Development of novel air distributor for precise control of cooling capacity delivery in multi-compartment indirect cooling household refrigerators

• Published in: International journal of refrigeration 2020-11, Vol.119, p.175-183
• Main Authors: Li, Zhiqiang, Ding, Guoliang, Miao, Songtao, Han, Xiaolei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air distributor; Air distributors; Air supplies; Compartiments multiples; Compartments; Control methods; Cooling; Cooling capacity delivery; Dampers; Distributeur d'air; Distribution de la puissance frigorifique; Freezing; Indirect cooling refrigerator; Multi-compartment; Refrigerators; Réfrigérateur à refroidissement indirect; Temperature control; Working conditions
• ISSN: 0140-7007; 1879-2081
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2020.07.028

•A novel air distributor controls temperatures of multiple compartments precisely.•Independent delivery of cooling capacity is achieved by change of damper position.•Design method and application effect of the air distributor are presented. Multi-compartment indirect cooling household refrigerators (MIRs) have the advantage of multiple compartments with various storage temperatures, e.g. a freezing compartment (FC), a refrigerating compartment (RC) and a variable temperature compartment (VC). MIRs have difficulty in precise control of the temperatures of all compartments because they fail to independently deliver cooling capacities to each compartment. This paper presents a method to independently deliver cooling capacities by installing a novel air distributor in a MIR and changing the position of air supply dampers in this air distributor. The design method for the geometries of the novel air distributor, including the size and the opening angle of the damper as well as the size of the air openings, is detailed illustrated. To validate the proposed method, the novel air distributor was installed in a typical MIR, and the temperatures of all compartments of the MIR before and after the installation of the novel air distributor were measured and compared. It is found that the dynamic fluctuations of the temperatures of the FC in the MIR without the novel air distributor excess the preset range at the working conditions of only the RC or the VC need to be cooled, while those of the MIR with the novel air distributor are within the preset range at all working conditions. These results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control method for precise temperature control.