An experimental evaluation of capillary tube-suction line heat exchanger performance with refrigerant HFC-134a

Book · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:483918

Bittle, R R ^[1]; Pate, M B ^[2]

---

1. Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth, TX (United States). Dept. of Engineering
2. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Capillary tube-suction line heat exchanger performance with refrigerant HFC-134a was experimentally evaluated for a range of heat exchanger geometries and operating conditions typically found in household refrigerators. Due to the number of variables that could potentially influence heat exchanger performance, statistical methods were employed in designing the experimental test plan and in reducing the data. Key variables and their respective ranges tested included: capillary tube inner diameter (0.66 to 0.79 mm), capillary tube length (2,440 to 3,300 mm), heat exchanger length (1,000 mm to 1,780 mm), condensing temperature (29.4 to 55.6 C, which corresponds to a condensing pressure of 758 kPa and 1,516 kPa), evaporator pressure (131 to 165 kPa), capillary tube inlet condition (2.8 to 5.6 C subcool), and oil concentration level (0 to 3%). For these experiments, the measured HFC-134a mass flow rates ranged between 2.7 and 9.5 kg/hr, and measured effective subcooling level ranged between 13 and 33 C. Based on the resulting performance database, design correlations predicting mass flow rate and the heat exchanger effectiveness were developed and verified. The HFC-134A results were also compared to measured heat exchanger performance with refrigerants HFC-152a and CFC-12.

• OSTI ID: 483918
• Report Number(s): CONF-961105--; ISBN 0-7918-1527-7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
CAPILLARY FLOW
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAT EXCHANGERS
PERFORMANCE
REFRIGERANTS
REFRIGERATORS