Simulation of the performance of single jet air curtains for vertical refrigerated display cabinets

Air curtains are widely used in refrigerated display cabinets as well as doorways of cold rooms and retail premises. The main purpose of the air curtain is to reduce the air exchange and hence heat and moisture transfer between the conditioned environment and the surrounding ambient. This paper presents a comprehensive model, based on the finite difference technique, which can be used to predict and optimise the performance of air curtains. Based on results obtained from the model, correlations for the heat transfer across refrigerated display cabinet air curtains have been developed to enable quick calculations and parametric analyses for design and refrigeration equipment sizing purposes. Both models have been validated against results from tests on a vertical refrigerated display cabinet air curtain.