Optimisation of egg-crate type evaporators in domestic refrigerators

This paper presents a parametric heat transfer study of the new 'egg-crate' type evaporators in domestic refrigerators/freezers by varying fin density, fin height and fin thickness,using a steady state simulation model of Bansal et al. [1]. Simulations were carried out over a wide range of fin parameters with finning factors ranging from 3.5 to 9. The simulation model predicted the evaporator capacity, UA and temperature drop of air across the evaporator for the varying parameters. A geometrically improved evaporator is proposed having an optimum heat transfer performance, in terms of maximum evaporator capacity per unit weight. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.