Thermal performance of domestic refrigerator with multiple phase change materials: Numerical study

This paper presents a physical model to study the energy efficiency of a residential refrigerator containing multiple phase change materials (PCMs). This model was validated using experimental data from published literature. The impact of varying parameters, such as PCM thickness (from 3 up to 7 mm), internal load (from 0 up to 20 W) and external temperature (from 15 up to 30 °C), on the energy performance of the domestic refrigerator was described. It was found that the melting temperature of the PCM should be chosen based on the estimated thermal load of the refrigerator. As well, the PCM thickness has a significant impact on the system's autonomy and performance. Hence, the compressor downtime increases from 344 min, using 3 mm of water, to 530 min using 5 mm and up to 720 min using 7 mm. The simulation results also indicate that the refrigerator air temperature when the eutectic solution is used as PCM is lower than that of using water. Besides, using multi-PCMs (water and eutectic solution) in parallel maintains the air temperature between 4 and 6 °C. •The energy performance of a domestic refrigerator was evaluated by incorporating several phase change materials.•The proposed model was validated using experimental results from the literature.•The refrigerator's performance could be significantly improved by using PCM.•The integration of both water and eutectic solution in the refrigerator can be an interesting solution.