Experimental analysis on a novel air heat exchanger containing PCM (Phase Change Material) in a cold room.

In the present work the performance of a cold room with a novel air heat exchanger containing PCM (Phase Change Material) was experimentally investigated. Specifically, an air heat exchanger consisting of aluminium containers with finned surface filled with PCM (5 °C melting temperature), was located near the evaporator of a cold room. The aims are to reduce cooling energy consumption and improving the maintenance thermal conditions of stored products. For this purpose, an experimental campaign was carried out and a monitoring system was developed. The cold room thermal behaviour, with and without PCM, was studied under steady state operating conditions. As expected a reduced number of on/off compressor cycles (6 cycles instead 13 cycles) in the PCM added cold room was observed. Test results showed that by storing PCM in the air heat exchanger, up to 16% of energy saving can be achieved.

本研究对配备含相变材料（Phase Change Material，PCM）的新型空气换热器的冷藏库性能进行了实验研究。具体而言，该空气换热器由表面带翅片的铝制容器构成，容器内填充了熔化温度为5°C的PCM，并被放置在冷藏库蒸发器附近。研究目标为降低制冷能耗，并改善存储产品的热环境维持条件。为此，开展了一系列实验并开发了一套监测系统。在稳态运行条件下，研究了有无PCM时冷藏库的热行为。正如预期，加装PCM的冷藏库中压缩机启停循环次数减少（由13次降至6次）。实验结果表明，通过在空气换热器中存储PCM，可实现高达16%的节能效果。