Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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Analysis of pinch point in liquidevapour heat exchanger

of R134aeDMAC vapour absorption refrigeration system
Subhadip Roya, M.P. Maiyab, *
a
b

Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Chennai 600 054, India
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 8 March 2011
Accepted 2 September 2011
Available online 10 September 2011

R134a (1,1,1,2 tetrauro ethane)eDMAC (N,N Dimethyl Acetamide) vapour absorption refrigeration
system can be used for sub-zero temperature applications and in industries where ammonia is forbidden.
But it needs rectication of vapour from generator and draining of residual R134aeDMAC liquid from
evaporator. As such, owing to the comparatively low ratio of latent heat of vapourisation to vapour
specic heat of R134a, liquid vapour heat exchanger (LVHX) is required and the residual liquid further
enhances its prominence in sub-cooling the incoming condensate to improve COP. In this paper LVHX is
analyzed in detail by varying operating parameters like rectier efciency and evaporation and generator
temperatures. Heat capacity rate of the cold stream (vapour and residual liquid) changes continuously
due to the progressive phase change of the residual liquid. Depending on the rectier efciency, the
maximum temperature difference shifts from one end of LVHX to the other, while at certain efciencies it
occurs within the heat exchanger indicating that normal design procedure would lead to its design
oversize. The importance of LVHX increases with a decrease in both rectier efciency and evaporator
temperature.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
R134aeDMAC vapour absorption
refrigeration system
LVHX
Pinch point
Heat capacity rate
Residual liquid

1. Introduction
In order to overcome the limitations of conventional uid pairs in
vapour absorption refrigeration system (VARS), attention has been
drawn to new refrigerants. R134a is one such environmentally safe
refrigerant, which can produce cooling at sub-zero temperatures.
DMAC is a good absorbent for this refrigerant [1]. Experiments on
R134aeDMAC based VARS of 1 kW capacity were carried out to
study the feasibility of using this pair when source temperature is
low. Sink temperature plays an important role in the performance of
the system and heat transfer at every component increases with
increase in generator temperature [2]. Plate type bubble absorber for
R134aeDMAC VARS was modelled and designed by using mass and
energy balance, and heat and mass transfer equations. During
absorption process, plate type heat exchanger was found to be better
than shell and tube type because of enhanced overall heat transfer
coefcient [3]. Heat and mass transfer coefcients at different
positions of horizontal absorber for R134aeDMAC mixture were
found experimentally. The values of heat transfer coefcients were
much less than those for waterelithium bromide solution. Mass
transfer coefcient at upper part of the absorber is higher than that
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 91 44 2257 4665; fax: 91 44 2257 4652.
E-mail address: mpmaiya@iitm.ac.in (M.P. Maiya).
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.09.002

at lower part [4]. Experimental analysis revealed that overall heat

transfer coefcient in coiled tube absorber of R134aeDMAC VARS
increases almost linearly with lm Reynolds number which is non
dimensional form of solution ow rate at the inlet of absorber. The
cooling water temperature plays a vital role during design of
absorber. At constant absorber pressure and cooling water inlet
temperature, refrigeration capacity enhances with lm Reynolds
number [5]. Effects of mass transfer effectiveness of absorber on
performance of R134aeDMAC VARS at different operating conditions were theoretically studied for half, single and double effect
cycle. In the case of double effect cycle, coefcient of performance of
the system enhances at the highest rate with mass transfer effectiveness of absorber [6]. However, the performance of R134aeDMAC
based VARS is less than that of ammoniaewater. Hence this pair can
be used where ammonia cannot be used. The liquid vapour heat
exchanger (LVHX) can enhance the system efciency to a large
extent as the ratio of the latent heat of vapourisation to specic heat
of the vapour of R134a is quite low, at less than half and one fth of
that of ammonia and water respectively at 0
C. Like ammoniae
water system, the boiling temperature difference between refrigerant (R134a) and absorbent (DMAC) is low. Hence, a small amount
of the latter escapes to the condenser from the generator, particularly when generator temperature is high. This necessitates the
draining of the residual liquid with large concentration of R134a

