A novel optimization strategy for the design of air curtains for open vertical refrigerated display cases

This paper presents a novel strategy for optimizing the design of air curtains for open vertical refrigerated display cases which is based on an air curtain two-fluid of cooling loss (CLTF) model and a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. A model for air curtain cooling loss, one important performance factor of display cases, is proposed. To verify the air curtain cooling loss and determine which design parameters significantly influence the performance of air curtains in open vertical display cases, the CLTF model was built to study the flow and transfer of heat through air curtains used in such display cases. After the object function for cooling loss is constructed, it is solved using a SVM algorithm with different input design parameter combinations. As a result, the predicted cooling loss is reduced by 19.6%. After being validated using experimental data, the TEC/TDA of optimum display case is found to be reduced by 17.1%. The experimental results show this strategy to be an effective method of optimizing the air curtain design.