scope:

ABSTRACT

Open Refrigerated Vertical Display Cases greatly contribute to the energy consumption of supermarkets. In the recent decades air curtains have significantly improved the efficiency of the systems; nevertheless, it is possible to change the design specifications of display cases to achieve higher degrees of efficiency. A simulator apparatus was constructed to easily vary several geometrical and fluid dynamic variables that affect the air curtain performances, and then a series of experimental tests were performed by a noble tracer gas technique to measure the infiltration rate in each test case scenario. The study focuses only on the cases that do not benefit from back panel flow and therefore the ratio is 1. In addition to the infiltration rate measurement, a new method using tracer gas is used to measure the total flow rate of the display case. It was found that the infiltration rate is strongly dependent on the investigated variables.