Parametric analysis of domestic refrigerators using PCM heat exchanger

In the present study, numerical simulation of refrigeration cycle incorporated with a PCM heat exchanger is carried out. To this end, the refrigeration cycle without PCM has been simulated and then, the performance coefficients of the refrigerator in either with and without PCM are evaluated. The PCM heat exchanger is located in the refrigeration cycle, at a location after the condenser and before the expansion valve. The utilised PCM is N-Octadecane with fusion temperature of 27.5 °C. The simulation of heat exchanger is based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in which the flow inside the pipe is considered one-dimensional in the axial extension and PCM surrounding it, is considered two dimensional. Numerical simulation is carried out using MATLAB software. Simulation results show that utilizing PCM in refrigeration cycle of a refrigerator causes an improvement in the convection procedure and results a 9.58% increase in performance coefficient of refrigerator.