CFD Simulation of Thermal and Energy Performance for a Display Cabinet Refrigerator Containing a Phase Change Material (PCM)

The present study is focused on CFD simulation of the thermal performance inside a display cabinet refrigerator, containing a phase change material (PCM) placed at the bottom of each tray of the refrigerator. The PCM used in the present study is one of the organic type PCMs. A transient simulation for the thermal environment inside the refrigerator was carried out over a total period of 30 minutes, in case of that the compressor is in the off state. Temperature distributions inside the refrigerator space were presented after each 5 minutes from turning the compressor off, till the end of the simulation period. Results of the simulation were presented for two cases, in case of the presence of PCM and without PCM, to show the effect of adding such type of materials to cold space in case of power off or any other circumstances lead to stopping the cooling system. The contours of liquid fraction were also presented in the presence of PCM. The findings obtained from the current study showed that the addition of the PCM had a significant effect on the temperature values inside the refrigerator, where lower values were obtained during the entire simulation, compared with the values obtained in the case of no PCM. The PCM was firstly in the solid state, then when temperature started to rise, the PCM started to absorb heat from the refrigerator space, then it started to melt. This process helps in reducing the rate of increase in temperature values in cold spaces in case of power cut off or prolonging the off-cycle time of the compressor, playing a major role in energy saving considerations.