S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

from evaporator to absorber. This liquid can be made to ow through

LVHX along with R134a vapour. The entrained R134a boils from the
residual liquid supplementing the cooling of condensate. So
compared to ammoniaewater and waterelithium bromide systems,
the role of LVHX is more signicant in the R134aeDMAC system. By
simulation studies on R134aeDMAC based half effect absorption
cold storage system, it was seen that by using LVHX, a system COP
can be increased by 5e15% [7]. The optimum generator temperature
in NH3eH2O vapour absorption refrigeration system was studied
where LVHX was used to pre-cool the condensate. Efciencies of
rectier, solution heat exchanger (SHX) and LVHX were found to
have no major effect on optimum generator temperature [8]. LVHX
was used in the vapour absorption heat pump to sub-cool the
condensate and its simulation was reported to be very problematic,
owing to the wide deviation from Q UALMTD relation.
However, this component is necessary to reduce the effect of
imperfect rectication [9]. The pinch point in heat exchanger
network was analyzed giving priority to material and energy
balance, neglecting piping cost associated with heat exchanger [10].
The locations of pinch points in a heat exchanger network of variable
heat capacity ow rates in process industry were calculated in order
to minimize the utility cost [11]. The analysis of pinch point in
components like chemical reactors and mixtures was carried out in
places where a change of mixture composition takes place. This was
done by converting those components to equivalent cooler and
heater, where mixture composition can be assumed as constant [12].
The temperature distribution of counter current ow heat
exchanger with multi-component mixture and the inuence of
mixture composition on temperature distribution and location of
pinch point were found out. Optimum mixture composition for
perfect temperature prole in the heat exchanger was determined
[13]. The limiting conditions for occurrence of pinch and its
prevention were found out by pinch point analysis of zeotropic
mixture in the condenser and the evaporator [14]. Two types of
pinch in heat exchanger are reported [15]. In Type I, the minimum
temperature difference between the two streams occurs within the
two ends, whereas in Type II, the maximum temperature between
the two streams occurs within the two ends. The former occurrence
of pinch leads to under estimation whereas the latter occurrence
would lead to over estimation of the heat exchanger size.
In R134aeDMAC VARS, pinch point of Type II exists in LVHX.
This paper investigates the location of the pinch point in LVHX of
R134aeDMAC VARS at different operating conditions.

Condenser

R134a vapor with little DMAC (v')

Reflux condenser
1
Qr

Qc

7
Stripping section

2
Condensate

7v 7l
v"

Generator
Qg

8
Weak solution
SHX
High pressure side
Throttle valve
Throttle valve
LVHX
3

Pump
9'

4
5
Vapour and residual liquid after LVHX
Strong solution,

Weak solution,

6'

Low pressure side

Qe
Qa
3'
Evaporator

Strong
solution

Absorber

R134a with little amount of DMAC

Fig. 1. Schematic of R134aeDMAC VARS with rectier and LVHX.

cold stream changes continuously. Further, the heat capacity rate

depends on the amount of residual liquid present in the cold stream
which is decided by rectier efciency. Hence the pinch point is
expected to shift accordingly from one end to any location within
and then to the other end of the LVHX.
3. Mathematical model
The horizontal counter current LVHX (Fig. 2) with hot stream
(condensate) in the annular side and cold stream (mixture of
vapour and residual liquid) in the tube side has been simulated and
modelled using property data, mass, material and enthalpy balance

d2

d1

L
cold stream
tcl,in

tcl,out

2. System description

hot stream
th,out

th,in

dL

th,in

th,out
Hot end

The schematic of R134aeDMAC VARS is shown in Fig. 1. It differs

from the conventional H2OeLiBr system with the presence of two
add-on components, namely, rectier and LVHX. The boiled out
vapour at the generator contains some amount of DMAC, which is
partially removed in the rectier. Because of incomplete rectication, a small amount of DMAC escapes to the condenser along with
R134a. Owing to the higher boiling point, all DMAC condenses
along with R134a. But in the evaporator DMAC does not vapourize,
forming residual liquid.
To avoid accumulation, the residual liquid has to be continuously drained from evaporator to absorber. This liquid contains
a signicant amount of refrigerant resulting in cooling loss, which
can be recovered to a large extent by using an LVHX between the
condensate (hot stream) and the vapour and residual liquid (cold
stream). The condensate gets sub-cooled, yielding an equal amount
of additional cooling in the evaporator. Both the vapour and
residual liquid in the cold stream get heated and a considerable
amount of R134a boils out from the latter. Owing to the progressive
phase change of the residual liquid, the heat capacity rate of the

Rectifier

th,in,i

th,out,i

tcl,out,i

tcl,in,i

tcl,out

Cold end

1620

tcl,in
Fig. 2. Schematic of tube-in-tube LVHX.

