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Analysis of Pinch Point in Liquid Vapour Heat Exchanger of R134a DMAC Vapour Absorption Refrigeration System 2013 Applied Thermal Engineering
Analysis of Pinch Point in Liquid Vapour Heat Exchanger of R134a DMAC Vapour Absorption Refrigeration System 2013 Applied Thermal Engineering
Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Chennai 600 054, India
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 8 March 2011
Accepted 2 September 2011
Available online 10 September 2011
R134a (1,1,1,2 tetrauro ethane)eDMAC (N,N Dimethyl Acetamide) vapour absorption refrigeration
system can be used for sub-zero temperature applications and in industries where ammonia is forbidden.
But it needs rectication of vapour from generator and draining of residual R134aeDMAC liquid from
evaporator. As such, owing to the comparatively low ratio of latent heat of vapourisation to vapour
specic heat of R134a, liquid vapour heat exchanger (LVHX) is required and the residual liquid further
enhances its prominence in sub-cooling the incoming condensate to improve COP. In this paper LVHX is
analyzed in detail by varying operating parameters like rectier efciency and evaporation and generator
temperatures. Heat capacity rate of the cold stream (vapour and residual liquid) changes continuously
due to the progressive phase change of the residual liquid. Depending on the rectier efciency, the
maximum temperature difference shifts from one end of LVHX to the other, while at certain efciencies it
occurs within the heat exchanger indicating that normal design procedure would lead to its design
oversize. The importance of LVHX increases with a decrease in both rectier efciency and evaporator
temperature.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
R134aeDMAC vapour absorption
refrigeration system
LVHX
Pinch point
Heat capacity rate
Residual liquid
1. Introduction
In order to overcome the limitations of conventional uid pairs in
vapour absorption refrigeration system (VARS), attention has been
drawn to new refrigerants. R134a is one such environmentally safe
refrigerant, which can produce cooling at sub-zero temperatures.
DMAC is a good absorbent for this refrigerant [1]. Experiments on
R134aeDMAC based VARS of 1 kW capacity were carried out to
study the feasibility of using this pair when source temperature is
low. Sink temperature plays an important role in the performance of
the system and heat transfer at every component increases with
increase in generator temperature [2]. Plate type bubble absorber for
R134aeDMAC VARS was modelled and designed by using mass and
energy balance, and heat and mass transfer equations. During
absorption process, plate type heat exchanger was found to be better
than shell and tube type because of enhanced overall heat transfer
coefcient [3]. Heat and mass transfer coefcients at different
positions of horizontal absorber for R134aeDMAC mixture were
found experimentally. The values of heat transfer coefcients were
much less than those for waterelithium bromide solution. Mass
transfer coefcient at upper part of the absorber is higher than that
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 91 44 2257 4665; fax: 91 44 2257 4652.
E-mail address: mpmaiya@iitm.ac.in (M.P. Maiya).
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.09.002
Condenser
Qc
7
Stripping section
2
Condensate
7v 7l
v"
Generator
Qg
8
Weak solution
SHX
High pressure side
Throttle valve
Throttle valve
LVHX
3
Pump
9'
4
5
Vapour and residual liquid after LVHX
Strong solution,
Weak solution,
6'
Strong
solution
Absorber
d2
d1
L
cold stream
tcl,in
tcl,out
2. System description
hot stream
th,out
th,in
dL
th,in
th,out
Hot end
Rectifier
th,in,i
th,out,i
tcl,out,i
tcl,in,i
tcl,out
Cold end
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tcl,in
Fig. 2. Schematic of tube-in-tube LVHX.
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and heat transfer equations. This model takes into account heat
transfer area, inlet condition of both streams, their mass ow rates
and heat transfer coefcients to estimate the amount of heat
transfer from hot to cold stream and also to obtain temperature
proles of the two streams.
(1)
(2)
0:83
F 1 1:925Xtt
(3)
Fig. 3. Schematic of p-t-x fraction diagram of R134aeDMAC mixture at LVHX inlet and
outlet.
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
G mv0 =A
htp Fhl
(8)
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Fig. 4. Variation of local heat transfer coefcient of two streams in LVHX for various
rectier efciencies.
Fig. 5. Variation of amount of residual liquid in cold stream for various rectier
efciencies.
1623
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4.5. Performance
Fig. 9 illustrates the variation of mass ow rates of residual
liquid at the LVHX inlet, the entrained R134a therein and the boiled
out R134a in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency. For the same
evaporator conditions, the mass fraction of R134a of the residual
liquid remains the same, irrespective of the rectier efciency. As
explained previously, the amount of residual liquid in cold stream
at LVHX inlet decreases with an increase in the rectier efciency
(Fig. 5). Consequently, both the entrained R134a and its boiling
from the residual liquid diminish for the same ow rate of
condensate. Hence, as the gure indicates, the boiled out R134a
reduces from 7.6 to 2.02% of the condensate when the rectier
efciency increases from 0.8 to 0.95.
Fig. 10 enumerates the component-wise contribution to the
recovered cooling in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency. The
highest contribution is from sensible heating of vapour followed by
boiling of R134a. This contribution increases, whereas that caused by
boiling of R134a and sensible heating of liquid R134a and DMAC
reduces with an increase in rectier efciency. As already explained
Fig. 9. Variation of mass ow rates of residual liquid at LVHX inlet, the entrained
R134a therein and boiled R134a in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency.
Fig. 10. Break up of recovered cooling in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency.
Fig. 11. Variation of maximum possible and actual heat transfer in LVHX with respect
to rectier efciency for various operating conditions.
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Nomenclature
A: Area (m2)
COP: Coefcient of performance (e)
d: Diameter (m)
F: Force convective multiplier coefcient (e)
G: Mass ux (kg m2)
h: Enthalpy (kJ kg1)
hl: Liquid phase heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
htp: Two phase heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
L: Length (m)
LMTD: Log mean temperature difference (K)
LVHX: Liquid vapour heat exchanger
m: Mass ow rate (kg s1)
Nu: Nusselt number (e)
p: Pressure (bar)
Q: Rate of heat transfer (kW)
1626
t: Temperature ( C)
U: Overall heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
x: Quality (e)
Xtt: LockharteMartinelli parameter (e)
Greek letters
h: Efciency (e)
m: Viscosity coefcient (kg m1 s1)
x: Mass fraction of R134a ()
r: Density (kg m3)
Subscripts
a: Absorber
c: Condenser
cl: Cold