KR100577181B1 - Apparatus for defrosting in refrigerator and method for defrosting using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a defrosting apparatus and a defrosting method of a refrigerator, by slowing the growth of the thickness of the frost layer formed in the evaporator and increasing the density to extend the defrosting period and shorten the defrosting time.

To this end, the present invention provides a compressor, a condenser, a heat dissipation fan for forcibly blowing external air to the condenser, an evaporator installed in a cold air duct at the rear of the refrigerator, a blower fan for cooling cooling air through the evaporator, A method for removing frost generated in the evaporator in a refrigerator comprising a thermoelectric element attached to the evaporator to transfer heat for defrosting, the method comprising: a) until the pressure loss of air passing through the evaporator reaches a set point; Starting and stopping the thermoelectric element at regular intervals several times; b) when the pressure loss of the air passing through the evaporator reaches a set value, stopping the operation of the compressor and the blower fan and operating the thermoelectric element for a predetermined time to perform defrosting; c) providing a defrosting method of a refrigerator configured to stop the operation of the thermoelectric element and to operate the compressor and the blower fan.

Refrigerator, Defroster, Defrosting method, Isolation layer, Thermoelectric element

Description

Apparatus for defrosting in refrigerator and method for defrosting using the same}

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The main part sectional drawing which shows an example of a structure of a general refrigerator as a background art.

2 is a sectional view of main parts of a refrigerator showing an embodiment of a defrosting apparatus of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

3 is a flow chart illustrating a defrosting method of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a graph comparing the pressure loss rise curve by the defrosting method according to the present invention and the conventional defrosting method

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

5: evaporator 6: defrost heater

7: auxiliary heater 16: thermoelectric element

The present invention relates to a defrosting apparatus and a defrosting method for removing the frost generated in the evaporator of the refrigerator, in particular to reduce the thickness growth rate of the frost layer generated in the evaporator during the cooling process to increase the defrost cycle and shorten the defrost time A defrosting device and a defrosting method of a refrigerator.

In general, the refrigerator is one of the necessities of life as a device that keeps food fresh for a certain period of time by lowering the temperature in the refrigerator as the refrigerant is repeatedly compressed, condensed, expanded and evaporated.

Such a refrigerator includes a compressor for raising / heating a low temperature / low pressure gas refrigerant to a high temperature / high pressure gas refrigerant, a condenser for condensing the refrigerant introduced from the compressor by outside air, and a narrow diameter compared to the diameter of other parts. It consists of an expansion valve for reducing the refrigerant introduced from the condenser, and the evaporator which absorbs the heat in the refrigerator as the refrigerant passing through the expansion valve in a low pressure state as a basic component constitutes a refrigeration cycle.

Hereinafter, a structure and an operation of a general refrigerator will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the refrigerator includes a freezer compartment 2 in which cold air heat-exchanged by the evaporator 5 is directly introduced into the case 1 filled with heat insulators to maintain an internal temperature of about -18 ° C. The cold compartment in the freezer compartment 2 is largely divided into a refrigeration chamber (3) that maintains an internal temperature of about 0 ~ 7 ℃, the machine room is installed under the rear of the refrigerating compartment (3) compressor, condenser and heat radiation fan (Not shown) is provided.

And the rear of the freezing chamber (2) is provided with a cold air duct 10 through which the hot air is introduced for heat exchange while circulating the freezer compartment and the refrigerating compartment, the cold air duct is passed along the evaporator with the evaporator (5) A blowing fan 9 for forcibly circulating the cooled cold air into the freezing chamber 2 through the cold air discharge port 11 and a motor 8 for driving the blowing fan are provided.

On the other hand, between the freezer compartment (2) and the refrigerating compartment (3) is provided with a cold air circulation duct 12 is formed with a plurality of communication ports through which the cold air of the freezer compartment and the freezer compartment can be freely exchanged, the cold air of the freezer compartment is supplied to the refrigerating compartment and The cold air is to be introduced into the cold air duct 10 through the cold air circulation duct (12).

On the other hand, reference numeral 13, which is not described, indicates a freezer compartment side door.

The refrigerator thus constructed operates as follows.

