Airflow Optimization in Retail Cabinets and the Use of CFD Modelling to Design Cabinets

It is evident that improvements in performance of refrigerated units (cabinets, display cases, etc.) is becoming a necessity. Some of these improvements are focused on the hardware involving the compressor, evaporator, lighting design and heat transfer of such units. However, additional gains in the performance of refrigerated cabinets can be achieved by altering the airflow pattern and characteristics inside (or outside) these cabinets. This chapter summarizes ongoing research on this, to demonstrate the application of a hybrid approach which combines computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental methods to understand and map the airflow pattern and characteristics. The main focus is on open vertical refrigerated display cases (OVRDCs). The chapter discusses the infiltration rate in OVRDCs by using hybrid CFD and experimental tools. CFD provides detailed local information about the fluid flow, giving insight into ways to alter a design for better performance.