Experimental Study on Characteristics of Two-Phase Flow through a Bypass Orifice Expansion Device

To establish optimum cycle of the inverter-driven heat pump with a variation of frequency, the bypass orifice, which was a short tube haying a bypass hole in the middle, was designed and tested. Flow characteristics of the bypass orifice were measured as a function of orifice geometry and operating conditions. Flow trends with respect to frequency were compared with those of short tube orifices and capillary tubes. Generally, the bypass orifice showed the best flow trends among them. and it would enhance the seasonal energy efficiency ratio of an inverter heat pump system, Based on experimental data, a semi-empirical flow model was developed to predict mass flow rate through bypass orifices. The maximum difference between measured data and model`s prediction was within $\pm$5%.