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Experimental investigation on the performance degradation of a microchannel condenser due to the air-side flow maldistribution.

Author(s) : PISANO A., MARTÍNEZ-BALLESTER S., CORBERÁN J. M., et al.

Summary

Combined with the refrigerant maldistribution, as highlighted in many works, the air flow maldistribution at the inlet of a heat exchanger produces evident variations of its thermo-hydraulic performance. The characteristics of the air maldistribution are strictly dependent on some parameters such as the position of the heat exchanger within the air flow, the geometry of the ducts and the presence of obstructions or solid residues. Therefore, each installation has its own air velocity distribution. Due to the difficulties connected to the velocity measurement, in many recent works, the air velocity profile at the inlet of the condenser (or evaporator) are calculated by means of the applications of specific CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software. The experimental reproduction of the calculated uneven velocity profiles is generally very complicated, hence many authors have been analyzing the effects of the air maldistribution on the refrigeration system performance using 1-D numerical models. In this work, with the adoption of an innovative methodology for generating and measuring in a reliable way any air velocity profile at the inlet of a heat exchanger, the performance degradation of a microchannel condenser is evaluated experimentally. Furthermore, the microchannel condenser performance variation will be compared against that obtained testing a tube and fins heat exchanger under the same air flow maldistribution and operating conditions. The results lead to conclude that the microchannel condenser undergoes the lower performance degradation in comparison with the round-tube-plate-fins heat exchanger.

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Pages: 7

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Details

  • Original title: Experimental investigation on the performance degradation of a microchannel condenser due to the air-side flow maldistribution.
  • Record ID : 30018004
  • Languages: English
  • Source: CYTEF 2016. VIII Congreso Ibérico y VI Congreso Iberoamericano de las Ciencias y Técnicas del Frío, Coimbra-Portugal, 3-6 mayo, 2016.
  • Publication date: 2016/05/03

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