Numerical and Experimental Study of Temperature Distribution in an Air-cooled Refrigerator Freezer

Abstract

A numerical model of flow and temperature field in an air-cooled refrigerator freezer was established by CFD method and was validated by experiments. The results show that the simulation temperature is slightly lower than the experimental results; the maximum relative error is 1.89%. The numerical results show that the shelves divided the freezer into three temperature zones, the vortexes were formed in the door boxes and vegatable box, which weaken the convective heat transfer. Rising the air velocity will improve the uniformity of the temperature distribution in the refrigerator. The research provided a reference for optimal design of the freezer in the air-cooled refrigerator.