A Study of Thermal Performance with Frosting under Forced Convection on a Flat Plate: Prediction of Frost Growth Using Nonhomogeneous Property

摘要

The purpose of this study is the evaluation of thermal performance of a heat exchanger with frosting and decision of optimal defrosting cycle. Because the increase of flow resistance is the principal factor of a drop of heat transfer performance with frosting, thermal performance characteristics were examined. Based on those experimental results, we proposed a one-dimensional nonhomogeneous frost growth model, and compared it with the experimental data in time and space. In a nonhomogeneous model with the frost property distribution taken into account, density distribution similar to the experimental result can be predicted. It is possible to make prediction closer to the experimental result compared with the conventional homogeneous model with respect to the temporal variation of frost height.