S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

1621

and heat transfer equations. This model takes into account heat
transfer area, inlet condition of both streams, their mass ow rates
and heat transfer coefcients to estimate the amount of heat
transfer from hot to cold stream and also to obtain temperature
proles of the two streams.

resulting in the reduction of mass fraction. Points B, B0 and 5

represent the respective outlet conditions. Thus, for the cold stream
of a known quality, two-phase ow heat transfer coefcient (htp)
for boiling inside the tube is calculated according to Wattelet [16].

3.1. Inlet conditions

where F is force convective multiplier, which is given by

The hot stream enters the LVHX at condenser temperature. Its

composition is the same as that of vapour at the outlet of the
rectier.
At the LVHX inlet, the cold stream is a mixture of vapour and
residual liquid owing out of the evaporator. The mass fraction of
R134a in these is found using p-t-x correlation of R134aeDMAC at
the prevailing temperature and pressure. Then the mass of both
vapour and liquid (State 4) is found out by mass and material balance
across the evaporator among the incoming condensate (mv0 ), the
outgoing vapour (mev) and the residual liquid (mrl) as follows.

mrl mev mv0

(1)

mrl xrl mev xev mv0 xv0

(2)

0:83
F 1 1:925Xtt

(3)

3.2. Heat transfer coefcients

The schematic of the counter ow tube-in-tube LVHX is shown
in Fig. 2. The hot stream (condensate) ows in the annular space,
whereas the cold stream (mixture of vapour and residual liquid)
ows inside the tube.
For the condensate in the annular side, the hydraulic diameter is
rst obtained as the ratio of four times of ow area to the wetted
perimeter. The ow is found to be always turbulent in the present
study. Heat transfer coefcient is then calculated using DittuseBoelter correlation.
The pressures in the LVHX and evaporator are equal. The pressure drop in LVHX is assumed to be negligible. Fig. 3 shows the
expected variation of temperature and mass fraction of cold stream
in LVHX. Points A, A0 and 4 represent the inlet conditions of the
residual liquid, vapour and combined state, respectively, in LVHX.
The mixture gets heated, temperature rises gradually and
a considerable amount of R134a boils from the residual liquid

Fig. 3. Schematic of p-t-x fraction diagram of R134aeDMAC mixture at LVHX inlet and
outlet.

(4)

(5)

where Xtt is LockharteMartinelli parameter, which is dened as

Xtt 1  x=x0:9 rv  rl 0:5 ml  mv 0:1

(6)

where hl is heat transfer coefcient of liquid phase, which is obtained as

hl 0:023kl G1  xd=ml 0:8 Prl 0:4 =d

(7)

where G is mass ux, which is calculated by

G mv0 =A

From Eqs. (1) and (2)

mrl mv0 xev  xv0 =xev  xrl

htp Fhl

(8)

Residual liquid is a mixture of R134aeDMAC and its properties

depend on temperature and mass fraction and the vapour phase
comprises only R134a as shown in Fig. 3. At low temperature,
DMAC does not vapourize along with R134a. The required thermophysical properties of R134aeDMAC liquid mixture are obtained
from literature, viz., viscosity, enthalpy and density from Borde and
Stephan [17], thermal conductivity, specic heat and diffusivity
from Reid et al. [18] and constants for estimation of specic heat
from Yokozeki [19]. Basically, they depend on temperature and
mass fraction of R134a. The properties of vapour phase (pure
R134a) have been obtained by the REFPROP software.
3.3. Calculation methodology
Shell and tube type horizontal counter current LVHX conguration has been assumed. The known parameters are inlet conditions, properties and mass ow rates of both the streams. The outlet
conditions of hot stream (State 3) and cold stream (State 5), and
other performance parameters are obtained as follows.
Divide the heat exchanger into many segments, each of length dL
as shown in Fig. 2. In cold stream, R134a vapourizes from residual
liquid incessantly. Hence, the heat capacity rate and other properties
of this stream change continuously. The segments are small enough
to neglect the variation in heat capacity rate and other properties of
both the streams. A segment independence study revealed that 500
segments are sufcient for the present study.
1. Assume the outlet temperature of hot stream (th,out).
2. Start from the rst segment from the cold end of the heat
exchanger.
3. Assume the inlet temperature of hot stream for this segment
(th,in,i 1).
4. Calculate the heat released by hot stream by enthalpy balance.
5. Calculate the outlet enthalpy of cold stream (hcl,out,i 1) by
enthalpy balance and hence nd out its outlet temperature
(tcl,out,i 1) from the relation h f(t,x) where h f(t,xl) f(t,xv)
6. Determine Nu for hot stream by DittuseBoelter correlation and
hence get heat transfer coefcient of this side.
7. Calculate the heat transfer coefcient of cold stream by Eq. (4).
8. Get overall heat transfer coefcient.
9. Calculate LMTD and area for this segment.
10. Calculate again the total heat transfer once again by Q UA
LMTD relation.

