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

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.427-428
• /
• 2009

In the manufacture process of refrigerator cabinet, polyurethane(PU) liquid firstly is injected between outer plate and inner case in high temperature about $40^{\circ}C$, and PU foam is generated and solidified to the room temperature. There will be great residual stress in the PU foam, especially at the corners after the whole refrigerator is completely assembled. The stress condition will become more complicated under operating condition because of the large temperature difference between the freezing room and outer plate. And also, there are great differences of properties for plastic and steel which would cause different deformation under temperature gradient. The steel outer plate would expand compared to the PU foam or ABS material under operation condition, which induces a thermally bowing deformation in the refrigerator cabinet. The objective of this paper is to design an optimum bead structure or to use reinforcement in the refrigerator except for improving material properties in order to decrease the deformation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.30-36
• /
• 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 for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.96-101
• /
• 2011

Under extreme test or operation condition, refrigerator endures complicated stresses state and thermal bowing deformation arises on the sidewall. Shelf rails designed in the inner case provide increased surface area to permit expansion without bowing, and also increase structural rigidity to resist bowing. In this study, we designed six different shelf patterns of refrigerator model and studied the bead on refrigerator deformation using finite element method (FEM). Analysis result shows that increasing the numbers of beads properly in refrigerator is more helpful to reduce thermal bowing deformation. In addition, the beads would decrease stress on refrigerator sidewall. However, vertical beads have no effect to reduce thermal deformation of the bowing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.67-74
• /
• 2020

To predict the thermal deformation of an oven cabinet during the enamel process, we propose a simple finite element analysis method comprising two steps: heating and cooling. To this end, the basic mechanical and thermal properties such as thermal expansion of the enamel and steel plate were experimentally studied, and the mechanical properties of four different stainless steel (SUS) plates were evaluated to select the target material for the oven at high temperature conditions from 400 ℃ to 700 ℃. In the first analysis step of the enamel process, the SUS plate was heated to 850 ℃ and was then thermally expanded without considering the enamel coating. Next, assuming the perfect bonding of two materials (enamel coating and metal plate), the enamel plate was allowed to cool to room temperature till 22 ℃. From the results of comparing the experimental and analytical data, we can make a conclusion that the proposed method can be applied to evaluate the thermal deformation of enamel products. Especially, the thermal deformation of the oven can be predicted with different enamel coating conditions, such as uniform and nonuniform coating thickness.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.9
• /
• pp.465-473
• /
• 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
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2022

Household refrigerator cabinets must undergo cyclic testing at -20 ℃ and 65 ℃ for quality control (QC) after their production is complete. These cabinets were assembled from different materials, including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyurethane (PU) foam, and steel plates. However, different thermal expansion values could be observed owing to differences in the mechanical properties of the materials. In this study, a technique to predict delamination on a refrigerator wall caused by thermal deformation was developed. The mechanical properties of ABS and PU foams were tested, theload factors causing delamination were analyzed, delamination was observed using a high-speed camera, and comparison and verification in terms of stress and strain were performed using a finite element model (FEM). The results indicated that the delamination phenomenon of a refrigerator wall can be defined in two cases. A method for predicting and evaluating delamination was established and applied in an actual refrigerator. To determine the effect of temperature changes on the refrigerator, strain measurements were performed at the weak point and the stress was calculated. The results showed that the proposed FEM prediction technique can be used as a basis for virtual testing to replace future QC testing, thus saving time and cost.