绿色环保混合制冷剂

介绍了环保混合制冷剂R-404A、R-407C、R-410A、R-413A和R-417A的性能、用途及我国目前的研究状况。     

An evaluation of options for replacing HCFC-22 in medium temperature refrigeration systems

Due to the ongoing global phase-out of R-22, which is still the most widely used refrigerant around the world, there is a need to replace this refrigerant in many different applications. This paper focuses on a thorough evaluation of the R-22 replacement options for medium-temperature refrigeration applications. It includes a thermodynamic analysis, comparison of heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics, system performance comparisons using a validated detailed system model, safety issues, and determination of the environmental impact of refrigerant selection. Three potential alternatives to the R-22 were studied: two HFCs (404A and R-410A) and one HC (R-290). An HFC refrigerant, R-410A, is shown to be an efficient and environmentally acceptable option to replace R-22 in medium temperature applications.     

低温制冷剂应用于冷柜的综合分析

从低温制冷剂的发展背景、环境影响、性能、安全性及成本等5个方面着手,比较目前在用或者将在低温冷柜中应用的几种制冷剂R22,R404A,R290和CO2在上述几个方面各自的特点。结果表明,R290将是一种用于低温冷柜的很有潜力的制冷剂。     

Refrigeration system performance using liquid-suction heat exchangersPerformance d''un système frigorifique utilisant des échangeurs liquide-vapeur à l''aspiration

Heat transfer devices are provided in many refrigeration systems to exchange energy between the cool gaseous refrigerant leaving the evaporator and warm liquid refrigerant exiting the condenser. These liquid-suction or suction-line heat exchangers can, in some cases, yield improved system performance while in other cases they degrade system performance. Although previous researchers have investigated performance of liquid-suction heat exchangers, this study can be distinguished from the previous studies in three ways. First, this paper identifies a new dimensionless group to correlate performance impacts attributable to liquid-suction heat exchangers. Second, the paper extends previous analyses to include new refrigerants. Third, the analysis includes the impact of pressure drops through the liquid-suction heat exchanger on system performance. It is shown that reliance on simplified analysis techniques can lead to inaccurate conclusions regarding the impact of liquid-suction heat exchangers on refrigeration system performance. From detailed analyses, it can be concluded that liquid-suction heat exchangers that have a minimal pressure loss on the low pressure side are useful for systems using R507A, R134a, R12, R404A, R290, R407C, R600, and R410A. The liquid-suction heat exchanger is detrimental to system performance in systems using R22, R32, and R717.     

A generalized correlation for refrigerant mass flow rate through adiabatic capillary tubes

A capillary tube is a common expansion device used in small sized refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. A generalized correlation for refrigerant flow rate in adiabatic capillary tubes is developed by implementing dimensionless parameters based on extensive experimental data for R-22, R-290, and R-407C measured in this study. Dimensionless parameters are derived from the Buckingham Pi theorem, considering the effects of tube inlet conditions, capillary tube geometry, and refrigerant properties on mass flow rate. The generalized correlation yields good agreement with the present data for R-22, R-290, and R-407C with average and standard deviations of 0.9 and 5.0%, respectively. Approximately 97% of the present data are correlated within a relative deviation of ±10%. Further assessments of the correlation are made by comparing the predictions with measured data for R-12, R-134a, R-152a, R-410A, and R-600a in the open literature. The correlation predicts the data for those five refrigerants with average and standard deviations of −0.73 and 6.16%, respectively.     

A comparative study on the environmental impact of supermarket refrigeration systems using low GWP refrigerants

Supermarket refrigeration systems have high environmental impact due to their large refrigerant charge and high leak rates. Consequently, the interest in using low GWP refrigerants such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and new refrigerant blends is increasing. In this paper, an open-source Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) framework is presented and used to compare the environmental impact of four supermarket refrigeration systems: a transcritical CO₂ booster system, a cascade CO₂/N-40 system, a combined secondary circuit with central DX N-40/L-40 system, and a baseline multiplex direct expansion system utilizing R-404A and N-40. The study is performed for different climates within the USA using EnergyPlus to simulate the systems' hourly performance. Further analyses are presented such as parametric, sensitivity, and uncertainty analyses to study the impact of different system parameters on the LCCP.     