First, when power is applied while food is filled in the freezer compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3, the compressor of the machine compartment is operated under the control signal of a controller (not shown), and the evaporator 5 is operated by the refrigerating cycle as described above. Heat exchange environment is created. Therefore, the cold air passing through the evaporator is lowered by the endothermic action, and is discharged into the freezing chamber 2 by the operation of the blowing fan 9. Subsequently, some of the cold air is introduced into the refrigerating chamber through the cold air communication port. Thereafter, the cold air whose temperature is increased while circulating the freezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3 forms a cold air circulation structure introduced into the evaporator 5 through the cold air circulation duct 12.

On the other hand, in the refrigerator, frost occurs in the evaporator 5 due to moisture introduced from the inside of the refrigerator. Since the frost reduces the cooling efficiency as a factor that inhibits the flow of cold air, a defrost operation to remove the frost every certain time is necessary.

To this end, a plurality of defrost heaters 6 and auxiliary heaters 7 are provided around the evaporator. The defrost heater (6) is a contact electric heater that is in contact with the evaporator (5) to transfer heat to the fins of the evaporator by conduction, the auxiliary heater (7) is spaced apart from the evaporator by a predetermined distance from the evaporator by radiation It is a non-contact electric heater that transfers heat to the fins and defrosts. Depending on the type of refrigerator, either one or both are applied.

Therefore, during the defrosting operation, the defrost heater 6 and the auxiliary heater 7 may be supplied with power to transfer heat to the fins of the evaporator 5 to remove frost formed on the evaporator. The water is discharged to the outside of the refrigerator through a separate reservoir and a collecting pipe or evaporated by itself.

However, as described above, when the defrosting heater and the auxiliary heater are heated to perform defrosting, the cooling cycle cannot be operated during the defrosting, and the heat of the defrosting heater and the auxiliary heater flows into a part of the furnace to raise the temperature in the refrigerator. There was a problem.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and by minimizing the defrosting time by shortening the defrosting time by slowing the thickness growth of the implantation layer generated in the evaporator and increasing the density, It is an object of the present invention to provide a defrosting apparatus and a defrosting method of a refrigerator which can reduce the air pressure loss passing through the evaporator to improve the efficiency of the overall cooling cycle.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, an evaporator installed in the cold air duct of the refrigerator; A defrost heater installed in the evaporator and performing defrost of the evaporator by transferring heat to the evaporator during the defrosting operation of the evaporator; Further, there is provided a defrosting apparatus of a refrigerator including a thermoelectric element attached to the evaporator and transferring heat to a frosted layer of the evaporator while being turned on and off at a predetermined period before the defrosting operation of the defrost heater.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a compressor, a condenser, a heat dissipation fan for forcibly blowing external air to the condenser, an evaporator installed in a cold air duct at the rear of the refrigerator, and a blower for blowing cooling air into the air through the evaporator A method for removing frost generated in the evaporator in a refrigerator comprising a fan and a heating element attached to the evaporator to transfer heat for defrosting, the method comprising: a) when the pressure loss of air passing through the evaporator reaches a set point; Starting and stopping the heating element at regular intervals several times; b) when the pressure loss of the air passing through the evaporator reaches a set value, stopping the operation of the compressor and the blower fan and operating the heating element for a predetermined time to perform defrosting; c) A method of defrosting a refrigerator comprising a step of stopping operation of a heating element and operating a compressor and a blower fan is provided.

Here, the heating element is preferably configured using a thermoelectric element.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a defrosting apparatus and a defrosting method of a refrigerator according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a cross-sectional view of main parts of a refrigerator showing a defrosting apparatus of a refrigerator according to the present invention, in which a freezer compartment 2 is partitioned on the upper side of the case 1, and a refrigerating compartment 3 is disposed on the lower side of the case 1. It is partitioned, and between the freezer compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3, a cold air circulation duct 12 through which cold air of the freezer compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3 is circulated is arranged.

The cold air duct 10 partitioned behind the freezing chamber 2 is provided with an evaporator 5 and a blowing fan 9 for discharging the circulated air cooled through the evaporator 5 to the freezing chamber 2.

In addition, a plurality of defrost heaters 6 are attached to the evaporator 5 for defrosting, and an auxiliary heater 7 for transmitting radiant heat during defrosting is attached to the evaporator 5.

In addition, a plurality of thermoelectric elements 16 are attached to the evaporator 5 to temporarily transmit heat to the surface of the evaporator 5 while being turned on / off at regular intervals during operation.

The thermoelectric elements 16 serve to slow the thickness growth of frost implanted on the evaporator 5 by instantaneously transferring high heat to the evaporator 5.

