Abstract
This study focuses on characteristics of refrigerant flow and heat transfer inside the evaporator tube to improve performance of defrosting for refrigerator. In the first report, evaluation of refrigerant vapor-liquid two-phase flow using the test sections of single-row model simulating the refrigerator evaporator was examined under heating condition, and basic flow characteristics were clarified. In this report, evaluation of refrigerant flow under heating condition was carried out using test sections of a single-row staggered arrangement, and various two-row models. It was found, in the staggered arrangement model, that refrigerant flow had the same characteristics as those in the simple single-row model reported in the first report, but the process time of the change became short. It was furthermore found, for the two-row models, that refrigerant flow pattern was generally different in the rows connected and not connected to an accumulator, but, in the two-row fin-tube model, the change of tube wall temperature in both rows was not different from or similar to each other due to heat conduction through the fin, regardless of the different refrigerant flow pattern.
