Numerical Simulation of Air Curtain Used in the Cold Store through Different Models

Abstract:

Air curtains are commonly used to cut off air flow between the cold store and hot environment, and reduce heat and mass transfer in order to maintain the low temperature in the cold store. CFD can be used to predict operation rule of air curtain used in the cold store intuitively and modelling is the most important part of numerical simulation of air curtain used in the cold store. In this study, different numerical models including standardmodel (with and without boussinesq approximation) and RSM (with and without boussinesq approximation) were used to simulate the temperature field and air flow field in the cold store and operation rule of air curtain used in the cold store after air curtain opened for 60s. Meanwhile, the actual operation of air curtain used in the cold store was tested and the simulation values were compared with the experimental values. The results showed that the velocity of the central mainstream decayed slowly, but the velocity of both sides of air curtain decayed fast. The optimal model used to predict the temperature field and air flow field in the cold store and operation rule of air curtain used in the cold store was standardmodel with boussinesq approximation, the relative error was within 20%. The optimal model can be used to predict the temperature field and air flow field in the cold store during different times in the future research.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 749)
• Pages: 554-560
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.749.554
• Online since: August 2013
• Authors: Jing Xie, Chen Miao, Zhi Li Gao, Jian Bing Shi, Tai Wang
• Keywords: Air Curtain, Boussinesq Approximation, Cold Store, RSM, κ-ε Model

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