Review Article: A Critical Review of Properties and Models for Frost Formation Analysis

There has been a continuing effort to advance the understanding and modeling of frost formation on refrigerated surfaces during the last two decades for better design of air-to-refrigerant heat transfer equipment and effective and energy-saving control of defrosting processes. A review and comparative analysis of the available literature concerning frost properties, correlations, and mathematical models are presented in this study to provide an overview of the analytical tools for researchers, product developers, and designers. The frost research can be divided into two general groups—experimental correlations and mathematical models. In general, the properties correlated are the frost thermal conductivity, the frost average density, and air-frost heat transfer coefficient (Nusselt number). A limited operational range of these relations is observed. The mathematical models include both differential and integral approaches, which are, in general, solved numerically. These models are classified based on the geometrical configuration of cold surface. A comprehensive comparison of the models is given to assist the reader in making their decisions for design analysis. The existing gaps in the frost research are identified and recommendations are made.