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A Numerical Study on R410A Charge Amount in an Air Cooled Mini-Channel Condenser  

Park, Chang-Yong (School of Mechanical Design and Automation Engineering Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering / v.22, no.10, 2010 , pp. 710-718 More about this Journal
Abstract
A numerical study was performed to predict refrigerant charge amount in a mini-channel condenser for a R410A residential air-conditioning system. Multi-channel flat tubes with 12 mini-channels of 1.17 mm average hydraulic diameter for each tube were applied to the condenser. The condenser consisted of 3 passes, and the first, second, and third pass had 44, 19, and 11 tubes, respectively. Each pass was connected by a vertical header. In this study, the condenser was divided into 410 finite volumes, and analyzed by an $\varepsilon$-NTU method. With thermophysical properties and void fraction models for each volume element, the R410A amount distribution and a total charge amount in the condenser were calculated. The predicted total charge amount was compared with the experimentally measured charge amount under a standard ARI A condition. The developed model could predict the charge amount in the mini-channel condenser within prediction errors from -23.9% to -3.0%. Air velocity distribution at the condenser face was considered as non-uniform and uniform by the simulation model, and its results showed that the air velocity distribution could significantly influence the charge amount and vapor phase distribution in the condenser.
Keywords
Condenser; Charge amount; Header; Louver-fin; Mini-channel; Void fraction;
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