Study on the performance of small tube diameter R290 fin-tube evaporator

Abstract

Reducing the diameter of copper tube is beneficial to reduce the amount of metal material used in heat exchanger. The change of the diameter of the copper tube can not only reduce the volume of the heat exchanger, but also the filling amount of the refrigerant can be reduced. In this paper, the R22 fin-tube evaporator with 7mm tube diameter is improved. The diameter of the tube is reduced to 5mm, and the environment protection refrigerant R290 is used. Diameter reduction may cause the pressure drop increases, and the new branch number is 5 by calculating. Using the simulation software EVAP-COND to simulate the heat transfer performance and compare the refrigerant flow, pressure drop, copper usage with the evaporator before improved. Result show that the heat transfer effect of R290 evaporator is better than that of R22 system, and the heat transfer effect of system is the best. Under the premise of no increasing pressure drop, the heat transfer of the R290 fin-tube evaporator with a small tube diameter increased by 34.62%, refrigerant flow rate, pressure drop, copper and aluminum consumption decreased by 28.7%, 43.1%, 28.6%, 30%.