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Performance analysis of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) driven half-cycle air conditioning system

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Abstract

Liquified petroleum gas (LPG) is one of the potential refrigerants to be used in half-cycle air conditioning systems. After evaporation to get air-conditioning, LPG may be further used in combustion applications such as electric-generators, auto-motives and cooking stoves. Expansion device (or a flow control valve) is usually used before the evaporator to make sure that the refrigerant vaporizes in evaporator and provides cooling. The present study reports the investigation of an experimental study to determine the performance of three in-house designed and manufactured evaporators for an air conditioning system using LPG as refrigerant. The evaporators used are finned-tube evaporators having difference in tube arrangements, fin materials, fin spacing and tube dimensions. The thermal energy to evaporate LPG is obtained from air driven by a fan attached to one side of the evaporator. Cold air exiting from the evaporator is then supplied to a cabin having the similar dimensions of an automotive rickshaw. The performance parameters determined for a fixed time duration for different fan speeds include; the cooling effect, contact factor and rate of condensation. The investigations were conducted for different LPG flow rates and evaporative pressures. The test results show that for each flow condition; the cooling effect, contact factor and rate of condensation are also the function of air flow rate passing through the evaporator. Experimentally determined cooling effects were then analytically validated by using the Nusselt number correlations of Grimison model, modified Grimison model and Zhukauskas model for each of the evaporators used.

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Abbreviations

a :

(constant)

A :

total Surface area of finned tube evaporator [m2].

A T :

total surface area of tubes without fin [m].

A f :

surface area of fins [m2].

A w :

surface area of tubes between fins [m2].

b :

Reynolds number exponent.

B :

width of the fin per unit tube [m].

C :

length of the fin per unit tube [m].

c :

Prandtl number exponent.

D :

tube internal diameter [m].

D f :

equivalent fin diameter [m].

D r :

tube external diameter [m].

EER:

energy efficiency ratio.

F :

correction factor.

h :

heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2K)].

h":

effective heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2K)].

h 1 :

enthalpy of air at the inlet of evaporator [W/(m2K)].

h 2 :

enthalpy of air at the outlet of evaporator [W/(m2K)].

∆h:

difference of specific enthalpy of air at inlet and outlet of evaporator [J/kg].

I :

Amperes [A].

K :

thermal conductivity [W/m-K].

LPG:

liquified petroleum gas.

LMTD:

log-mean temperature difference [K].

l :

thickness of plywood sheet [m].

L :

length of fin [m].

L t :

tube length [m].

m :

Reynolds number exponent in Zhukauskas model.

m f :

mass flow rate of air through evaporator [m/s].

\( {\dot{\mathrm{m}}}_a \) :

air mass flow rate [kg/s].

n r :

number of rows.

n t :

number of tubes in each row.

n :

Reynolds number exponent in Grimison model.

N :

total number of tubes.

P 1 :

longitudinal pitch [m].

P 2 :

transverse pitch [m].

P 3 :

diagonal pitch [m].

Pr :

Prandtl number.

Pr s :

Prandtl number of air at the surface temperature of coil.

P :

electric power [W].

Q:

rate of heat transfer [W].

Re:

Reynolds number.

R h1 :

relative humidity of air at the inlet of evaporator.

R h2 :

relative humidity of air at the outlet of evaporator.

S min :

minimum cross-sectional flow area for air [m2].

S :

space between Fins [m].

SI:

spark Ignition.

T 1 :

temperatures of air at the inlet of evaporator [K].

T 2 :

temperatures of air at the outlet of evaporator [K].

T 0 :

surface temperature of tube (K).

ΔT:

log mean temperature difference (LMTD).

V :

velocity of air at the inlet of evaporator [m/s].

V max :

maximum velocity of air during flow through evaporator [m/s].

W :

fin thickness [m].

μ :

dynamic viscosity of air [kg/(m. s)].

ƞ :

fin efficiency.

ρ :

density of air [kg/m3].

€ :

additional scaling factor.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial and technical support of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, 23460, KPK, Pakistan.

This study was also supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2020R1A2B5B02002512).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, 23460, Pakistan

    Atif Muzaffar, Taqi Ahmad Cheema, Ahmad Abbas, Muhammad Tayyab & Muhammad Ilyas

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-Ro, Buk-Gu, Daegu, 41566, South Korea

    Cheol Woo Park

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  1. Atif Muzaffar
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  2. Taqi Ahmad Cheema
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Correspondence to Taqi Ahmad Cheema or Cheol Woo Park.

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Muzaffar, A., Cheema, T.A., Abbas, A. et al. Performance analysis of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) driven half-cycle air conditioning system. Heat Mass Transfer 56, 3177–3197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-020-02898-7

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