Performance degradation of a vapor compression refrigeration system under fouled conditions

Performance degradation due to fouling in a vapor compression cycle is investigated for various applications. Considering the first set of refrigerants i.e. R134a, R410A and R407C, from a first law standpoint, the COP indicates that R134a always performs better unless only the evaporator is being fouled. In contrast to this, from a second-law standpoint, the second-law efficiency indicates that R134a performs the best in all cases. Considering the second set of refrigerants i.e. R717, R404A and R290, from a first law standpoint, the COP indicates that R717 always performs better unless only the evaporator is being fouled. In contrast to this, from a second-law standpoint, the second-law efficiency indicates that R717 performs the best in all cases. Volumetric efficiency of R410A and R717 remained the highest under the respective conditions studied. Furthermore, performance degradation of the evaporator often has a larger effect on compressor power requirement while that of the condenser has an overall larger effect on the COP. A new performance degradation law is presented in light of the data generated, which can reduce the amount of experimentation and help predict relevant quantities of the refrigeration system.     

Research on the flammability hazards of an air conditioner using refrigerant R-290

Currently, hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons are the most common refrigerants used for air conditioners. Due to ozone depletion and high global warming potential, environmentally benign options such as hydrocarbons are under consideration. Whilst R-290 (propane) has favourable system performance, environmental characteristics and cost, it is a flammable substance, thereby posing additional risks. This study addresses the associated flammability concerns through a number of risk-related sub-studies. These include evaluating the distribution of R-290 following a leak in room, overpressure arising from ignition of a flammable mixture, severity of a secondary fire and total heat release rate in the event of an external fire imposed upon an R-290 system. It is found that the possibility of refrigerant existing within the flammable range is limited only to the region very close to the indoor unit. Besides, low overpressures in the event of ignition and limited additional heat flux in the event of external fire were registered.     

Numerical analysis of evaporation performance in a finned-tube heat exchanger

This study discusses the effects of the heat exchanger type, refrigerant, inner tube configuration, and fin geometry on evaporator performance by adopting updated correlations of EVSIM, a numerical analysis model based on the tube-by-tube method developed by Domanski. The heat exchanger types considered are the cross-counter flow type and cross-parallel flow type. The refrigerants considered for the numerical test as a working fluid are R-134a, R-410A and R-22. For inner tube configuration, enhanced tube and smooth tube cases are considered. For the air side evaporation performance, heat exchangers using plate fins, wavy fins and slit fins are analyzed. Results show that the heat transfer rate of the cross-counter flow type heat exchanger is 3% higher than that of the cross-parallel flow type with R-22. The total heat transfer rate of the evaporator using R-410A is higher than those using R-22 and R-134a, while the total pressure drop of R-410A is lower than those of R-22 and R-134a. The heat transfer rate of the evaporator using enhanced tubes is two times higher than that using smooth tubes, but the pressure drop of the enhanced tube is 45–50% higher than that of the smooth tubes. The evaporation performance of slit fins is superior to that of plate fins by 54%.     

Surface Tension of HFC Refrigerant Mixtures

The surface tension of refrigerant mixtures, i.e., R-410A (50 mass% R-32/50 mass% R-125), R-410B (45 mass% R-32/55 mass% R-125), R-407C (23 mass% R-32/25 mass% R-125/52 mass% R-134a), R-404A (44 mass% R-125/52 mass% R-143a/4 mass% R-134a), and R-507 (50 mass% R-125/50 mass% R-143a), has been measured and correlated in the present study. Although the first three mixtures are very important as promising replacements for R-22 in air-conditioners and heat-pumps and the last two are promising replacements for R-502, surface tension data for these mixtures were not previously available. The measurements were conducted under conditions of coexistence of the sample liquid and its saturated vapor in equilibrium. The differential capillary rise method (DCRM) was used, with two glass capillaries with inner radii of 0.3034±0.0002 and 0.5717±0.0002 mm. The temperature range covered was from 273 to 323 K, and the uncertainty of measurements for surface tensions and temperatures is estimated to be at most ±0.2 mN·m^–1 and ±20 mK, respectively. A mixing rule was selected for representing the temperature dependence of the resultant data. These data were successfully represented by a mixing rule using mass fraction based on the van der Waals correlation.     

