Numerical Simulation of Capillary Tube for Selected Refrigerants Using Homogeneous Equilibrium Model

Abstract

In this work, a set of computational investigation results of two-phase refrigerant flow through adiabatic capillary are presented. There are various sizes of capillary tubes that can be selected related to commercially available copper tubes. Earlier refrigerants and new refrigerants like R12, R22, R134a, R410A and R32 are used for the flow analysis. Homogeneous-equilibrium model is employed with user-defined properties of the refrigerants for computation using ANSYS CFX. Several important parameters can be predicted rapidly and accurately using this method such as refrigerant mass flow rate, vapor mass fraction, local Mach no. etc. The mean deviation in mass flow rate is found to be [Formula: see text]1.18% for the same length of capillary tube and the mean deviation of tube length is found to be [Formula: see text]1.48% for the same experimental mass flow rate with choked flow condition.

Numerical analysis of a two-phase injection refrigeration cycle using R32

“…R11 and R12 were the most widely used refrigerants [1]. When HVAC industry started to grow at a faster rate, the production of these refrigerants exceeded many million tons, the high production of these refrigerants was seen as a cause of concern as these refrigerants were found responsible for ozone depletion and global warming [2]. Due to environmental concerns the production of R11 and R12 has been stopped.…”