433.
[21] Visek M, Joppolo CM, Molinaroli L, Olivani A  (2014) Advanced sequential dual evaporator domestic refrigerator/freezer: System energy optimization. Int. J. Refrig. 43:71-9.
[22] Zarajabad OG, Ahmadi R (2018)Employment of Finned PCM Container in a Household Refrigerator as a Cold Thermal Energy Storage System. Therm. Sci. Eng. Prog. 2018.
[23] Khan MIH, Afroz H (2014) Diminution of temperature fluctuation inside the cabin of a household refrigerator using phase change material. Recent Adv. Mech. Eng.(IJMECH). 3(1):43-52.
[24]  Ezan MA, Doganay EO, Yavuz FE, Tavman IH (2017) A numerical study on the usage of phase change material (PCM) to prolong compressor off period in a beverage cooler. Energy Convers. Manag. 142:95-106.
[25] Elarem R, Mellouli S, Abhilash E, Jemni A (2017) Performance analysis of a household refrigerator integrating a PCM heat exchanger. Appl. Therm. Eng. 125:1320-33.
[26] Kline SJ (1963) Describing uncertainties in single-sample experiments. Mech. Eng. 1963;75:3-8.
Journal of Solid and Fluid Mechanics
Volume 13, Issue 4
September and October 2023
Pages 159-170

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics