2021 Volume 38 Issue 2 Pages 163-
Reduction of frost formation on heat exchangers has become a major issue. We have focused on the direct removal of water vapor, which is caused by frost formation, and have proposed the use of an adsorbent-coated heat exchanger as an evaporator directly. In this study, frosting characteristics of an adsorbent-coated horizontal plate were experimentally investigated in comparison with those of a plate without adsorbent in order to clarify the detailed mass transfer mechanism to the adsorbent under frosting conditions. The no-frosting time due to water vapor adsorption was observed on the adsorbent-coated surface, indicating a frost delay effect. Then the average frosting velocity on the adsorbent-coated surface became lower, so that the frost suppression effect was also observed. Therefore, the adsorbent was found to be effective in terms of frost reduction.
