Abstract
Due to frost deposition, the efficiency of an air conditioner can decrease drastically. To design a heat exchanger whose efficiency is little affected by the frost deposition, clarification of the frost deposition mechanism is very important. In order to establish analytical methods for frost deposition, this paper reviewed literature on frost deposition, with particular attention given to the studies of frost deposition on cold flat plates. This work summarized the mechanism of the growth of frost layer based on observational results, analysis related to ice crystal growth period and frost layer growth period, and derivation of properties of the frost layer. Most analytical methods at present cannot analyze the frost deposition process unconditionally from the inception to the completion, but require input values such as density or thickness of the frost layer. Such values come from measurements. However, with advances both in measurement and analytical methods for the frost deposition process, one can expect that generalized analytical methods will be developed in the future for analysis of deposition from the inception to completion.
