The Development of a PCM Cold Storage Refrigerator using Forced Convection Method

강제대류방식 PCM 축냉장고 개발

A cold storage refrigerator using phase change material(PCM) has been developed and its performance test results are provided here. The inner temperature of the refrigerator is controlled with forced convection driven by a fan using a DC battery. At the first, to freeze all the PCM of the ambient temperature by a built-in refrigerating machine, it took about 8 and 10 hours respectively at the refrigerator and the freezer mode. Then, without external power supply, the inner temperature of the cold storage refrigerator has been maintained at $-18{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ during 14 hours at the freezer mode and maintained at $3{\pm}^{\circ}C$ during 34 hours at the refrigerator mode. Just after the end of its valid usage as a refrigerator or a freezer, it took about 6 hours to refreeze the PCM for its reuse. During the test, the ambient temperature was kept at $30^{\circ}C$.