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A study of heat transfer and pressure drop in zero ozone-depletion-potential (ODP) ‎refrigerant blends in small diameter tubes was conducted. The azeotropic refrigerant ‎blend R410A (equal parts of R32 and R125 by mass) has zero ODP and has properties ‎similar to R22, and is therefore of interest for vapor compression cycles in high-‎temperature-lift space-conditioning and water heating applications. Smaller tubes lead to ‎higher heat transfer coefficients and are better suited for high operating pressures.‎ Heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops for R410A were determined experimentally ‎during condensation across the entire vapor-liquid dome at 0.8, 0.9xPcritical and gas ‎cooling at 1.0, 1.1, 1.2xPcritical in three different round tubes (D = 3.05, 1.52, 0.76 mm) ‎over a mass flux range of 200 < G < 800 kg/m2-s. A thermal amplification technique was ‎used to accurately determine the heat duty for condensation in small quality increments ‎or supercritical cooling across small temperature changes while ensuring low ‎uncertainties in the refrigerant heat transfer coefficients. ‎ The data from this study were used in conjunction with data obtained under similar ‎operating conditions for refrigerants R404A and R410A in tubes of diameter 6.22 and ‎‎9.40 mm to develop models to predict heat transfer and pressure drop in tubes with ‎diameters ranging from 0.76 to 9.40 mm during condensation. Similarly, in the ‎supercritical states, heat transfer and pressure drop models were developed to account for ‎the sharp variations in the thermophysical properties near the critical point.‎ The physical understanding and models resulting from this investigation provide the ‎information necessary for designing and optimizing new components that utilize R410A ‎for air-conditioning and heat pumping applications.‎

Eco-friendly non-CFC refrigerants were introduced in the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration industry during the last few years to reduce damage to the stratospheric ozone layer. The HFC refrigerant R-134a, which has zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP), is being used extensively as a replacement for R-12 and also in some centrifugal chillers as a replacement for R-11. However, the disadvantage of R-134a is its comparatively high global warming potential (GWP). Owing to energy crisis and also to reduce the indirect warming impact resulting from electrical energy usage, the new refrigeration systems should be operated at the lowest possible condensing temperatures. In view of this, several active and passive techniques for augmentation of condensation heat transfer and reduction of condensation temperature are gaining increasing attention. Passive augmentation methods are more popular than active ones. To this end, micro-finned tubes of various geometrical shapes are being explored for compact heat exchangers in the refrigeration industry as the best choice. Towards understanding the enhancement in condensation heat transfer coefficients in micro-finned tubes, a test facility has been fabricated to measure the condensing coefficients for R-134a refrigerant. Condensation experiments have been conducted on single plain and finned tubes of outer diameter 19 mm with a refrigerant saturation temperature of 400C and tube wall temperatures 350C, 320C, 300C and 280C respectively. Water is used as the cooling medium inside the tubes with the flow rate varying from 180 lph to 600 lph. The condensing coefficient typically ranged from 0.9 – 1.4 kW/(m2 K) for plain tubes and from 4.2 to 5.8 kW/(m2 K) for the finned tubes. The results of the plain v tube are found to compare favourably with the Nusselt’s theory, leading to a validation of the experimental procedure. Upon comparing the results of finned and plain tubes, it is found that provision of fins result in an enhancement factor of 3.6 to 4.6 in the condensation heat transfer coefficients. This level of enhancement is larger than that resulting from the enhanced surface area of the finned tube surface, suggesting that, apart from the extended area, the surface tension forces play an important role in the augmentation process by driving the condensate from the fin crests to the valleys in between the fins. The measured augmentation factors have also been cross-checked using the Wilson plot method. Detailed error analysis has been performed to quantify the uncertainty in the condensation heat transfer coefficient. The performance of a bank of tubes has been determined based on the measurements carried out on practical condensers of two large chillers with refrigerating capacities of 500 TR and 550 TR. On comparing the finned tube bank results and the single finned tube results, it is found that the average condensation heat transfer coefficient in a bank of tubes having N rows varies as N ¯1/6. The deterioration is in agreement with the relation proposed by Kern.