The refrigerant flow distribution in the parallel flow microchannel evaporators is experimentally investigated to study the effect of header configuration. Six different configurations are tested in the same evaporator by installing insertion device and partition plate in the header to ensure the consistency of the other structure parameters. The results show that the uniformity of refrigerant flow distribution and the heat transfer rate are greatly improved by reducing the sectional area of header. The heat transfer rate can increase by 67.93% by reducing the sectional area of both inlet and outlet headers. The uniformity of refrigerant flow distribution and the heat transfer rate become worse after installing the partition plate in the insertion devices and changing the inner structure of the header further.
YU Dengjia (俞登佳), LIU Jinwei (刘金伟), Lü Hongbin (吕鸿斌), SHI Junye (施骏业), YOU Dian (游典), CHEN Jiangping* (陈江平)
. Effect of Header Configuration on Refrigerant Distribution in Parallel Flow Microchannel Evaporators[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2019
, 24(3)
: 273
-280
.
DOI: 10.1007/s12204-019-2068-4
[1] KULKARNI T, BULLARD C W, CHO K. Header designtradeoffs in microchannel evaporators [J]. AppliedThermal Engineering, 2004, 24(5/6): 759-776. [2] BRIX W, K?RN M R, ELMEGAARD B. Modellingrefrigerant distribution in microchannel evaporators[J]. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2009,32(7): 1736-1743. [3] TUO H, HRNJAK P. Effect of the header pressuredrop induced flow maldistribution on the microchannelevaporator performance [J]. International Journal ofRefrigeration, 2013, 36(8): 2176-2186. [4] KIM N H, BYUN H W. Refrigerant distribution ina minichannel evaporator having vertical headers [J].Heat Transfer Engineering, 2014, 35(11/12): 1105-1113. [5] BOWERS C D, MAI H, ELBEL S, et al. Refrigerantdistribution effects on the performance of microchannelevaporators [C]//International Refrigerationand Air Conditioning Conference.West Lafayette,IN, USA: Purdue e-Pubs, 2012: 2173. [6] BYUN H W, KIM N H. Two-phase refrigerant distributionin an intermediate header of a parallel flowminichannel heat exchanger [J]. International Journalof Refrigeration, 2015, 59: 14-28. [7] BYUN H W, KIM N H. Effect of row-crossing headerconfiguration on refrigerant distribution in a tworow/four pass parallel flow minichannel heat exchanger[J]. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,2015, 89: 124-137. [8] KIM N H, LEE E J, BYUN H W. Two-phase refrigerantdistribution in a parallel flow minichannel heatexchanger having horizontal headers [J]. InternationalJournal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2012, 55(25/26):7747-7759. [9] ZOU Y, HRNJAK P S. Refrigerant distribution in thevertical header of the microchannel heat exchanger:Measurement and visualization of R410A flow [J].International Journal of Refrigeration, 2013, 36(8):2196-2208. [10] ZOU Y, HRNJAK P S. Effects of fluid properties ontwo-phase flow and refrigerant distribution in the verticalheader of a reversible microchannel heat exchanger:Comparing R245fa, R134a, R410A, and R32 [J]. AppliedThermal Engineering, 2014, 70(1): 966-976. [11] ZOU Y, HRNJAK P S. Experiment and visualizationon R134a upward flow in the vertical header of microchannelheat exchanger and its effect on distribution[J]. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,2013, 62: 124-134. [12] WIJAYANTA A T, MIYAZAKI T, KOYAMA S. Refrigerantdistribution in horizontal headers with downwardminichannel-branching conduits: Experiment,empirical correlation and two-phase flow pattern map[J]. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 2017, 81:430-444. [13] TUO H, BIELSKUS A, HRNJAK P. Experimentallyvalidated model of refrigerant distribution in a parallelmicrochannel evaporator [J]. SAE International Journalof Materials & Manufacturing, 2012, 5(2): 365-374. [14] KUMARAN R M, KUMARAGURUPARAN G,SORNAKUMAR T. Experimental and numericalstudies of header design and inlet/outlet configurationson flow mal-distribution in parallel micro-channels [J].Applied Thermal Engineering, 2013, 58(1/2): 205-216. [15] LI H, HRNJAK P. An infrared thermography basedmethod for quantification of liquid refrigerant distributionin parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger[J]. SAE International Journal of Materials & Manufacturing,2015, 8(3): 603-608.
