| Title |
A Numerical Study on R410A Charge Amount in an Air Cooled Mini-Channel Condenser |
| Keywords |
응축기 ; 충전량 ; 분배기 ; 루버핀 ; 미소유로 ; 보이드율 Condenser ; Charge amount ; Header ; Louver-fin ; Mini-channel ; Void fraction ; |
| 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 ε-NTU method. With thermo- physical 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. |