Analysis of Two-Phase Flow Solar Collectors With Application to Heat Pumps

1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. K. Chaturvedi ◽  
Y. F. Chiang ◽  
A. S. Roberts

A thermodynamic model is developed to analyze the thermal performance of two-phase solar collectors. The well-known equilibrium homogeneous theory is used to model the two-phase flow in the solar collectors. The resultant set of coupled ordinary differential equations for saturated pressure and quality of working fluid in the collector tubes are solved by an iterative procedure using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The results are then applied to determine the thermal performance of a solar assisted heat pump which uses two-phase flow collectors as the evaporator. The results indicate that even with the use of less expensive bare solar collectors as evaporator for the heat pump, the heating coefficient of performance (COPH) as high as 6 can be obtained under realistic ambient conditions provided a proper matching exists between the collector’s evaporative capacity and the compressor’s pumping capacity.

2021 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 113988
Author(s):  
Jian Yao ◽  
Wenjie Liu ◽  
Yao Zhao ◽  
Yanjun Dai ◽  
Junjie Zhu ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. T. Lacerda ◽  
A. T. Prata ◽  
F. Fagotti

Abstract Several phenomena occurring inside refrigerating systems depend on the interaction between the refrigeration oil and the refrigerant working fluid. Regarding the refrigeration cycle, good miscibility of oil and refrigerant assure easy return of circulating oil to the compressor through the reduction of the oil viscosity. Inside the compressor the lubricant is mainly used for leakage sealing, cooling of hot elements and lubrication of sliding parts. In the compressor bearing systems the presence of refrigerant dissolved in the oil greatly influences the performance and reliability of the compressor due to the outgassing experienced by sudden changes in temperature and pressure resulting in a two-phase mixture with density and viscosity strongly affecting the lubricant characteristics. A general understanding of the oil-refrigerant mixture flow is crucial in developing lubrication models to be used in analysis and simulation of fluid mechanics problems inside the compressor. In the present investigation the refrigeration oil flow with refrigerant outgassing is explored experimentally. A mixture of oil saturated with refrigerant is forced to flow in two straight horizontal tubes of constant diameter. One tube is used for flow visualization and the other is instrumented for pressure and temperature measurements. At the tubes inlet liquid state prevails and as flow proceeds the pressure drop reduces the gas solubility in the oil and outgassing occurs. Initially small bubbles are observed and eventually the bubble population reaches a stage where foaming flow is observed. The flow visualization allowed identification of the two-phase flow regimes experienced by the mixture. Pressure and temperature distributions are measured along the flow and from that mixture quality and void fraction were estimated.


Author(s):  
Sujin Yeom ◽  
Seung S. Lee ◽  
Sang Yong Lee

This paper presents a micro-fluidic device which generates micro-bubbles, ranging from 70μm to 160μm in diameter, and two-phase flow characteristics in the device were tested. The device is composed of three sub-channels: a centered gas channel (10μm×50μm) and two liquid channels (both with 85μm×50μm) on each side of the gas channel. Micro-bubbles are generated by co-flow of gas and liquid at the exit of the gas channel when the drag force becomes larger than the surface tension force as bubbles grow. Methanol and a gas mixture of CO2 and N2 were used as the working fluid. Since the flow rate of gas was very small, the gas momentum effect was considered negligible. Thus, in the present case, the controlling parameters were the liquid superficial velocity and the inlet pressure of the gas. A high speed camera was used to record two-phase flow patterns and micro-bubbles of the device. To confine the ranges of the micro-bubbles generation, two-phase flow patterns in the device is observed at first. Four different flow patterns were observed: annular, annular-slug, slug, and bubbly flow. In bubbly flows, uniform-sized micro-bubbles were generated, and the operating ranges of the liquid superficial velocity and the gas pressure were below 0.132 m/s and 0.7 bar, respectively. Diameters of the micro-bubbles appeared smaller with the higher superficial liquid velocity and/or with a lower gas pressure. Experimental results showed that, with the gas pressure lower than a certain level, the sizes of micro-bubbles were almost insensitive to the gas pressure. In such a ranges, the micro-bubble diameters could be estimated from a drag coefficient correlation, CDw = 31330/Re3, which is different from the correlations for macro-channels due to a larger wall effect with the micro-channels. In the latter part of the paper, as a potential of application of the micro-bubble generator to gas analysis, dissolution behavior of the gas components into the liquid flow was examined. The result shows that the micro-bubble generator can be adopted as a component of miniaturized gas analyzers if a proper improvement could be made in controlling the bubble sizes effectively.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 479
Author(s):  
Ignacio Paniagua ◽  
Ángel Álvaro ◽  
Javier Martín ◽  
Celina Fernández ◽  
Rafael Carlier

Although CO 2 as refrigerant is well known for having the lowest global warming potential (GWP), and commercial domestic heat pump water heater systems exist, its long expected wide spread use has not fully unfolded. Indeed, CO 2 poses some technological difficulties with respect to conventional refrigerants, but currently, these difficulties have been largely overcome. Numerous studies show that CO 2 heat pump water heaters can improve the coefficient of performance (COP) of conventional ones in the given conditions. In this study, the performances of transcritical CO 2 and R410A heat pump water heaters were compared for an integrated nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) application. The thermodynamic cycle of two commercial systems were modelled integrating experimental data, and these models were then used to analyse both heat pumps receiving and producing hot water at equal temperatures, operating at the same ambient temperature. Within the range of operation of the system, it is unclear which would achieve the better COP, as it depends critically on the conditions of operation, which in turn depend on the ambient conditions and especially on the actual use of the water. Technology changes on each side of the line of equal performance conditions of operation (EPOC), a useful design tool developed in the study. The transcritical CO 2 is more sensitive to operating conditions, and thus offers greater flexibility to the designer, as it allows improving performance by optimising the global system design.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 524
Author(s):  
Jamal Fannir ◽  
Irina Panfilova ◽  
Sébastien Leclerc ◽  
Didier Stemmelen

This study describes experimental research on two-phase flow displacement using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques. The overall purpose of this investigation is to determine kinetics process of phase trapping during (water-oil) two-phase flow, the front deformation and the phases saturation propagation along a vertical model. In these water flooding experiments, the porous medium model consists of packed beads of polystyrene (0.4 mm < dp < 0.6 mm) or sand grains (0.02 mm < dp < 0.50 mm). In order to conduct high accuracy experiments, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer operating at 14 T (corresponding to a 600 MHz 1H resonance) equipped with an imaging device was used. With this equipment we can measure and visualize the two-phase flow in a vertical model of porous medium under ambient conditions. The obtained results have shown that the oil saturation profile is strongly influenced by the material properties such as the phase wetting, the sample porosity and permeability as well as the injection rate. The influence of flow velocity on the residual oil saturation was also studied. The experimental results allow an essential understanding of immiscible fluid displacement in two different types of porous medium that differ from each other mainly by the effects of wettability.


2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 629-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Arosio ◽  
R. Carlevaro ◽  
M. Guilizzoni

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