Numerical and Thermal Analysis of Condensers Applied to Domestic Refrigerator

Abstract

Domestic refrigerators with multiple doors are available in the market with a capacity ranging from few liters up to 350 liters. Recent refrigerators are provided with polyurethane foam (PUF) for insulation to reduce the heat conduction from the ambient to the inside cabin. In normal course, the condenser coil should be placed outside the refrigerator wall (behind the refrigerator), which is a wire tube condenser. To avoid any damage to the condenser coils while in transportations, it is embedded in the side walls of insulation, which is referred to as a hot-wall condenser. In this research work, the heat ingress in the refrigerator space is analytically predicted also using an ANSYS simulator, for identical conditions. The results of the experimentation show that the hot-wall condenser will additionally increase the heat load of 28.70 W to the refrigerated space due to heat conducted from such hot tubes embedded in the wall.The average heat flux is 42.5 W/m2 which is within the range of 40 to 65W/m2. The temperature gradient along the surface of the hot wall condenser is 43.052 K/m maximum and 10 K/m minimum. In this research work, it is concluded that the hot-wall condenser will promote additional heat flux into the refrigerator cabin as compared to the wire tube condenser.