International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration

The enhanced tube is a kind of the passive technique for improving the thermal performance of the heat exchangers with a little increase of the friction penalty. They have stated to use instead of the common smooth tubes for designing of the heat exchangers. The size of these heat exchangers can be reduced considerably by using the enhanced tubes instead of smooth tubes. Normally, they are divided into four groups: the corrugated tube, ribbed tube, grooved tube, and fluted tube. Compared with the common smooth tube, many researchers reported that use of the enhanced tubes dramatically increases the heat-transfer performance, both theoretically and experimentally. Focusing on the advantages of the enhanced tubes, this article summarizes the published studies on the heat-transfer and pressure-drop characteristics of the enhanced tubes, both experimental and quantitative investigations.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the natural refrigerants which can be used as working fluid in various refrigeration applications along with the ammonia and hydrocarbons due to its eco-friendliness, higher volumetric capacity, good heat transfer properties, etc. The present article consists of two parts: A detailed comparative study of CO₂-based transcritical refrigeration systems with conventional refrigerants-based systems in terms of both thermodynamic and heat transfer performances, and review of both theoretical and experimental researches on transcritical CO₂ vapor compression cycle for various refrigeration applications including commercial product status. Suitability of the CO₂ system in specific refrigeration application is also discussed.

Polyol Ester oil–air two-phase counter current flow experiments were performed with small diameter tubes to measure gas velocities for the counter current flow limitation point and the flow reversal point. The test section was made of a Pyrex glass tube to allow visual observation. The geometry of the test section was designed to simulate various shapes of suction lines of refrigerators. The inner diameter of the test tube was 7 mm and the height was 1 m. The inclination of the test tubes varied from vertical to crank type with various horizontal lengths. An empirical oil return criterion was suggested based on the flow reversal points. This criterion was also verified using a refrigerator test apparatus and refrigerant.

This paper presents numerical and experimental results of the flow characteristics of R134a flowing through adiabatic helical capillary tubes. The local pressure distribution along the length of the capillary tubes is measured at inlet pressures ranging from 10 to 14 bar, mass flow rates from 8 to 20 kg h^-1, and degrees of subcooling from 0.5°C to 15°C. The theoretical model is based on conservation of mass, energy and the momentum of the fluids in the capillary tube. The model is divided into three regions: subcooled liquid region, metastable liquid region and equilibrium two-phase region and can be applied for various tube geometries, new alternative refrigerants and critical or noncritical flow conditions. The model is validated by comparing results from the present experimental data with that of the available literature. Based on the comparison results, the model used in the present study provides reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

An integrated simulation model is developed to investigate the steady-state and dynamic performance of multi-unit air conditioners (MUACs). It is built as two-phase fluid network which is able to describe different systems by incidence matrixes. And the submodels are embedded in the system framework, where the submodels can be either steady-state or dynamic model, distributed parameter or lumped parameter model. For this case, the numerical submodels are employed with moving-boundary models of condenser and evaporator, steady-state models of compressor and electronic expansion valve. The comparison with experimental data shows that it cannot only predict the steady-state performance, but also catch dynamic trends with high accuracy, for example, the differences of evaporating pressure < ± 4%, condensing pressure < ± 3%, compressor discharge temperature < ± 4°C, superheating degree < ± 2°C and subcooling degree < ± 1°C. Therefore, the simulation model is confirmed as an effective tool to analyze the steady and transient characteristics and optimize the design and control algorithm of MUACs.

In the present work, a new freeze protection method is introduced with intended applications for passive solar water heaters. Though electro-thermal wire heat tracing is popularly used to prevent freezing with subsequent risk of burst, this approach is problematic due to resistance heater failure and excessive electric power consumption. In the experimental device, hot water in thermal storage tank is used to heat the outlet pipe from the tank when the surface temperature of the pipe falls lower than a pre-determined set point. The cold water pipe to the thermal storage tank is installed in direct contact with the hot water pipe, controlling its temperature by conduction with the hot water pipe.

An experimental study on pressure drop and heat transfer in single-phase was carried out using 10 types of internally helical-grooved and smooth small-diameter tubes with an outside diameter of 4 mm. The results are listed below: (1) In the turbulent flow region, fin height had the greatest effect, helix angle had only a minor effect, and the number of grooves had almost no effect upon the pressure drop versus the mass flow rate of the 4-mm grooved small-diameter tubes. In the laminar flow region, except for fin height, the shapes of the internal grooves had scarcely any effect upon pressure drop. (2) In the turbulent flow region, the heat transfer coefficients of the 4-mm grooved small-diameter tubes were greatly affected by fin height. The heat transfer coefficients became the maximum when a helix angle was near 15°, and there is a different tendency in the experiments of the pressure drop. On the other hand, there is almost no effect of the number of grooves. In the laminar flow region, there were no large differences in the heat transfer coefficients between the internally helical-grooved tubes and smooth small-diameter tube. (3) New empirical correlations for the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient in the laminar and turbulent flow regions were developed based on the experimental values. (4) The performance assessment in consideration of both heat transfer and pressure drop was indicated by using Colburn's analogy.

In this study, we investigated ways of improving the performance of heat exchangers, which are the heat pumps for use in hot-water supply systems on the hot-water supply side. Therefore, we verified experimentally the pressure drop and the heat transfer characteristics within the coiled flow channel. Five smooth copper tubes and five internally helical-grooved copper tubes with an outside diameter of 12.7 mm and coil diameters of 100 mm, 120 mm, 140 mm, 160 mm and 180 mm were used as the heat-transfer coiled tubes in the experiments. Experiments were conducted under conditions of constant isothermal heating and fluid flow inside coiled tubes with an inlet temperature of 20°C, and the flow rates of the fluid flow inside the coiled tubes were adjusted and varied to change the Reynolds number within the range of 900 to 25,000. Based on the experimental values, we proposed prediction equations to systematically calculate the friction factor and the heat transfer coefficient for different curvature radius ratios.