• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.452-458
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• 2004

The major cause of compressor failure is the decrease of oil viscosity due to floodback. In most previous researches on the compressor reliability, the relationship between oil circulation rate and performance or oil viscosity has been studied. Another research topic is flow visualization by using a sight glass on the bottom of a compressor sump area and accumulator. Both oil film thickness and oil level through the sight glass should be assessed for compressor reliability if the oil content of the mixture is small and low viscosity raise poor lubrication of pump bearing. In this study, the compressor reliability was assessed by measuring the viscosity of the mixture and calculating oil film thickness. The analysis of the relationship between bottom shell super heat and oil film thickness at heating operation was peformed. It is concluded that bottom shell superheat does not perfectly stand for the mixture's behavior for a low ambient heating operation and oil film thickness can give more detailed and direct criteria for compressor reliability.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.732-742
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• 1998

Prediction method for heat transfer coefficients in a horizontal smooth tube with forced convection condensation is proposed. In this paper, the analogy between momentum and heat transfer was applied to an annular flow regime and the logarithmic velocity distribution is applied to describe the velocity profile within the liquid film. Prediction results are compared with those of experimental ones. The test refrigerants are R113, R22, R134a, R407C(R33/R125/R134a, 23/25/52 wt%), R410A(R32/R125, 50/50 wt%) and R134a＋R123(R134a/R123, 85.5/14.5 wt%) which are used under operating conditions in a condenser of air-conditioner. The proposed prediction method shows good agreement with experimental data within$\pm 30%$ for pure refrigerants. For the mixture refrigerants including the ternary mixture refrigerant R407C, condensation heat transfer from this study are higher than those from experiments. By correcting the constant in two-phase frictional multiplier, the predicated heat transfer coefficients become similar to the experimental results.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 1998

This paper is concerned about the performance of HCFC22 alternative refrigerants used in heat pumps and industrial chillers. A water-to-water breadboard heat pump with counter-current heat exchangers and a hermetic compressor was built to carry out the experiments with various refrigerants. For each test, more than 40 temperatures, 4 pressures, power input, mass flow rates of the heat transfer fluids were measured. Refrigerants tested were HCFC22, R290(Propane), an azeotrope of 45%Propane/55%R134a mixture, and a nonazeotropic mixture of Calor 50. All tests were conducted under ARI test A condition. It is found that the COP and capacity of propane were 18% and 2.5% higher than those of HCFC22 while the COP and capacity of 45%Propane/55%R134a mixture were 3.5% and 5.3% higher than those of HCFC22 respectively. Also the COP and capacity of Calor 50 were 17% and 7.8% higher than those of HCFC22. Compressor discharge temperatures of alternative refrigerants were roughly $35^{\circ}C$ lower than that of HCFC22 indicating that these refrigerants are good from the view point of compressor reliability. The charging amounts for the alternative refrigerants were reduced by 40-60% as compared to that of HCFC22. Overall, it can be said that hydrocarbon containing alternative refrigerants are excellent in thermodynamic performance but should be used with considerable care due to their flammability.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.473-483
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• 1996

To protect the ozone layer, R22 will be replaced with HFCs. R407C is a leading candidate as alternative refrigerant for air conditioner due to its similar thermodynamic characteristics with R22. In replacing R22 with R407C, the compatibility with lubricating oil is of major concern. Polyol ester (POE) oil among the synthetic oils is considered to be the best lubricant for use with R407C because of good electrical properties and miscibility. However, lubricating ability of mixture of R407C/POE oil is lower than that of R22/mineral oil due to the production of acid by hydrolysis which causes corrosive wear. Therefore, to minimize water content, it is needed to develop a molecular sieve desiccant which is compatible with R407C and ester oil. This paper discusses (1) the change of properties of POE oil when current molecular seive is used, (2) the effects of POE oils and additives on durability of compressor. Through compressor life test and bench wear test, it was found that inadequate use of POE oils and additives may promote the deteriation of molecular sieve, resulting in decrease of durability of compressor.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2008

The condensation heat transfer coefficients of R-22 and R-410A in a small diameter tube were investigated. The main components of the refrigerant loop consist of a receiver, a variable-speed pump, a mass flowmeter, an evaporator (preheater), and a condenser (test section). The test section consists of smooth, horizontal copper tube of 3.38 mm outer diameter and 1.77 mm inner diameter. The refrigerant mass fluxes varied from 450 to $1050\;kg/(m^2s)$ and the average inlet and outlet qualities were 0.05 and 0.95. The main results were summarized as follows : the condensation heat transfer coefficient also increases with increasing mass flux and quality. The condensation heat transfer coefficient of R-410A was slightly higher than that of R-22. Most of correlations proposed in the large diameter tube showed significant deviations with experimental data except for the ranges of low quality and low mass flux.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.403-410
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• 2007

