This Brief is aimed at engineers and researchers involved in the refrigeration industry: specifically, those interested in energy utilization and system efficiency. The book presents what the authors believe is the first comprehensive frost melting study involving all aspects of heat and mass transfer. The volume's description of in-plane and normal digital images of frost growth and melting is also unique in the field, and the digital analysis technique offers an advantage over invasive measurement methods. The scope of book's coverage includes modeling and experimentation for the frost formation and melting processes. The key sub-specialties to which the book are aimed include refrigeration system analysis and design, coupled heat and mass transfer, and phase-change processes.

Discusses experiments on frost growth and melting in a controlled thermal environment Visualizes frost formation and image reduction to quantitative data via digital analysis Develops a comprehensive theoretical model of the frost growth and melting processes Validates the theoretical model to extent possible with data obtained from digital analysis Provides an estimation of frost porosity and related thermophysical properties from digital reduction of normal images of frost

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. State-of-the-Art.- 3. Multi-Stage Defrost Model.- 4. Experimental Method.- 5. Measurement of the Defrost Process.- 6. Solution of the Defrost Model.