Dependence of Ice Thickness on the Performance of Medicated Water Electrolysis Apparatus

Medicated water electrolysis apparatus, which electrolyzes water into acidic water and alkaline water, was in the spotlight as the effect of alkaline water was became known. It is known to have a positive effect for health as removing active oxygen in the human’s body and promoting digestion. But, the customers could not get their desired water temperature due to the fact that these apparatuses are directly connected with water pipe. So, the cooling system to control the temperature of the alkaline water was developed. One of the typical way is to store water in water tank and control its temperature. But, in this way, stored water can be polluted by impurities entering from outside. As the protection for this pollution, the cooling system based on indirect heat exchange method through phase change between water and ice was developed. In this study, we have calculated the efficiency of the cooling system with phase change by experiment and commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code, ANSYS CFX. To consider the effect of latent heat generated by the melting ice, we have simulated two phase numerical analyses by using enthalpy method and found the temperature, velocity, and ice mass distribution, which are required to calculate the efficiency of cooling system. From the results, we obtained the relationship between the cooling efficiency and the thickness of ice, which is created by evaporator located in the cooling system.