Experimental investigation of electrothermal defrost tubes’ arrangement on heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics of evaporator

The paper presents new arrangement types of electrothermal defrost tubes and manufactures four evaporator samples. Through a wind tunnel refrigeration experimental test-bed, relatively experiments for every sample are carried to study heat transfer and flow resistances characteristics of evaporator. The experiment results show that in experimental face velocity range from 1.5 m/s to 4.3 m/s compared with flat-fin evaporator, the unit area of cooling capacity of DK-8 evaporator increased 28.1% to 36.2%, the fin surface coefficient of heat transfer raises 79.2% to 83.5%, the compressor COP (Coefficient of Performance) improves 38.2% to 46.9%, and the air side flow resistance decreases 5.29% to 18.3% in the same experimental condition and geometric size. The increase amplitude of COP is obviously higher than air side flow resistance. The experimental investigation results prove that it is completely feasible optimized combing defrost design with heat transfer enhancement design.