Schemes and effects on improvement of temperature uniformity inside indirect cooling wine cabinet

Highlights: • Temperature uniformity in wine cabinet is improved by optimizing cabinet structure. • Possible schemes for temperature uniformity improvement are compared. • The best scheme is recommended based on qualitative and quantitative analysis. • This study achieves a better temperature uniformity than the existing studies. -- Abstract: The purpose of this study is to improve temperature uniformity in a wine cabinet. Four basic methods are proposed at first, i.e., using solid shelves to separate the cabinet into several chambers and sending cold air into each chamber; providing an cold air curtain to prevent heat leakage though front glass door; adjusting the flow direction of cold air to enhance convection in both sides of the cabinet; and adding air outlets in different chambers in the bottom of the cabinet to distract the heat in the return air. Then a combination of these four methods is recommended as the optimal scheme based on qualitatively and quantitatively comparing the effects of these methods and their combination. Practical application of the optimal scheme in a wine cabinet shows that the maximum temperature difference in the cabinet has decreased from 12.1 °C to 1.9 °C, meaning that the effect is quite satisfied.