Study of a Coil Heat Exchanger with an Ice Storage System

In this study, a coil heat exchanger with an ice storage system is analyzed by theoretical analysis, numerical analysis, and experimental analysis. The dynamic characteristics of ice thickness variation is studied by means of unstable heat conduction theory in cylindrical coordinates, and the change rule of the ice layer thickness is obtained. The computational fluid dynamics method is employed to simulate the flow field and ice melting process of the coil heat exchanger. The effect of the agitator height on the flow characteristics and heat transfer characteristics is investigated. The numerical results show that the turbulence intensity of the fluid near the wall of the heat exchanger is the largest with an agitator height of 80 mm. Furthermore, the process of ice melting is analyzed. The ice on the outer side of the evaporator tube close to the container wall melts faster than the inner side and this agrees well with the experimental result. The experimental study on the process of the operational period and deicing of the coil heat exchanger is conducted and the temperature variation curves are obtained by the arrangement of thermocouples. It is found that the temperature of the evaporating tube increases with increasing height in the process of ice storage.