R404A和R410A应用于平行流冷凝器的模拟分析比较

采用分布参数法对平行流冷凝器建立数学模型，对目前广泛使用的制冷剂R134a和低温制冷剂R404A和R410A在平行流冷凝器中的换热和流动性能进行模拟计算和分析比较。分别在相同和不同工况下。比较3种制冷剂的换热系数及压降等换热和流动性能参数。结果表明，在采用平行流冷凝器的汽车空调工况范围内，R410AR404A的流动和传热性能均优于R134a，更适宜用于汽车空调用平行流冷凝器。     

Indoor leakage test for safety of R-290 split type room air conditioner

The selection of alternative refrigerants for the room air conditioner (RAC) industry has, in recent years, been a significant challenge. According to the literature, flammable refrigerants may be one of the potential options. In particular, R-290 (propane) has a major possibility to be the chosen working fluid for the next generation of RACs because of its environmental and unique thermo-physical properties. However, its use is hindered by its flammability and the resulting concerns on safety. In this paper, the safety implications of using R-290 are examined through evaluating the effects of certain variables upon the concentrations of leaked refrigerant into a room. R-290 is leaked under different scenarios and its distributions inside room are measured. The results are interpreted with respect to the requirements of RAC safety standards, where it is found that the requirements may need more detailed verifying for wall type RAC.     

Condensation heat transfer of R-22 and R-410A in flat aluminum multi-channel tubes with or without micro-fins

In this study, condensation heat transfer tests were conducted in flat aluminum multi-channel tubes using R-410A, and the results are compared with those of R-22. The flat tubes have two internal geometries; one with smooth inner surface and the other with micro-fins. Data are presented for the following range of variables; vapor quality (0.1–0.9), mass flux (200–600 kg/m²s) and heat flux (5–15 kW/m²). Results show that the effect of surface tension drainage on the fin surface is more pronounced for R-22 than R-410A. The smaller Weber number of R-22 may be responsible. For the smooth tube, the heat transfer coefficient of R-410A is slightly larger than that of R-22. For the micro-fin tube, however, the trend is reversed. Possible reasoning is provided considering physical properties of the refrigerants. For the smooth tube, Webb's correlation predicts the data reasonably well. For the micro-fin tube, the Yang and Webb model was modified to correlate the present data. The modified model adequately predicts the data.     

Performance of a finned-tube evaporator optimized for different refrigerants and its effect on system efficiency

This paper presents a comparable evaluation of R600a (isobutane), R290 (propane), R134a, R22, R410A, and R32 in an optimized finned-tube evaporator, and analyzes the impact of evaporator effects on the system coefficient of performance (COP). The study relied on a detailed evaporator model derived from NIST's EVAP-COND simulation package and used the ISHED1 scheme employing a non-Darwinian learnable evolution model for circuitry optimization. In the process, 4500 circuitry designs were generated and evaluated for each refrigerant. The obtained evaporator optimization results were incorporated in a conventional analysis of the vapor compression cycle. For a theoretical cycle analysis without accounting for evaporator effects, the COP spread for the studied refrigerants was as high as 11.7%. For cycle simulations including evaporator effects, the COP of R290 was better than that of R22 by up to 3.5%, while the remaining refrigerants performed approximately within a 2% COP band of the R22 baseline for the two condensing temperatures considered.     

Assessment of condensation heat transfer correlations in the modelling of fin and tube heat exchangers

This is the second paper of a series that assesses the performance of a refrigeration system model by means of cycle parameters. In this case, the condensation temperature is the parameter to study and it is focused on fin and tube condensers. It also studies the influence of the heat transfer models on the estimation of this refrigeration cycle parameter and different correlations for the heat transfer coefficients have been implemented in order to characterise the heat transfer in the heat exchangers. The flow inside the heat exchangers is considered one-dimensional as in previous works. In the cycle definition, other submodels for all the cycle component have been taken into account to complete the system of equations that characterises the behaviour of the refrigeration cycle. This global system is solved by means of a Newton–Raphson algorithm and a known technique called SEWTLE is used to model the heat exchangers. Some experimental results are employed to compare the condensation temperatures provided by the numerical procedure and to evaluate the performance of each heat transfer coefficient. These experimental results correspond to an air-to-water heat pump and are obtained by using R-22 and R-290 as refrigerants.     

