International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration

Researchers proved that, heat powered adsorption refrigeration technology is very effective methods for reutilization of low-grade thermal energy such as industrial waste heat, solar energy, and exhaust gases from engines. But to make it commercially competitive with the well-known vapor compression and absorption refrigeration system, the processes require high rates of heat and mass transfer characteristic between adsorbate and adsorbent as well as externally supplied heat exchanging fluid. This paper reviews various techniques that have been developed and applied to enhance the heat transfer and mass transfer in adsorber beds, and also discuss their effects of the performance on adsorption system. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted and it was concluded that this technology, although attractive, has limitations regarding its heat and mass transfer performance that seem difficult to overcome. Therefore, more researches are required to improve heat and mass transfer performance and sustainability of basic adsorption cycles.

In this paper, condensation and evaporation characteristics of low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants such as R-1234yf and R-1234ze series are reviewed. This review focuses on heat transfer and pressure drop in plate heat exchangers. Mass flux is considered as an important factor while saturation temperature is not for condensation and evaporation process in plate heat exchangers. The dryout phenomenon occurs occasionally and gives greatly harmful impact on evaporation heat transfer. It is found that R-1234yf and R-1234ze(E) give slightly lower heat transfer performance than R-134a for both condensation and evaporation processes. Generally, low GWP refrigerants presented in this review give lower heat transfer coefficient and higher frictional pressure drop than the conventional refrigerants. Nevertheless, R-1234ze(Z) gives superior heat transfer performance than other refrigerants in condensation. R-32 gives remarkable performance in evaporation, but it gives relatively high GWP compared to other low GWP refrigerants.

The restrictions imposed by Montreal Protocol for use of CFCs fluids and Kyoto Protocol to HCFCs have motivated researchers and the industry to seek new alternatives. Within this context, R410A has emerged as one of the most likely replacement of R22. The purpose of this work is to develop a numerical model of an air cooler to simulate its behavior operating under dynamic conditions loaded with R22 or R410A refrigerant. The model divides the air cooler in volumes control in which mass, energy, and momentum balance equations are applied and solved. Theoretical data obtained by model simulations repeated tendencies observed in experimental data taken from literature. Model simulations have also shown that for a step change in the inlet refrigerant mass flow, the superheating response of air cooler is almost the same when it is working with R22 or R410A refrigerant.

The main purpose of this study is to apply advanced exergy analysis to the transcritical CO₂ vapor compression refrigeration system, and compare with the analysis of subcritical cycle using ammonia and R404a. Endogenous, exogenous, avoidable and unavoidable exergy destructions are determined for each component of these systems. For CO₂ system, compressor contributes highest avoidable endogenous exergy destruction and gas cooler contributes highest avoidable exogenous exergy destruction. It is concluded that compressor is the first component for CO₂ and R404a, and evaporator is the first component for NH₃ to be improved. System improvement options to reduce the exergy destruction are discussed as well.

A transient two-dimensional (2D) mathematical model for double-pass solar collector with phase change material (PCM) spheres media in the lower channel has been developed. Numerical simulations model based on applying mass, momentum, and energy balances on finite volumes method are carried out. The governing equations inside the two channels, together with the energy equation in the absorber, insulating and glass cover walls were solved iteratively in a segregated manner. To show the effect of the presence of the PCM, a comparative study was undertaken between a collector with different PCM spheres, a collector without spheres, and another using gravel for thermal storage. To see the effect of the nature of PCM used, two different types were studied in various configurations, parallels and series. The study concluded that the presence of the PCM spheres at the bottom of the absorber is the best configuration and allows increasing the outlet temperature. Also, with combining several types of PCM we can improve significantly the thermal performance of collector.

Determining the on-field heating capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) of residential air-to-air heat pumps (HPs) is problematic, given that measuring accurately the enthalpy and, specifically, the mass flow rate of air is challenging. This paper validates a promising on-field performance measurement method for HPs with an internal heat exchanger (IHX) as vapor injection system using experimental data obtained from air-to-water heat pump prototype in several operating conditions. The method is based on refrigerant fluid measurements and component energy/mass balances. Nonintrusive sensors, such as surface temperature sensors, are used to estimate pressure and refrigerant mass flow rate in different types of heat pump systems, including air-to-air. Obtained results compared with intrusively measured reference values in steady-state conditions are in good agreement, suggesting that a comprehensive performance analysis can be conducted in already-installed high efficiency residential IHX air-to-water HPs, as well as internal heat exchanger air-to-air HPs.

In this study, a solar absorption air conditioning system has been modeled simulated and optimized for an office block covering a total floor area of 90m² using the TRNSYS 16 software. Meteorological data over a period of a typical year for Zaria in Nigeria where the office block is located was used in the simulation and optimization. The hourly cooling energy demand of the office block for the whole year was simulated using the TRNSYS sub program TRNbuild. The peak cooling energy demand was used to size the components of the solar absorption air conditioning system. Based on the initial sizes, a TRNSYS model of the air conditioning system was developed. The simulation and optimization process was done by employing a monthly average data approach in which the TRNSYS software was combined with Microsoft excel. The simulation was done on an hourly time step, optimization was done by studying effect of varying system component sizes on performance indices: coefficient of performance (COP), solar coefficient of performance (SCOP) and solar fraction (SF). Results indicate that the system is capable of attaining an average annual SF of 0.79 in the given location.

Enhanced tubes are widely used in shell and tube condensers of refrigeration, air-conditioning and process industries because of their high heat transfer performance. In this study, condensation heat transfer tests were conducted for four three-dimensional enhanced tubes having different fin density and fin height using R-134a. The satuartion temperature was 40${}^{\circ }$C. The heat transfer was significantly enhanced by the present enhanced geometry. At 5K wall subcooling, the enhancement ratio is 6.3 for 1654fpm, 4.6 for 1575fpm, 4.0 for 1496fpm and 3.3 for 1102fpm tubes. Within the geometric variation of the present study, the condensation heat transfer coefficient increased with the increase of fin density and of fin height. The heat transfer coefficients of the 1654fpm tube were approximately the same as those of the commercial three-dimensional enhanced tube Turbo-C.

This paper proposes a pseudo bond graph model of thermal transfers by natural convection inside a household refrigerator. It has two inputs: the ambient temperature and the temperature at the level of the evaporator wall. The latter assesses the functioning of the compressor cycles. A performance comparison, with the experimental data, was carried out in order to verify the model, in which, real measurements are used to modulate the evaporator temperature source. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.