Abstract
An experimental investigation was executed to determine the capacity degradation due to non-uniform refrigerant distribution in a multi-path evaporator. In addition, the possibility of recovering the capacity reduction by controlling the refrigerant distribution among refrigerant paths was assessed. The finned-tube evaporator, which had a three-path and three-depth-row, was tested by controlling inlet quality, exit pressure, and exit superheat for each refrigerant path. The capacity reduction due to superheat unbalance between each path was as much as 30%, even when the overall evaporator superheat was kept at a target value of 5.6$^{\circ}C$. It may indicate that the internal heat transfer within the evaporator assembly caused the partial capacity drop. For the evaporator having air mal-distributions, the maximum capacity reduction was found to be 8.7%. A 4.5% capacity recovery was obtained by controlling refrigerant distribution to obtain the target superheat at the outlet of each path.
