Heat transfer and evaporative cooling in the function of pot-in-pot coolers

Abstract

International audienceA pot-in-pot cooler is an affordable electricity-free refrigerator which uses the latent heat of vaporization of water to maintain a low temperature inside an inner compartment. In this article we experimentally investigate the influence of the main physical parameters in model pot-in-pot coolers. The effect of the wind on the evaporation rate of the cooling fluid is studied in model experiments while the influence of the fluid properties (thermal conductivity, specific heat and latent heat) is elucidated using a variety of cooling fluids (water, ethanol and ether). A model based on a simplified heat conduction equation is proposed and is shown to be in good quantitative agreement with the experimental measurements