Frontiers in Energy
>> 2010,
Volume 4,
Issue 4
doi:
10.1007/s11708-010-0114-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Experimental investigations of frost release by hydrophilic surfaces
1. Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education; College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China; 2. Tangshan University, Tangshan 063000, China
Available online: 2010-12-05
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Abstract
Frost formation occurs when water vapor in the surrounding air comes into contact with cold surfaces through heat and mass transfer. It is usually an undesirable phenomenon in most refrigeration and cryogenic systems. A few studies have shown that changing the surface energy, such as increasing the surface hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity, has significant effects on frost growth. In this paper, a kind of hydrophilic polymer paint is formulated to counteract frost deposition on cold surfaces. The coated surface can retard frost formation up to three hours under low plate temperatures (-15.3°C) and high air humidity (72%). To test the antifrosting performance of the hydrophilic paint under more practical conditions, it is applied to a fin-and-tube heat exchanger and a domestic refrigerator at a coating thickness of 30 μm. Comparisons of frost deposition, pressure drops, and outlet temperatures are made between uncoated and coated heat exchangers. Under conditions of high air temperature (2.2°C) and relative high air humidity (90%), the paint prolongs the defrosting interval from 80 to 137 min. Experimental observations also show that the coated hydrophilic fins are free of frost deposition during the entire course of the test and that the coating has no significant additional thermal resistance.
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