3D transient CFD modeling of sliding door operation and its influence on the thermal performance of cold rooms

• Autor(a) principal: Carneiro, Rui
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Gaspar, Pedro Dinis, Silva, Pedro Dinho da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/7349
• topic: Agrifood industry

The need of rationalize energy consumption in agrifood industry has fasten the development of methodologies to improve the thermal and energy performances of cold rooms. This paper presents a 3D transient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling of a cold room to evaluate the air infiltration rate through sliding doors. A species transport model is used for modelling the tracer concentration decay technique. Numerical predictions indicate that air temperature difference between spaces affects the air infiltration. For this case study, the infiltration rate increases 0.012 m3 s-1 per K of air temperature difference. The knowledge about the evolution of air infiltration during door opening/closing times allows to draw some conclusions about its influence on the air conditions inside the cold room, as well as to suggest best practices and simple technical improvements that can minimize air infiltration, and consequently improve thermal performance and energy consumption rationalization.