Abstract:
This study concerns with two of the most commonly used condensers in domestic
refrigerators, namely the wire-and-tube and hotwall. Both of these are pre-dominantly
natural convection type heat exchangers but with distinctly different geometries. The
thesis investigates the performance of these heat exchangers experimentally as well as
numerically.
Two computer models were developed USIng the finite element and variable conductance approach to analyse, optimise and redesign the condensers. To validate these models, experiments were performed on both the condensers, installed on a domestic refrigerator that used refrigerant R134a as a working fluid. The experiments were carried out in an environmental chamber that maintained the ambient conditions at the desired temperatures of 200 C and 25 C and relative humidity of 60%.