PIV measurement of the flow field in a domestic refrigerator model: Comparison with 3D simulations

PIV (particle image velocimetry) measurements of flow field due to natural convection in a parallelepipedic enclosure representing a domestic refrigerator model (scale 1) have been undertaken in order to determine the thickness of the hydrodynamic boundary layers and to study the flow motions depending on the boundary conditions applied on the vertical walls. One of the vertical walls is maintained at a negative and constant temperature either on the totality or on one part of its surface: this wall acts as the evaporator. The other walls are in contact with external air at constant temperature. The velocity measurements have been made in the symmetry plane of the enclosure. Unsteady recirculations have been observed at the bottom of the cavity. The influence of both the temperature and the dimension of the cold wall has been studied. cal simulations using CFD software (Fluent) have been then performed. In the numerical model, we assumed that the temperature of the evaporator is constant while an uniform global heat transfer coefficient has been used to describe the heat exchange with the external air at constant temperature. We considered laminar 3D flows and took into account the heat transfer by radiation between the different walls of the cavity. The results obtained with the 3D numerical simulations are in quite good agreement with the experimental airflow measurements using the PIV technique.