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Potential benefits of smart refrigerant distributors. Final report.

Author(s) : PAYNE W. V., DOMANSKI P. A.

Type of monograph: Report

Summary

The main goal of this study was to investigate the benefits for finned tube refrigerant evaporators when refrigerant distribution was precisely controlled to produce a desired equal superheat in each circuit. This goal was accomplished by examining three different finned-tube evaporators; a wavy fin, wavy-lanced fin, and a wavy-lanced fin evaporator with tube sheets separated. The effects of non-uniform airflow on capacity were also examined while superheat was controlled in each evaporator circuit. In parallel with the experimental effort, a modelling program was implemented and validated with the experimental results and then used to determine the savings in evaporator core volume possible if refrigerant distribution was controlled by a smart distributor. In extreme cases, the savings in core volume could be as much as 40%. Extract from the table of contents; background and literature review; laboratory experiment (evaporators selected for testing; test conditions and experimental procedure; experimental results); evaporator modelling and simulations (heat transfer and pressure drop correlations; modelling issues: refrigerant distribution, internal heat transfer in a finned tube evaporator; possible savings in heat transfer area due to optimized superheat). The report can be downloaded from the Web site: www.arti-21cr.org/research/completed/index.html.

Details

  • Original title: Potential benefits of smart refrigerant distributors. Final report.
  • Record ID : 2004-3068
  • Languages: English
  • Publication: US Department of Commerce, NTIS (National Technical Information Service) - United states/United states
  • Publication date: 2002/09
  • Source: Source: ARTI-21CR-605-20050-01; 198 p. (21 x 29.7); fig.; tabl.; ref.; append.

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