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S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

11. Iterate on inlet temperature of hot side (which was assumed in

Step 3) until the heat transfer calculated in Steps 4 and 10
converges to the desired accuracy.
12. Repeat Steps 3 to 11 sequentially for each segment to get the
inlet temperature of hot stream to each segment and get the
inlet temperature of hot stream (th,in) for the last segment from
the cold end.
13. Iterate on the outlet temperature of hot stream (th,out) (which
was assumed in Step 1), until the inlet temperature of the hot
stream (th,in) arrived at in Step 12 and the known data converge
to the desired accuracy.
14. Get outlet enthalpy of cold stream (hcl,out) by enthalpy balance
among the hot and cold streams and get outlet temperature of
cold stream (tcl,out) from the relation f(h,t,x) 0.
15. Get the amount of heat transfer by enthalpy balance among
inlet and outlet of cold or hot stream.
16. Get the amount of heat transfer in both cases if the cold stream
is heated up to hot stream inlet temperature or hot stream
cools to cold stream inlet temperature. Minimum of these two
determines the maximum possible heat transfer.
4. Results and discussion
As the objective of this study is only to investigate the performance of LVHX under various operating conditions especially with
respect to rectier efciency, which decides the amount of absorbent (DMAC) escaping to the condenser with refrigerant (R134a),
the following xed parameters are judiciously assumed.
1. The mass ow of condensate 0.035 kg/s. This roughly
amounts to a nominal cooling capacity of 1.5 TR.
2. The details of the LVHX (Fig. 2) are as follows: diameter of inner
tube (d1) 0.015 m, diameter of outer tube (d2) 0.02 m and
length (L) 10 m. It is assumed that heat transfer resistance
across the tube wall is negligible; the uid ows are uniform
and counter current and heat exchanger is horizontal.
3. In the present study, the sink (condenser, absorber) temperature is xed at 35
C. Generator temperatures have been
selected judiciously for different evaporation temperatures in
order to get optimum system performance.

Fig. 4. Variation of local heat transfer coefcient of two streams in LVHX for various
rectier efciencies.

condensate. This residual liquid is carried to LVHX. Hence, liquid

mass fraction of the cold stream increases at the inlet of LVHX with
a decrease in rectier efciency (Fig. 5). Further, as expected, the
local heat transfer coefcient of hot stream (R134a condensate)
remains almost unchanged as it ows from the hot to the cold end.
4.2. Heat capacity rate
Apart from signicant variation in the local heat transfer coefcient of the cold stream as discussed earlier, there exists a substantial
variation in the heat capacity rate too. The cold stream not only gets
heated but R134a also boils out from the residual liquid as it ows
from cold to hot end. During the numerical analysis, at every
segment both heat transfer and temperature rise are estimated.
Their ratio gives the heat capacity rate of the cold stream. Fig. 6
shows the variation of the estimated heat capacity of cold stream

