Condensation heat transfer coefficients of CFC-11 and its alternative refrigerants

Abstract

In this study, condensation heat transfer coefficients(HTCs) of CFC-11, HCFC-123 and HCFC-141b are measured, which are used/or considered as working fluids in centrifugal chillers. The main objectives of this study are to measure and compare the HTCs of various refrigerants on plain and low fin tubes and also to find out the optimum fin density of the low fin tubes. To accomplish these goals, HTCs of three refrigerants are measured for the plain tube as well as 4 types of low fin tubes. All measurements are carried out at the vapor temperature of 39.deg. C with the wall temperature difference of 3 .deg. C ~ 8.deg. C. For all the refrigerants tested, a low fin tube of 28 fins per inch yielded the best performance among all the tubes tested. For the plain tube, the HTCs of CFC-11 and HCFC-141b were very similar and those of HCFC-123 were 10% lower than those of CFC-11.Thus, it can be concluded that HCFC-123 and HCFC-141b are acceptable as alternative refrigerants for CFC-11 from the view point of condensation heat transfer.