Study on enhancing anti-condensation performance of refrigeration devices at high humidity based on the improvement of interior, exterior and itself of the gasket in the sealing components

Abstract

The sealing components is essential for isolating the internal cold air of refrigeration devices from the external hot environment. However, its structure currently causes severe cooling capacity loss in the sealing components area, making its outer surface highly prone to condensation. This paper aims to improve the anti-condensation performance of the sealing components of refrigeration devices under the extreme daily operating condition of 32 °C and 90% relative humidity (RH). This study proposes three improvements to the gasket itself, as well as its interior and exterior. Numerical simulation results show that, compared to the original sealing components which experiences condensation at a humidity of 82.82% RH, for improving the gasket itself using low-thermal-conductivity material of foamed PVC and hollow microsphere-filled PVC increases the maximum relative humidity to prevent condensation to 83.73% RH and 83.88% RH, for improving gasket interior using the internal wind shield increases the maximum relative humidity to prevent condensation to 86.58% RH, for improving gasket exterior using the exterior high thermal conductivity film increases the maximum relative humidity to prevent condensation to 92.89% RH. Experimental results demonstrate that the condensation status of the improved sealing components is significantly alleviated. The improvement of the gasket exterior can almost completely prevent condensation under the 32 °C/90% RH. In terms of power, the effect of three improved methods on the power of the refrigeration devices is less than 1%. Thus, all of the improved methods can enhance anti-condensation performance without significantly affecting the power of the refrigeration devices. The purpose of this study is to provide optimization methods to improve the anti-condensation performance of refrigeration devices without significantly affecting the power of refrigeration devices.