Second law assessment of di methyl ether and its mixtures in domestic refrigeration system

Abstract

Dimethyl ether (DME) and its blend of refrigerants (R429A, R435A, and R510A) are considered in this study's second law analysis as potential replacements for R134a. The performance of various refrigerants in a vapour compression refrigeration system is examined using the Design package CYCLE D. The software REFPROP 9.0 is used to extract all of the thermal and physical parameters of DME and its blend of refrigerants. The Second law performance parameters such as Efficiency Defects, Entropy generation and ExergyEfficiency are discussed. The refrigerants R429A and R510A are more energy efficient than R134a across a condensing temperature range of 30 to 55 °C at − 10 °C evaporation temperature. R134a was exceeded by R429A and R510A in terms of exergetic efficiency by 2.08 and 0.43%, respectively. In comparison to other losses in different components, the compressor's exergy loss is larger at 37–40% of the total exergy loss. By employing RE170 and its blends, the Vapour Compression Refrigeration System often performs better under the second law than R134a.The result shows that the efficiency defects in the compressor are the largest, followed by the condenser and evaporator. Thus, the design improvement of a compressor is of at most importance to improve the system performance by lowering the overall irreversibility.