Energy savings potential in using cold-shelves innovation for multi-deck open front refrigerated cabinets

Abstract

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) An approach considered in recent years to improve the efficiency of open-type refrigerated display cabinets is to install air guiding strips at the front face of the shelves with a single layer air curtain. This paper presents experimental results comparing a conventional open-type vertical refrigerated cabinet and a cold shelf innovation, which integrates both air-guiding strips and air supply at the front of individual shelves. In addition, a comprehensive and detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics model using ANSYS Fluent has been created to further investigate the influence of the cold shelve innovation on the performance of vertical multi-deck refrigerated display cabinets. The experimental results showed energy savings of 16.7 kWh/24 hrs for the guiding strips and cold shelf innovation compared to the conventional cabinet due to the more efficient air curtain and lower air temperature entering the evaporator coil.