• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.519-524
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• 2002

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effects of surface energy on frost formation. Test samples with two different surfaces are installed in a wind tunnel and exposed to a humid airflow. Dynamic contact angles (DCA) for these surfaces are $23^{\circ}\;and\;88^{\circ}$, respectively. The thickness and the mass of frost layer are measured and used to calculate the frost density while frost formation is visualized simultaneously with their measurements. Results show that frost density increases as time increases at specific test conditions. The air Reynolds number, the airflow humidity and the cold plate temperature are maintained at 12,000, 0.0042 kg/kg and $-21^{\circ}C$, respectively. The surface with a lower DCA shows a higher frost density during two-hour test, but no differences in the frost density have been found after two hours of frost generation. Empirical correlations for thickness, mass and density are assumed to be the functions of the test time and DCA.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1096-1105
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• 1996

A theoretical model of the frost formation has been presented to investigate the characteristics of the growth of frost layer by considering molecular diffusion of water vapor and heat generation caused by sublimation of water vapor in the frost layer. The present model was compared with existing experimental data as well as a previous model. The difference between the present model and existing experimental data was found to be about 6 percent. An analysis for the behavior of frost formation using present model shows a good agreement with the trend for a number of experimentally observed features. The present analysis can also provide the physical understanding on the phenomena of the frost formation.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.55-58
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• 2002

To control the frost formation, a temperature variation of the cooling plate and characteristics on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces was attempted. As a temperature variation of the cooling plate, being closely related to the frost layer density of frost layer is found to be affected by the melting process inside the frost layer during the heating period. At characteristics on surface, completely different structures of frost are appeared in the initial stage of frost formation due to the difference in surface conditions, while those effects are vanished with time. It is found that the frost thickness, density and heat flux characteristics are closely associated with the frost structure.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.377-383
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• 1999

In this study, the behavior of frost formation according to surface characteristics in the fin-tube heat exchanger has been examined experimentally. The results show that the thickness of the frost which is attached to the hydrophilic heat exchanger becomes thin and the air pressure drop is smaller than that of bare aluminium heat exchanger However, the frost mass of hydrophilic heat exchanger is more than the bare one. Hence, high density frost is attached to hydrophilic heat exchanger. The sensible and latent heat flux of hydrophilic heat exchanger is bigger than that of bare one, but the increasing amount is very small and the improvement of thermal performance is also very small. The variation of fin-pitch of heat exchanger shows little influence on frost formation and hydrophilic heat exchanger loses its surface characteristics rapidly with increasing relative humidity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.253-260
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• 2002

It is known that frost formation on surfaces of the heat exchanger seriously affects the performance of the refrigeration system. Accordingly, defrosting should follow, and effective defrosting is possible only when both analytic tools and comprehensive experimental data on frost formation are assailable. An experimental investigation was undertaken to characterize the effect of environmental parameters on frost formation on a horizontal cylinder in cross uniform flow. Several experiments were carried out with various environmental parameters such as inlet air temperature, inlet air humidity, air velocity and cooling surface temperature. Frost thickness, mass, surface temperature and cylinder inner and outer temperature were measured at front and rear positions of the cylinder. Thickness, mass, density, and effective thermal conductivity of the frost layer were obtained from measured data and effects of environmental parameters on the frost formation were analyzed. Data from experiments were correlated using dimensionless variables.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.530-533
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• 2008

Refrigerators have some frost related problems in a freezing compartment. The frost formation in the refrigerator gives customers a bad impression concerning quality problems. Therefore, many engineers have been studying the optimum solution to avoid frost formation. But the problem of frost formation is very complex and hard to approach to the answer. The frost generation of a household refrigerator have been widely known that is closely related to the distribution of temperature inside the compartment. The distribution depends on the cold air circulation inside the refrigerator. So frost problem can be reduced and energy consumption efficiency also improved through optimization of air flow fields inside the freezing compartment. In this paper, numerical simulation has been carried out to check fluid flow. The variation of temperature at the walls was measured and quantitative analysis of frost generated from the freezing compartment was carried out. Through comparison between simulation and experiment, some correlation revealed.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2000

The effect of surface contact angle on the behavior of frost formation in a fin-tube heat exchanger is investigated experimentally. It is shown that both heat exchangers with hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces appear to have a better thermal performance than bare aluminium heat exchanger, but the improvements are very small. There is a little increase in the amount of the frost deposited onto the heat exchanger with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface. However, the effect of contact angle on the frost density is observed ; the frost with high density forms on the heat exchanger with hydrophilic surface ; and the frost with low density is deposited onto the heat exchanger with hydrophobic surface when compared with the frost deposited onto the heat exchanger with bare aluminium surface. This may be attributed to the fact that the shape of water droplets which condense on the surface of heat exchanger at the early stage of frosting varies with contact angle, and thus makes a difference on the structure of frost formation. From the experiments with different relative humidity of inlet air, it is shown that the variations of operating parameter make no influence on the effect of surface contact angle on the frosting behavior in the heat exchanger.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1325-1331
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• 2002

This study presents a numerical model to predict the behavior of frost layer growth. The characteristics of the heat and mass transfer inside the frost layer are analyzed by coupling the air flow with the frost layer. The present model is validated by comparing with the several other analytical models. It has been known that most of the previous models cause considerable errors depending on the working conditions or correlations used in predicting the frost thickness growth, whereas the model in this work estimates the thickness of the frost layer more accurately within an error of 10% in comparison with the experimental data. Simulation results are presented for variations of heat and mass transfer during the frost formation and for the behavior of frost layer growth along the direction of air flow.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.252-257
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• 2007

The present study investigated the effect of air velocity on frost formation of slit fin-and-tube heat exchanger under frosting condition. The slit fin-and-tube heat exchanger with outer tube diameter 7.0mm and 1 row was used. Air side pressure drop, photographs of frost distribution, frost accumulation and frost thickness were presented with respect to the frosting time. In the early stage of experiment, the case with air velocity of 1.5m/s showed 403% higher for the air pressure drop than the case with the air velocity of 0.5m/s. As the frost was accumulated, the effect of air velocity on air pressure drop was decreased. In the end stage of test, air pressure drops of two cases were very close and air pressure drop for the air velocity of 0.5m/s was higher than that of 2.0m/s. It was also shown in the photographs of frost distribution, frost accumulation and frost thickness. From frost thickness, fanning friction factor was presented.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.249-258
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• 1997

In this study, a numerical model for analyzing frost formation phenomena on a cold flat plate has been developed. Both regions of air flow and frost layer have been coupled to calculate the amount of the heat and mass transfer between air flow and frost layer. Experiments have been also conducted to validate the numerical model. The present numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data. The present numerical model also provides some useful data such as the temperature distribution inside the frost layer which could not be obtained through the experiments.