Convective condensation of R449a inside a smooth tube

Abstract

The HVAC sector has started the phase-out of refrigerants characterized by high values of global warming potential and atmospheric lifetime. Drop-in replacement requires that the new, environmentally safe fluids also show comparable heat transfer performances. This work addresses R449a, a low GWP zeotropic mixture (components: R32, R125, R1234yf, R134a, mass fractions: 24.3%, 24.7%, 25.3%, 25.7%, respectively), suitable to replace both R404A and R507A. Experiments were carried out on condensation in horizontal smooth tubes (outer diameter: 9.52 mm, thickness: 0.3 mm). The range of operating conditions meets the standard for HVAC devices (operating pressure: 14.46 bar, bubble temperature: 30°C, temperature glide: approximately 5 K refrigerant mass flux ranging from 136 to 202 kg m−2 s−1, quality change -0.8 and -0.2, mean quality ranging from 0.2 to 0.8). The test section is the inner pipe in a tube-in-tube counter-flow heat exchanger, where the refrigerant is cooled by a demineralized water stream in the annulus. Both the pressure drop and the heat transfer coefficient were measured across a length of 1.3 m and 1.1 m, respectively.