Abstract
The objective of this study was to provide experimental data that could be used to predict frost growth and frost performance of a round plate fin-tube heat exchanger for low temperature heat pumps used in zero emission vehicles under cold weather conditions. In this study, round plate fin-tube heat exchangers were tested with variation of the fin space, air flow rate, relative humidity, and inlet air temperature. Frost height was measured and considered with the boundary layer interruption between fins. Frost height for 8.0 mm of fin space was increased by approximately 91.9% with an increase of relative humidity from 50.0% to 80.0%. The growth rate of frost height at 1.2 m3/min was observed to be 13.0% greater than that at 0.8 m3/min. Finally, the variation of the blockage ratio with fin space would be an important reference for designing advanced heat exchangers that operate under cold weather conditions.
Highlights
The formation of frost is a general physical phenomenon that occurs under cold weather conditions in air to air and air to refrigerant heat exchangers, such as the evaporator of an air conditioning system, heat exchangers in a refrigeration system, heat pumps, in the storage of cryogenic liquids, and on theEarth’s surface in winter
Frost height and frost growth rate on the round plate fin-tube heat exchanger, which could be used as the heat exchanger of a heat pump in a zero emission vehicle, as well as in a refrigeration system or an HVAC system in various industries, were experimentally considered
Frost height was affected by the relative humidity, inlet air temperature, and air flow rate
Summary
The formation of frost is a general physical phenomenon that occurs under cold weather conditions in air to air and air to refrigerant heat exchangers, such as the evaporator of an air conditioning system, heat exchangers in a refrigeration system, heat pumps, in the storage of cryogenic liquids, and on theEarth’s surface in winter. The formation of frost is a general physical phenomenon that occurs under cold weather conditions in air to air and air to refrigerant heat exchangers, such as the evaporator of an air conditioning system, heat exchangers in a refrigeration system, heat pumps, in the storage of cryogenic liquids, and on the. Frost is removed periodically to improve the efficiency of operation. This normally involves heating the surface to melt frost, a costly operation since energy is required to melt frost and the heat exchanger is out of operation during the process, several researchers suggested the non-costly defrosting techniques for heat pump systems at a laboratory stage as mentioned in Huang et al [1] and Byrne et al [2]
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