Conference Year
2018
Keywords
frost, nucleation, ice beads, fin coatings, heat exchangers
Abstract
Frost formation decreases the energy efficiency of refrigeration and heat pump systems in building HVAC applications. Several studies exist in the open literature that examined frost formation on fin structures under forced convection conditions. Most of the experimental studies have a narrow range of test conditions and do not provide all the primary time-dependent variables during frost nucleation and subsequent frost growth period. This paper presents new experimental data of frost nucleation and frost growth on a cold flat fin plate operating in frosting conditions and with forced convective flow. The top and the leading edge of the test surfaces are recorded to provide the instantaneous measurements of droplet growth, droplets freezing time, as well as frost growth and frost layer thickness during each experiment. A in-situ calibrated noninvasive infrared thermal camera measured the frost surface temperature while the test apparatus measured the instantaneous heat flux and frost mass deposited on the surface. The data presented in this paper can be used to validate frost models on frost nucleation and frost layer growth characteristics for fin structures of heat pump and refrigeration systems.