Under extreme test or operation condition, refrigerator endures complicated stresses state and thermal bowing deformation arises on the sidewall. Shelf rails designed in the inner case provide increased surface area to permit expansion without bowing, and also increase structural rigidity to resist bowing. In this study, we designed six different shelf patterns of refrigerator model and studied the bead on refrigerator deformation using finite element method (FEM). Analysis result shows that increasing the numbers of beads properly in refrigerator is more helpful to reduce thermal bowing deformation. In addition, the beads would decrease stress on refrigerator sidewall. However, vertical beads have no effect to reduce thermal deformation of the bowing.
