Frosting heat transfer characteristics of evaporators used for household refrigerators according to fin configuration

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of evaporators that have various fin configurations and are used in household refrigerators. The frosting and defrosting characteristics of a spirally coiled circular fin-tube evaporator, a discrete-plate fin-tube evaporator, and a continuous-plate fin-tube evaporator were measured and compared. Under non-frosting conditions, the heat transfer coefficient of the spirally coiled circular fin-tube evaporator was 22.3% and 40.2% higher than the coefficients of the discrete- and continuous-plate fin-tube evaporators, respectively. Under frosting conditions, the heat transfer coefficient of the spirally coiled circular fin-tube evaporator was 27.0% and 46.3% higher than the coefficients of the discrete- and continuous-plate fin-tube evaporators, respectively. In addition, the defrosting water amount of the spirally coiled circular fin-tube evaporator was 3.2% and 9.4% lower than the amounts in the case of the discrete- and continuous-plate fin-tube evaporators, respectively. © 2010 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers.