Small Scale Refrigerators and Freezers: Thermal Improvements in the Envelope

Abstract

Like in other sectors of activity, the sustainability in refrigeration systems is a mandatory goal to achieve, namely at house holdings, bars and restaurants, where small-scale refrigerators and freezers are widely used. The aim of this work is to demonstrate experimentally, trough measurements carried out in these equipments, the improvement that can be achieved if several modifications are implemented in traditional household refrigeration systems. In addition, it was also simulated and analysed experimentally a slightly different equipment, a refrigeration system used for draught beverages. Both systems work on a single vapour compression refrigeration with R-134a as working fluid. In the end, by implemented the modifications tested in the virtual model, it was possible to improve their thermal behaviour, a decrease in electrical energy consumption, as well as, the associated CO2 emissions reduction can be attained. In this project, the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) softwareANSYS Fluent was used to simulate the ambient temperature and velocity fields inside the refrigerator and in that way to validate the measured results.