Research on test method of heat transfer coefficient for refrigerator gasket

This paper presents an experimental research on test method of heat transfer coefficient for refrigerator gasket. An experimental apparatus based on Reverse Heat Loss Method (RHLM) was established. Tests were carried out on three distinct refrigerators to develop a high accuracy and repeatability test method. To ensure the accuracy of test, heat flux test zones of cabinet walls were divided strictly in conformity with the thermal resistance distribution. It was observed that the deviations of the heat transfer coefficient were less than ±5%, by using small volume size refrigerator as the test box and the characteristic heat flux method to simplify the test zones. Through testing gaskets with the different structures, the heat transfer coefficient of common gasket was about 0.045 W/m·°C. The results also indicate that the auxiliary air cell, multi-air cells, stiffener and auxiliary edge can reduce the heat leakage of gasket. The fan in the cabinet contributed to an increase of about 17% to heat leakage of gasket.