Fin and Temperature Effect of Frost in Ambient Air Vaporizer

Since liquefied natural gas (LNG) is imported in a liquid state of about -162℃ to increase transportation efficiency in Korea, it must be vaporized in a gaseous state to supply it to consumers. Among them, ambient air vaporizer (AAV) has caught attention due to eco-friendly and low costs characteristics. However, there is a disadvantage that the performance of the heat exchanger is deteriorated due to frost due to mist and icing when used for a long time. In this paper, frost generation model in AAV vaporizer was investigated with numerically to examine utilizing the vaporizer performance with the frost generation behavior. The frost generation behavior of AAV vaporizers was examined with humidity, fin characteristic, and temperature effects. As for the LNG discharge temperature, the 12 fin vaporizer showed the highest discharge temperature when the atmospheric temperature was 25℃, and the 8 fin vaporizer had the lowest LNG discharge temperature when the atmospheric temperature was 0℃. In the case of frost formation, in the case of the 12 fin vaporizer, it was formed the most at the atmospheric temperature of 25℃, and the least was formed in the vaporizer at the 0℃ condition of the atmospheric temperature of 8 fins.