A New Approach to Delay or Prevent Frost Formation in Membranes

Abstract

Saturation of the water vapor is essential to form frost inside a permeable membrane. The main goal of this paper is to develop a numerical model that can predict temperature and humidity inside a membrane in order to show the location and time of saturation. This numerical model for heat and mass transfer is developed to show that frost formation may be prevented or delayed by controlling the moisture transfer through the membrane, which is the new approach in this paper. The idea is to simultaneously dry and cool air to avoid saturation conditions and thereby eliminate condensation and frosting in the membrane. Results show that saturation usually occurs on side of the membrane with the highest temperature and humidity. The numerical model is verified with experimental data and used to show that moisture transfer through the membrane can delay or prevent frost formation.