Temperature pull-down of a retrofitted wine refrigerator cabinet cooled by a caloric system emulator

Abstract

The present study analyzes the time-dependent thermal behavior of a retrofitted wine refrigerator cabinet operated by a caloric system emulator. The presence of a full load of wine bottles enabled the assessment of the thermal stratification inside the cabinet. Further experimental tests have been performed to quantify the overall thermal conductance of the cabinet walls and the thermal conductance of the glass door. A detailed mathematical model was developed to predict the temperature pull down in the refrigerated compartment, considering the interaction between the cabinet air and the wine bottles. In addition to the air and bottle temperatures, a good agreement (lower than 15% relative error) was observed for the cooling capacity. The numerical simulations revealed that the cabinet door was responsible for approximately 60% of the thermal load (even though it corresponded to approximately 20% of the cabinet external area).

Key words
Caloric cooling; heat exchangers; mathematical modeling; refrigerator cabinet; wine cooler