HVAC&R Equipment Performance Group
Publications
Performance of a finned-tube evaporator optimized for different refrigerants and its effect on system efficiency
Performance of a finned-tube evaporator optimized for different refrigerants and its effect on system efficiency
Domanski, P. A., Yashar, D. A. and Kim, M.
Int. J. of Ref. Vol 28 (2005), May 2005.
Keywords:Air conditioning; Refrigerating system; Evaporator; Finned tube; Modeling; Optimization; R600a; R410A; Propane; R32; R134a; R22; Comparison
Abstract: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.