In this study, natural refrigerants and their mixtures that can supplement and replace R12 and R134a in automobile air-conditioners are studied. R134a is currently used as the refrigerant in new motor vehicle air conditioners, replacing the ozone depleting refrigerant R12. Although R134a has no ozone depletion potential, it has a relatively large global warming potential, approximately 1300 times that of $CO_2$ over a 100 year time horizon. For this reason, performance of natural refrigerants and their mixtures containing R152a, RE170 (Dimethylether, DME) and R600a (Isobutane) are measured under 2 different temperature conditions. They were tested in a refrigerating bench tester with an open type compressor. The test bench provided about 4 kW capacity and water and water/glycol mixture were employed as the secondary heat transfer fluids. Test results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) of these refrigerants is up to 21.55% higher than that of R12 in all temperature conditions. Overall, these fluids provide good performance with reasonable energy savings without any environmental problem and thus can be used as long term alternatives for automobile air-conditioners.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.791-798
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• 2011

In this study, performance of R410A(50%R32/50%R125) and HFC32/HFC125 mixture is measured to examine the effect of composition shift of R410A used for various air-conditioners and heat pumps. The composition of HFC32/HFC125 mixture varies from the reference composition of R410A ${\pm}10%$ with 5% interval. Tests carried out in a heat pump bench tester at the evaporation and condensation temperatures of $7/45^{\circ}C$ and $-7/41^{\circ}C$ for summer and winter conditions, respectively. Test results show that both the coefficient of performance (COP) and compressor power of the HFC32/HFC125 mixture have the maximum difference of 2.0% as compared to those of R410A. Compressor discharge temperatures of HFC32/HFC125 mixture are increased up to $6.7^{\circ}C$ as compared to that of R410A. The amount of charge for HFC32/HFC125 mixture vary within 5.6% as compared to that of R410A. Overall, performance of R410A is not appreciably affected by the composition shift of ${\pm}10%$ of R32 under both air-conditioning and heat pumping conditions.

• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.314-320
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• 2014

The purpose of this work is to optimize composition of mixture refrigerants used in the C3MR (Propane & Mixed Refrigerants) process by a statistical optimization technique. C3MR studied in this work is one of widely used commercial natural gas liquefaction processes with high efficiency. Process simulation was performed in a commercial process simulator and methane ($C_1$), ethane ($C_2$), propane ($C_3$), and nitrogen ($N_2$) were selected as mixed refrigerants. Using the process model, optimum composition of refrigerants mixture was determined via mixture design and central composite design to produce minimum energy consumption. As a result, it was confirmed that energy consumption is reduced down to 11.3% comparing to existing design. It was also compared with heat effectiveness through temperature profile of MCHE (main cryogenic heat exchanger).

• Clean Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2008

The condensation heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops of hydrocarbon refrigerants (R-290 and R-600a) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants were measured in the two horizontal double pipe heat exchangers with inner diameters of 10.07 mm and 5.80 mm at a mass flux of $35.5{\sim}210.4\;kg/m^2s$ and the condensation temperature of $40^{\circ}C$. The average condensation heat transfer coefficients of hydrocarbon refrigerants were higher than that of HCFC refrigerant(R-22). The pressure drop had a magnitude in the order of R-600a > R-290 > R-22. The pressure drops in the tubes with inner diameter of 10.07 mm were approximately $6{\sim}15%$, $9.8{\sim}12.5%$ and $2.1{\sim}4.6%$ higher for R-600a, R-290 and R-22, respectively, than those with inner diameter of 5.80 mm. The condensation heat transfer coefficients were compared with the published experimental data, and showed the best agreement with Haraguchi et al.'s correlation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.510-517
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• 2003

An experimental study on the pressure drop during flow boiling for pure refrigerants R134a and Rl23, and their mixture was carried out in a uniformly heated horizontal tube. Tests were run at a pressure of 0.6 MPa and in the ranges of heat flux 5~50 kW/m$^2$, vapor quality 0~100 percent and mass velocity of 150~600 kg/m$^2$s. Generally, the two-phase frictional multiplier is used to predict the frictional pressure drop during the two-phase flow boiling. The obtained results have been compared to the existing various correlations for the two-phase multiplier. Also, the frictional pressure drop was compared to a few available correlations; The Lockhart-Martinelli correlation considerally overpredicted the frictional pressure drop data for mixture as well as pure components in the entire mass velocity ranges employed in the present study, while the Chisholm correlation underpredicted the present data. The Friedel correlation was found to satisfactorily correlate the frictional pressure drop data except for a low quality region.