4.1. Heat transfer coefcient

The cold stream, a mixture of R134a vapour and the residual
liquid (R134aeDMAC solution) enters the LVHX at the cold end.
Some of the R134a gradually boils out from the residual liquid,
owing to the heating from the hot stream. Hence the local heat
transfer coefcient of the cold stream in the LVHX decreases as it
ows from the cold end to the hot end. Fig. 4 shows the variation of
such local heat transfer coefcient for various rectier efciencies.
The coefcient depends on uid properties such as thermal
conductivity, density, viscosity, specic heat, etc., of both liquid and
vapour, but the main contributor is the liquid fraction of the cold
stream. The liquid fraction decreases due to the continuous boiling
of R134a from the residual liquid (Fig. 5), resulting in the decrease
of local heat transfer coefcient of the cold stream. The slope of the
curve decreases, which is in line with the decreasing liquid fraction.
During the initial period, more R134a would boil and the liquid
fraction decreases rapidly. Towards the hot end, the rate of boiling
decreases and hence the rate of decrease also reduces. For the same
reason, as the gure indicates, at any non-dimensional length of
LVHX, the local heat transfer coefcient is higher for lower rectier
efciencies because at lower rectier efciencies a large amount of
DMAC escapes to the condenser. Thus, a large amount of residual
liquid accumulates in the evaporator for the same mass ow rate of

Fig. 5. Variation of amount of residual liquid in cold stream for various rectier
efciencies.

S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

1623

Fig. 7. Temperature proles in LVHX at different rectier efciencies.

Fig. 6. Variation of local heat capacity rate of two streams in LVHX for various rectier
efciencies.

for various rectier efciencies. It decreases but with reduced

intensity as the cold stream ows from the cold to the hot end. This is
mainly because boiling of R134a from the residual liquid
(R134aeDMAC solution with high concentration of R134a) gradually
reduces in the direction of its ow. Further at any given location of
the LVHX, the gure indicates that the higher the rectier efciency,
the lower is the heat capacity rate and lower is its variation. This is in
line with the boiling rate of R134a from the residual liquid. As
explained earlier, the liquid fraction of the cold stream is less for
higher rectier efciencies, the amount of R134a boiling becomes
less correspondingly; hence its heat capacity rate and corresponding
variation are less. The heat capacity rate of the hot stream remains
constant as the specic heat of the R134a liquid is justiably
assumed constant. The interesting aspect of the results in this gure
is that this constant heat capacity rate line of the hot stream (horizontal line) intersects with that of the cold stream with intermediate
rectier efciencies at different points. This point shifts to the cold
end with an increase in the rectier efciency. Owing to a reduction
in the amount of residual liquid in cold stream at high rectier
efciency, its heat capacity rate soon becomes lower than that of the
other. In the case of complete rectication, the cold stream will have
only vapour and its heat capacity rate will always be lower than that
of the hot stream throughout the LVHX. Thus, the stream having the
minimum heat capacity rate which is an important aspect in any
heat exchanger, changes from one to another, calling for a detailed
analysis and discussions which are given in the following sections.
4.3. Temperature distribution
Fig. 7 shows the temperature distribution of hot and cold streams
in LVHX for different rectier efciencies. It can be observed that the
temperature distribution lines of both hot and cold streams are
curved with decreasing gradient in the direction of the length of the
LVHX. The former is due to progressively decreasing heat transfer
resulting from the prevailing lower temperature potential, despite
an increasing overall heat transfer coefcient. For the latter, the
additional reason is in the variation of its heat capacity as shown in
Fig. 6. The heat capacity rate is initially high, ensuring lower

temperature gradients at the cold end. It gradually decreases due to

the continuous boiling of R134a from the residual liquid and the
temperature gradient increases steadily towards the hot end.
Fig. 7 further reveals that the maximum temperature difference
between the two streams is at the hot end for rectier efciency of
0.85 and below. It occurs within the LVHX for rectier
efciencies 0.9 and 0.95. This can be justied considering the
relative heat capacities of the two streams. When the rectier
efciency is 0.85 and below, the cold stream has the maximum heat
capacity rate throughout the heat exchanger. Hence, the maximum
temperature difference occurs at the hot end of the LVHX. But for
higher rectier efciencies (0.9 and 0.95), the stream having
maximum heat capacity rate changes over from cold to hot stream
somewhere within the LVHX. Consequently, the maximum
temperature difference occurs within the LVHX at the cross-over
point of heat capacities. For complete rectication maximum
temperature difference would occur at the cold end.
4.4. Pinch point
Fig. 8 shows the position of the occurrence of the maximum
temperature difference (pinch point of Type II) in LVHX with respect
to rectier efciency for three sets of operating conditions, namely,
evaporator and generator temperatures (in
C) equal to (10, 150),
(0, 120) and (10, 110). Until the rectier efciency 0.8, the
maximum temperature difference occurs at the hot end for all the
cases. The maximum temperature difference occurs within the
LVHX and it gradually shifts towards the cold end when the rectier
efciency or evaporator temperature is increased. For rectier efciencies greater than 0.95, the maximum difference occurs at the
cold end for the last case (te 10
C, tg 110
C). As the required
generator temperature is low for high evaporator temperature,
a small amount of DMAC boils at the generator. The amount of
residual liquid becomes very less, when rectier efciency is as high
as 0.95. Hence, the heat capacity rate of cold stream becomes less
through LVHX. As the pinch point (maximum temperature difference) occurs within the LVHX, the standard design procedure based
on logarithmic mean temperature difference at two ends would
lead to over estimation of the size of the device. In the operating
conditions studied here, the over estimation is around 5%.