Specifically, the basic structure of the frost layer implanted in the evaporator 5 is a dendrite form, which repeats the process of complete destruction and recovery during the cooling cycle. When this is applied, the convex upper layer of the dendrite of the implantation layer melts to fill the valleys between the dendrites, thereby decreasing the thickness of the implanted layer and increasing density.

If this phenomenon is repeated periodically, the thickness growth of the implanted layer is slowed down and the density gradually increases, and as the density increases, the heat transfer coefficient increases and the heat transfer effect increases.

Therefore, when heat is transferred to the implantation layer at regular intervals as described above, the thickness growth of the implantation layer is slowed down and the density is increased. As shown in the graph of FIG. 4, the increase in pressure loss of air passing through the evaporator is slowed down. Compared to the conventional defrosting period is longer, the defrosting time is reduced.

Of course, as described above, it is possible to periodically transfer heat to the landing layer of the evaporator 5 as the defrost heater 6. However, since the defrost heater 6 has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to precisely control heat and cannot generate high heat instantaneously, the defrost heater 6 is less effective than the case in which the thermoelectric element 16 is used.

Hereinafter, a method of defrosting with the defrosting device configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, when power is supplied to the refrigerator, a cooling cycle proceeds while the compressor (not shown) and the blower fan 9 (see FIG. 2) operate, and external air passes through the evaporator 5 (see FIG. 2). The implantation proceeds slowly at). At this time, the thermoelectric element 16 (see FIG. 2) is in an off state.

Subsequently, the controller (not shown) turns on / off the thermoelectric element 16 at a predetermined time interval from the time when the power is applied to the refrigerator to the time when the predetermined air pressure loss setting value ΔP is reached. Therefore, as described above, the thickness growth of the implanted layer is slowed down and the density is increased.

As described above, if the pressure loss ΔP of the air passing through the evaporator 5 reaches the set value during the cooling cycle while repeatedly performing defrost by the thermoelectric element 16, the compressor and the blower fan 9 The defrosting heater 6 (see FIG. 2) and the auxiliary heater 7 (see FIG. 2) are started and the defrosting is started at the same time.

At this time, as described above, since the thermal conductivity is also increased by increasing the density of the implanted layer, the defrosting time Δt2 may be reduced as compared with the conventional defrosting time Δt1.

When the set defrosting time Δt2 elapses, the operation of the defrost heater 6 and the auxiliary heater 7 is stopped, and the compressor and the blower fan 9 are operated again, and the cooling cycle proceeds. From this point, the thermoelectric element 16 repeats the on / off cycle again.

Meanwhile, the defrosting apparatus and the defrosting method of the present invention described above may be equally or similarly applied to any type of refrigerator such as a side by side type refrigerator as well as a refrigerator of the type shown in FIG. 2. will be.

As described above, according to the present invention, as the thickness growth of the implantation layer generated in the evaporator is slowed and the density is increased, the air pressure loss is reduced and the thermal conductivity is improved, so that the defrosting period is longer than in the past, and the defrosting time is reduced. Therefore, it is possible to minimize various losses due to defrosting, and as a result, it is possible to improve the defrosting efficiency and heat exchange efficiency of the refrigerator and to reduce power consumption.

Claims (2)

An evaporator installed in the cold duct of the refrigerator; A defrost heater installed in the evaporator and performing defrost of the evaporator by transferring heat to the evaporator during the defrosting operation of the evaporator; And, The defrosting apparatus of the refrigerator comprising a thermoelectric element attached to the evaporator, and transfers heat to the frosted layer of the evaporator while being on and off at regular intervals before the defrosting operation of the defrost heater. A compressor, a condenser, a heat dissipation fan for forcibly blowing external air to the condenser, an evaporator installed in a cold air duct at the rear of the refrigerator, a blower fan for blowing cooling air through the evaporator, and a defroster attached to the evaporator. In the refrigerator comprising a heating element for transmitting heat for removing the frost generated in the evaporator, a) starting and stopping the heating element several times at regular intervals until the pressure loss of air passing through the evaporator reaches a set value; b) when the pressure loss of the air passing through the evaporator reaches a set value, stopping the operation of the compressor and the blower fan and operating the heating element for a predetermined time to perform defrosting; c) defrosting the heating element and operating the compressor and the blower fan.

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