Theory And Experimental Investigation On Flat Tubes Distribution Of Parallel Flow Condenser Used On Air Conditioner

Parallel flow condenser attracts more attention especially in domestic air conditioningwith high heat exchange performance, less refrigerant charge and totally aluminum.Meanwhile its heat transfer performance and pressure characteristic is affected seriouslyby its manifold brand structure. Thus it is important to investigate flat tube distribution ofparallel flow condenser. The present research was supported by National Natural ScienceFoundation, Independent Innovation Foundation in Huazhong University of Science andTechnology and the cooperation project in industry, education and research of Guangdongprovince and Ministry of Education of P. R. China.A steady state distributed parameter model was developed based on finite volumemethod, the model included superheat module, two-phase module and subcooled moduleand each module contained air side submodel and refrigerant side submodel. The programwas build to calculate the exit parameter by coupling the two side modules according toε-NTU. Different flat tube distributions was designed to simulation investigated its effecton heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristic, based on the simulationresults,3heat exchangers, all of which have38tubes totally and6passes and withdifferent tube arrangement was manufactured to experimental investigated in laboratory. Itwas found the third arrangement has the best heat transfer and its pressure drop is small.Thus the third arrangement is the best solution.The effect of refrigerant flow and air velocity on heat transfer performance andpressure drop characteristic was investigated by experiments, the experimental results wascompared with simulation results. It was found that the simulation results were mainlyagreement with the experimental results, the deviation was acceptable.