A SIMPLIFIED THREE-ZONE MODEL FOR DESIGNING SHELL-AND-TUBE REFRIGERANT CONDENSERS

作者：Kara Yusuf Ali^*

来源：Isi Bilimi ve Teknigi Dergisi-Journal of Thermal Science and Technology, 2014, 34(1): 9-18.

• Shell-and-tube refrigerant condenser
• condenser design
• condenser sizing

This paper presents a computer code based on a simplified model for sizing a horizontal shell and tube refrigerant condenser. The model uses three-zone approach for condensing-side and overall approach for the coolant-side of the condenser. Given the thermal and hydraulic data, the code reads many different exchanger configurations from the tube count table and calculates the pressure drop, required heat transfer area and exchanger length for each configuration and then selects the one that has the smallest exchanger area for lowering the initial cost. The model has been experimentally validated by testing a shell-and-tube refrigerant condenser that water flows on tube-side as coolant while R-134a as refrigerant condenses on shell-side. The experimental system is a vapour compression chiller unit using R-134a as refrigerant. The measured and predicted values of the length and the heat transfer area of the tested condenser are in good agreement. The maximum absolute differences between the output of the code and the measured values of the heat rate and heat transfer area are 13% and 7%, respectively.

• 出版日期2014