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Figure 6.46compares a flooded system and a DX system. The greenline detour (b-c) to the liquid
saturation line (bubble line) shows the phase separation in the flooded system receiver. Because
of the pressure gain (c-d) in the pipe that connects the receiver and the flooded evaporator, the
evaporator inlet liquid is sub-cooled. Please note that the (c-d) line in Figure 6.46is exaggerated.
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The pressure gain in the receiver-evaporator pipe is actually approximately 5-50 kPa (0.05-0.5 bar),
while the pressure lift over the compressor is roughly 12-17 bar. Because there is no need for
superheating in a flooded evaporator, the evaporation temperature can be a few degrees higher
than in a DX evaporator (see Figure 6.47).
Energy transfer is much more efcient through a boiling turbulent liquid lm than through dry
superheated vapor. As a consequence, the temperature program is "closer" for a non-superheated
evaporator than for a superheated evaporator (see Figure 6.47). A "closer" temperature program
means a smaller difference between the leaving secondary fluid temperature and the evaporation
temperature (LWT-Tevap).
Due to the higher evaporation temperature in a flooded evaporator, the pressure lift between the
evaporator and condenser sides is smaller. The advantage is that less compressor work (W) is
needed. Perhaps the largest advantage of flooded evaporators is that they use all the latent energy
of the refrigerant in the phase transition between liquid and gas to cool a fluid. This is shown in
Figure 6.46, where line (d-e) stretches over the whole transition length, while the red line (g-h) does
not utilize the entire phase transition length. In other words, the COP (coefcient of performance)
is higher for a flooded system.
When considering flooded systems, the circulation number is important. Because evaporation is
incomplete, the two-phase mixture must flow through the receiver-evaporator circuit more than
once to achieve 100% evaporation. The degree of evaporation at the evaporator outlet is stated as
xout, which is measured in kg vapor per kg total inlet mixture. The circulation number is dened as
the reciprocal of the degree of evaporation:
The circulation number indicates how many times a certain liquid volume has to pass through the
evaporator to be completely evaporated. A smaller circulation number indicates less pipework, a
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smaller receiver and a lower refrigerant charge in the flooded-flow circuit. The circulation number
of a BPHE is between approx. 1.1 (xout=0.91) and 1.4 (xout=0.71), and the circulation number of
an S&T unit lies between 5 (xout=0.2) and 10 (xout=0.1).
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Design
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The driving force of the thermosiphon process is based on natural density differences. It is
therefore of vital importance that the relationship between the liquid static head and the two-phase
static head (see Figure 6.48) is correct, i.e. the driving force should be larger than the restraining
forces. For the two-phase mixture to return to the separator, the static head pressure must be
larger than the total pressure drop through the evaporator and reconnection pipe. The driving force
can be calculated as:
The restraining forces in the two-phase connection are more complicated to estimate, because the
outlet flow from the evaporator is in two phases. The evaporator pressure drop is given in SSP.
Table 6.2 is a receiver height converter for different refrigerants. The heights are calculated using
the same formula as for the driving force.
Table 6.2 Examples of how the height between the receiver and evaporator varies with the static
head pressure.
Refrigerants with a large glide are not recommended for flooded evaporators. The refrigerant is not
fully vaporized in a flooded evaporator, and the composition would consequently change for a
refrigerant with glide. This would make it difcult to evaluate temperature changes throughout the
system.
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When are Flooded Systems Used? The advantages and disadvantages of flooded systems are
shown in Table 6.3. Flooded systems are economic for large refrigerant systems, due to the lower
requirements on power input to the compressor. For smaller systems, the pay-back time for the
larger installation cost of a flooded-flow system is often considered to be too long despite the
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smaller power input.
Table 6.3 Advantages and disadvantages of flooded systems (compared with DX systems).
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Figure 6.46 Flooded-flow refrigeration circuit shown in green. The red line symbolizes evaporation and
compression in a DX evaporator designed for equal duty.
Figure 6.47 (a) Temperature prole through a superheated evaporator (DX). (b) Temperature prole through
a non-superheated evaporator (Flooded). LWT=Leaving Water Temperature, i.e. the leaving secondary fluid
temperature.
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