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Leak hole sizes from refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump systems.

Author(s) : COLBOURNE D., PITARCH MOCHOLI M., MUNZINGER P., OPPELT D., PAETZOLD B., VINCE I.

Type of article: IJR article

Summary

Knowledge of sizes of leak holes arising in refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump systems is critical for safe application of flammable refrigerants, especially hydrocarbons such as R290. Data for leak hole sizes is currently lacking so safety standards have used a range of assumed leak rates that maybe unreasonable and lead to severe restrictions on charge limits and/or high costs for addressing potential ignition sources. Over 1000 leak holes have been measured from various systems. The leak hole areas were found to be clustered around very small values with more than 90% below 0.10 mm2 and 98.8% smaller than 1.0 mm2, irrespective of type, age and size of the system. The largest leak hole size that should be considered for safe design of systems is around 0.5 mm2, or about 70 g min−1 of R290 vapour or adjusted according to the system operating conditions or type of refrigerant.

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Pages: 559-567

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Details

  • Original title: Leak hole sizes from refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump systems.
  • Record ID : 30029160
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: HFCs alternatives
  • Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 131
  • Publication date: 2021/11
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.07.003
  • Document available for consultation in the library of the IIR headquarters only.

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