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S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

Fig. 8. Location of maximum temperature difference between streams in LVHX with

respect to rectier efciency.

4.5. Performance
Fig. 9 illustrates the variation of mass ow rates of residual
liquid at the LVHX inlet, the entrained R134a therein and the boiled
out R134a in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency. For the same
evaporator conditions, the mass fraction of R134a of the residual
liquid remains the same, irrespective of the rectier efciency. As
explained previously, the amount of residual liquid in cold stream
at LVHX inlet decreases with an increase in the rectier efciency
(Fig. 5). Consequently, both the entrained R134a and its boiling
from the residual liquid diminish for the same ow rate of
condensate. Hence, as the gure indicates, the boiled out R134a
reduces from 7.6 to 2.02% of the condensate when the rectier
efciency increases from 0.8 to 0.95.
Fig. 10 enumerates the component-wise contribution to the
recovered cooling in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency. The
highest contribution is from sensible heating of vapour followed by
boiling of R134a. This contribution increases, whereas that caused by
boiling of R134a and sensible heating of liquid R134a and DMAC
reduces with an increase in rectier efciency. As already explained

Fig. 9. Variation of mass ow rates of residual liquid at LVHX inlet, the entrained
R134a therein and boiled R134a in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency.

Fig. 10. Break up of recovered cooling in LVHX with respect to rectier efciency.

earlier, the amount of R134a that would be boiling in LVHX reduces

with an increase in the rectier efciency. As the sum of the mass
ow rate of vapour and residual liquid is constant and equal to
condensate ow rate, the mass ow rate of the former increases with
a decrease of the latter. In addition, as explained in Fig. 6, the heat
capacity rate of the cold stream diminishes with an increase in the
rectier efciency. Hence, the vapour gets heated more in the LVHX.
As a result, the contribution of vapour in recovered cooling increases
due to both increased ow rate and the extent of its heating. As
expected, the contribution from sensible heating of residual liquid
(R134a and DMAC) is insignicant. As Fig. 5 indicates, at the inlet of
LVHX, liquid fraction of cold stream is always less than 15% in all
cases. Further, it reduces gradually towards the outlet due to
continuous boiling of R134a. Hence, the contribution to recovered
cooling by sensible heating of residual liquid (R134a and DMAC) and
its variation with rectier efciency are insignicant.
Fig. 11 shows the variation of maximum possible and actual heat
transfers in LVHX with rectier efciency for various operating
conditions, viz., evaporator and generator temperatures (in
C)
equal to (10, 150), (0, 120) and (10, 110). Whereas the former
depends only on minimum heat capacity rate among the two

Fig. 11. Variation of maximum possible and actual heat transfer in LVHX with respect
to rectier efciency for various operating conditions.

