• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.30-36
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• 2018

Since the freezer compartment and the refrigerating compartment are located side by side in a side-by-side refrigerator, the problems of the door height difference (DHD) and door flatness difference (DFD) have been constantly raised. Deformation of the cabinet of a built-in side-by-side refrigerator under food and thermal loads was analyzed by the finite element software ANSYS. The DHD and DFD, occurring due to the deformation of the cabinet, evaluated. From the results of the analysis of the cabinet, the 3D CAD software CATIA was used to geometrically translate and rotate the freezing and refrigerating compartment doors, in consideration of the displacement of the hinge fastening point. Then, the coordinates of two points on the upper corner of the doors were determined, and the DHD and DFD were obtained. It found that the thermal load, occurring under normal operation conditions, decreases the door height difference, but increases the door flatness difference. Values of the analyzed DHD and DFD appear smaller than the acceptance criteria used by the refrigerator manufacturer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2020

The damping hinge of a built-in refrigerator was examined in terms of its stress and fatigue life. Analysis of the initial design showed that stress concentration occurred at the concave surface of the hinge lever, which was broken during the door opening-and-closing endurance test of the prototype. The maximum von Mises stress at this location exceeded the yield strength. In addition, Goodman fatigue analysis of the initial design showed that the fatigue life at this location was consistent with the failure observed during the endurance test. Based on these results, an improved design for the damping hinge was derived. Analysis of this improved design showed that the stress concentration in the hinge lever of the initial design was eliminated. In this case, the maximum stress occurred at the position where the hinge lever was in contact with the door stopping pin, and the maximum von Mises stress was smaller than the yield strength. Goodman fatigue analysis of the improved design indicated that the fatigue life of the entire damping hinge was infinite. It was therefore concluded that the improved design does not suffer from fatigue damage during the endurance test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.76-83
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• 2018

A cabinet-door integrated finite element model was constructed for a built-in side-by-side refrigerator with an ice dispenser, and its deformation was analyzed using the ANSYS finite element software. As loads, the food load needed to fill in the cabinet and doors and the thermal load occurring during normal operation conditions were taken into consideration. The door height difference (DHD) and door flatness difference (DFD) between the two doors of the freezing and refrigerating compartments were derived. The DHD and DFD under the assembled condition without applied loads satisfied the acceptance criteria specified by the refrigerator manufacturer. It appeared that the food load increases the DFD slightly. The thermal load tends to increase the differences because of the thermal deformation, especially the DFD, of the cabinet and doors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.465-473
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• 2018

A cabinet-door integrated finite element model for a built-in side-by-side refrigerator with an ice dispenser and home bar was constructed, and its deformation was analyzed by ANSYS. As loads, the food load in the shelf and baskets, and thermal load occurring during the normal operation condition were considered. From results of the analyses, the door height difference (DHD) and door flatness difference (DFD) between the two doors, and the increase in the gap of the door gasket, which affects the sealing of cool air in the cabinet, were derived. As results of an evaluation of the differences, the DHD and DFD under the assembled condition satisfied the acceptance criteria of the manufacturer. The food and thermal loads increased the DHD and DFD due to thermal deformation, and the DFD increased significantly. In addition, the increase in the gap of door gasket located between the cabinet and doors was derived from the results of displacements under the food and thermal loads. The evaluation showed that the maximum increase in gap appeared at the left edge of the freezing compartment gasket, which satisfied the acceptance criteria of the manufacturer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2020

In this study, we developed a finite element model for the built-in bottom-freezer type refrigerator and then used the structural analysis method to analyze and evaluate the deflection of the doors. We tested the validity of the developed analytical model by measuring the deflection of the hinge when loads were applied to the upper and lower hinges of the refrigerating compartment and compared these with the analysis results. The comparison of the vertical displacement of the measured result and the analysis result showed an error ratio of up to 12.8%, which indicates that the analytical model is consistent. Using the analytical model composed of the cabinet, hinges and doors, we performed analyses for two cases: both doors closed, and the refrigerating door open. Since the maximum vertical displacement of the refrigerating compartment door (R-door) with the food load is smaller than the gap between the lower surface of the R-door and the upper surface of the freezer compartment door (F-door), it is judged that the R-door and the F-door do not contact when the doors are opened or closed. In addition, the analysis result showed that the difference between the vertical displacement at the hinge on the opposite side and the hinge side of the R-door is favorably smaller than the management criterion of the refrigerator manufacturer.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2013

The present study has been carried out to reduce the heat loss from a built in refrigerator by using reverse heat loss method to discern the region with larger heat loss. To perform this purpose, an infrared thermographic camera has been used to measure the surface temperature of the refrigerator and tried to improve the heat loss near the ice dispenser. The numerical heat transfer analysis also has been accomplished to clarify the heat transfer mechanism near the ice dispenser. The possible applicable method to reduce heat loss was increasing the curvature radius at the ice dispenser corner. The curvature radius has been changed from 0mm to 40mm to see the effect of the curvature at the corner. From the present research, the optimal curvature radius for the reduction of heat loss at the ice dispenser could be 30mm.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2014

The present study was conducted to elucidate the characteristics of temperature at the inlet and outlet pipes of a refrigerator drain condenser and suggest the method to predict the temperature of the refrigerant at the inlet and outlet pipes of the drain condenser. For this purpose, a built in style refrigerator was installed in a constant temperature chamber to measure temperatures at the inlet and outlet pipes of the drain condenser. From the results of the present analysis, it could be seen that the measured temperatures changed from $37^{\circ}C$ to $46^{\circ}C$ and the actual refrigerant temperatures were higher than the measured temperatures with the difference magnitude of $8^{\circ}C$ to $22^{\circ}C$. The present study suggested that the temperatures of the refrigerator could be calculated with the measured temperatures by introducing curve fitting of the measured temperature. The predicted refrigerant temperatures by the present study had the accuracy within 6% error of the actual refrigerant temperatures.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.373-379
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• 2020

This study performed stress and fatigue life analysis of the damping hinge of a built-in side-by-side refrigerator that occurs when the door is opened to the maximum angle. An analysis of the initial design showed that stress concentration occurred at the corner between the cylinder and upper disk of the bracket pin, and the maximum stress exceeded the yield strength. The maximum stress location and the calculated fatigue life were consistent with the door opening-and-closing endurance test results for a prototype. Three cases of design improvement for the bracket pin were derived with the aim of reducing the stress concentration that appeared in the initial design. An analysis of the cases showed that inserting a fillet between the disk and the cylinder of the bracket pin reduced the stress and increased the fatigue life. Moreover, changing the disk into two steps was more favorable. In conclusion, the best design improvement was the case that the disk was changed to two steps and the fillet with a large radius was inserted. In that case, the stress was the smallest and the fatigue life was infinite.