Keynote: Whirlpool Uses Simulation to Improve the Efficiency of Kitchen Appliances

As an industrial partner in Europe's GREENKITCHEN initiative, Whirlpool R&D aims to reduce water and energy consumption from kitchen appliances, starting with the standard electric oven. In a keynote presentation at the COMSOL Conference 2014 Cambridge, Nelson Garcia-Polanco of Whirlpool explained that the electric oven is the least efficient appliance in the kitchen, where only 10-20% of the energy consumed goes toward heating food.

Garcia-Polanco continued his talk by presenting the industry standard test for evaluating the energy consumption of an oven, which involves baking a brick. While heating a water-soaked brick for about one hour, the temperature is measured in the air inside the oven cavity, on the heating element surface, on the brick surface, as well as in the air outside of the oven. From the temperature measurements acquired in a Whirlpool Minerva oven, heat transfer coefficients were determined and used to develop a validated model of the process in COMSOL Multiphysics.

Watch this video to see how multiphysics simulation was used to help reduce the energy consumption of electric ovens by 15% – close to the 20% target. Through transient simulation of heat and mass transfer, parameters such as the emissivity of the oven door glass, dimensions and materials of the oven walls, and heating element design are being optimized, which results in a better product that saves both energy and money.