一种节能环保型复叠式制冷系统

为解决自然工质R290／CO2复叠式制冷循环COP较低的问题，提出采用过热、过冷和用膨胀机代替节流阀的方法。通过热力学分析对比得出，用膨胀机代替节流阀同时过冷的方法可以大大提高R290／CO2复叠式制冷循环的COP。自然工质R290／CO2复叠式制冷循环替代常规工质有很好的前景。     

A generalized correlation for the characteristics of adiabatic capillary tubes

The capillary tube is often served as an expansion device in small refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. In this paper, a generalized correlation for predicting the refrigerant mass flow rate through the adiabatic capillary tube is developed with approximate analytic solutions based on the extensive data for R12, R22, R134a, R290, R600a, R410A, R407C, and R404A, in which a homogeneous equilibrium model for two-phase flow is employed, and there is a subcooled liquid or saturated two-phase mixture at the inlet of the capillary tubes. The collected database about capillary tubes covers the inner diameter from 0.5 mm to 2 mm, the tube length from 0.5 m to 5 m, the condensing temperature from 20 °C to 60 °C, the subcooling from 0 °C to 20 °C, and the quality from 0 to 0.3 at the inlet. Assessments for the correlation are made with some experimental data for R12, R22, R134a, R290, R407C, R410A, and R404A obtained from the open literature and some existing correlations based on the experimental database also. The present correlation yields an average deviation of −0.83% and a standard deviation of 9.02% from the database.     

R404A与CO2复叠式制冷系统的理论分析

本文针对所建立的新型R404A／CO2复叠式制冷设备进行了理论研究,该系统可提供零下40℃以下的低温环境。根据R404A和CO2的物性特征及复叠式循环流程,通过数值模拟寻找一定工况下CO2低温级的最佳冷凝温度及二者的最佳质量流量比,分析冷凝蒸发器的工作温度、CO2侧蒸发温度、R404侧的冷凝温度等对R404A／CO2复叠式系统COP的影响。结果表明,为了提高循环效率并保证循环的安全运行,应尽可能地升高低温段蒸发温度、降低高温段冷凝温度,缩小冷凝蒸发器的传热温差,环保工质R404A和CO2的复叠式制冷系统在低温制冷条件下有良好的发展前景。     

低温室效应HCFCs替代物性能分析

在阐述目前国内外HCFCs替代形势的基础上,对热泵空调及冷冻冷藏系统典型HCFCs制冷剂R22和其传统替代制冷剂(R410A,R407C,R404A,R507A),以及低温室效应R22替代物(R161,R290,RTJU4,R32,R717及R1234yf)的热力性能、循环性能及其可燃特性进行对比与分析.结果表明,R161,R290,RTJU4,R717,R32不仅具有零ODP较低GWP值的优势,其热力学及传热学特性也优于传统的HCFCs替代物,其中部分工质在一定的应用条件下具有较好的循环性能.R32,R1234yf和RTJU4的可燃性较小;RTJU4在系统循环性能上具有较明显的优势;R717具有较好热力学、传热学和循环特性,经进一步的系统和部件改进也具有较强的替代潜力.     

Electrical properties of CFC- and HCFC-substitutes

Electrical properties of refrigerants are of importance as soon as bushings are surrounded by a refrigerant. This is the case e. g. for hermetic sealed motor compressors as well as for some control devices such as liquid level control units or capacity controls for compressors. This paper presents a survey of existing data for HFC refrigerants and presents new measurements for those HFC blends that have been identified as long term replacements for CFCs and HCFCs. The data collection includes permittivity, electrical conductivity and breakdown voltage. Values are given for the HFC blends R404A, R407C, R410A and R507 as well as for R134a.