S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

streams and their inlet temperature difference, the latter depends

in addition on heat transfer coefcients and the area. In the present
case, the sink temperature (hot stream inlet temperature) and mass
ow rate of both the streams are xed at 35
C and 0.035 kg/s
respectively. Whereas the heat capacity rate of hot stream remains
constant, that of cold stream decreases (due to decreasing residual
liquid and boiling components) with an increase in rectier efciency. Hence, the maximum possible heat transfer decreases with
an increase in rectier efciency for all evaporator temperatures.
The sink temperature being held constant, low evaporator
temperature means high temperature difference. Hence, for any
given rectier efciency, the maximum possible heat transfer
decreases with an increase in the evaporator temperature.
The trend of variation of actual heat transfer in LVHX is similar to
that of the maximum possible, but the former is always lower as
shown in Fig. 11 as it depends on additional parameters like heat
transfer coefcients and area. When the evaporator temperature is
decreased, the temperature difference increases and the amount of
heat transfer increases for the given LVHX. Besides high generator
temperature is required to achieve low evaporator temperature. This
leads to an increased amount of DMAC escaping to the condenser
from the generator, necessitating more residual liquid to be carried
to LVHX from the evaporator. So, obviously, the amount of boiling of
R134a increases. Again for the same evaporator temperature, both
the residual liquid in cold stream and the entrained R134a therein
increase (as explained in Figs. 6 and 4 respectively) with a decrease
in the rectier efciency. Hence, both the heat capacity rate of cold
stream and its heat transfer coefcient increase, resulting in
enhanced heat transfer at low evaporator temperature.
Decrease in both maximum possible and actual heat transfer
with rectier efciency is more predominant at a lower evaporator
temperature. In general, low evaporator temperature needs higher
generator temperatures and accordingly more DMAC escapes to the
condenser, leading to more residual liquid. Hence, as Fig. 11
demonstrates, the dependence of both the heat transfers on rectier efciency is more at a low evaporator temperature.
For the assumed set of operating conditions and the system with
nominal refrigeration capacity of 1.5 TR (5.25 kW), the amount of
heat transfer in LVHX is found to be in the range of 0.9e1.8 kW. Heat
transferred in LVHX sub-cools the condensate, yielding an equal
amount of additional cooling in the evaporator. Hence, without
LVHX, the refrigeration capacity decreases by the corresponding
amount. Therefore, it can be concluded that LVHX enhances system
COP from 0.21 to 0.27, which is about 30% increase. As Fig. 10
indicates, contribution from residual liquid is about one-third and
that from vapour is about two-thirds (20%) of this increase. At
similar operating conditions, system performance increases only by
around 10% for NH3eH2O VARS, when the residual liquid is not
considered in LVHX, which is half of that in the present case (20%).
5. Conclusions
Liquid-vapour heat exchanger of R134aeDMAC vapour absorption refrigeration system is analyzed. For the cold stream, both local
heat transfer coefcient and local heat capacity rate are found to vary
signicantly. Consequently, pinch point of type II i.e., occurrence of
maximum temperature difference within the heat exchanger is
found to crop up in LVHX at a certain range of rectier efciency.
Hence, standard design procedure would overestimate the heat
exchanger size. Depending on the operating and design conditions
the pinch point is found to shift from one end to any location within
and then to the other end of LVHX. For the given LVHX, the amount of
heat transfer is found to increase with a decrease in both rectier
efciency and evaporator temperature illustrating its signicance at
such operating conditions. The performance enhancement due to

1625

LVHX in R134aeDMAC vapour absorption system is found to be two

fold higher than that in the NH3eH2O system.
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Nomenclature
A: Area (m2)
COP: Coefcient of performance (e)
d: Diameter (m)
F: Force convective multiplier coefcient (e)
G: Mass ux (kg m2)
h: Enthalpy (kJ kg1)
hl: Liquid phase heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
htp: Two phase heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
L: Length (m)
LMTD: Log mean temperature difference (K)
LVHX: Liquid vapour heat exchanger
m: Mass ow rate (kg s1)
Nu: Nusselt number (e)
p: Pressure (bar)
Q: Rate of heat transfer (kW)

1626
t: Temperature (
C)
U: Overall heat transfer coefcient (kW m2 K1)
x: Quality (e)
Xtt: LockharteMartinelli parameter (e)
Greek letters

h: Efciency (e)
m: Viscosity coefcient (kg m1 s1)
x: Mass fraction of R134a ()
r: Density (kg m3)
Subscripts
a: Absorber
c: Condenser
cl: Cold

S. Roy, M.P. Maiya / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1619e1626

e: Evaporator
ev: Vapour generated in evaporator
g: Generator
h: Hot
i: Incremental numbers, 1,2,3,.
in: Inlet
l: Liquid
LVHX: Liquid vapour heat exchanger
out: Outlet
r: Rectier
rl: Residual liquid at evaporator exit
v: Vapour
v0 : Vapour after rectication
v00 : Vapour at the bottom of generator
1.9: State points in Fig. 1