Purdue University

Purdue e-Pubs
International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
School of Mechanical Engineering
Conference

1998

Experimental Comparison of the Performance of

Refrigerants R134a and R32/R134a in Dry
Expansion and Liquid Recirculation Refrigerating
Systems
G. Giuliani
Universita di Ancona

F. Marchesi Donati
Universita di Ancona

S. Nobili
Universita di Ancona

F. Polonara
Universita di Ancona

Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iracc

Giuliani, G.; Donati, F. Marchesi; Nobili, S.; and Polonara, F., "Experimental Comparison of the Performance of Refrigerants R134a
and R32/R134a in Dry Expansion and Liquid Recirculation Refrigerating Systems" (1998). International Refrigeration and Air
Conditioning Conference. Paper 389.
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iracc/389

This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact epubs@purdue.edu for
additional information.
Complete proceedings may be acquired in print and on CD-ROM directly from the Ray W. Herrick Laboratories at https://engineering.purdue.edu/
Herrick/Events/orderlit.html
 EXPE RIME NTA L COMPARISON OF THE PERF
ORM ANC E
OF REFRIGERANTS Rl34 a AND R32/134a
IN DRY EXPANSION AND LIQUID RECI RCU LATI
ON REFR IGER ATIN G SYSTEMS
G. Giuliani, F. Marchesi Donati, S. Nobili, and F. Polon
ara
Dipartimento di Energetica, Universita di Ancona,
via Breece Bianche, 60100 Ancona, Italy

ABSTRACT
The ability of zeotropic mixtures with a temperature
glide to operate in liquid recirculation systems
investigated in this paper, and the preliminary result is
s of an experimental comparison between the perfor
R134a and of zeotropic mixture R32/R l34a, (25/75 mance of
by mass) are presented. The perfonnance of Rl34 a
dry expansion mode are also presented as baseline data. operating in

INTRODUCTION
Conventional refrigerating systems operate in the so
called "dry expansion" configuration: the same refrig
flow rate is encountered throughout the system and erant
a superheated vapor exits the evaporator, under the
expansion valve. In liquid recirculation systems a liquid contro l of the
/vapor separator supplies saturated liquid to the evapo
and saturated vapor to the compressor; the low pressu rator
re side of the system and the high pressure side work
different refrigerant flow rates. The evaporator is with
overfed with respect to the compressor and the conde
consequence the refrigerant flowing through the evapo nser: as a
rator does not evaporate completely and, at the outlet
heat exchanger, the vapor quality is always less than of that
one. The ratio between the refrigerant flow rate in
pressure side (evaporator) and the flow rate in the low
the high pressure side (compressor and condenser)
"recirculation ratio". is called

When operated with pure refrigerants, liquid recirc

ulation systems take advantage of a better utilization
evaporator surfaces, so that the heat exchange coeffi of the
cients are higher. Furthermore, the compressor is
saturated vapor, allowing for lower discharge tempe fed with
ratures, whilst the presence of the liquid/vapor
prevents the compressor from receiving liquid in the separa tor
vapor [1].
If the same systems operate with a zeotropic mixtu
re as working fluid, the vapour and the liquid inside
liquid/vapor separator will have different compositio the
ns. T-herefore the mixture flowing in the high pressu
the mixture flowing in the low pressure side have re side and
different compositions. In addition, the liquid at the
evaporator is richer of the less volatile components inlet of the
of the mixture, while the vapor at the inlet of the comp
enriched with the more volatile components of ressor is
the mixture. This change in composition has been
responsible for the reduction in any of the advantages claimed
of using a refrigerant with a temperature glide during
phase changes [2], [3], [4). Also there is an implic the
ation in the design of such systems in that there are
circulating compositions and therefore the properties unknown
of any such fluids are unknown.
The purpose of this research is to study and comp
are the behavior of two different refrigerants, one
characterized by a temperature glide during the phase
changes and the other showing constant temperature
constant pressure), when they operate in dry expan (at
sion and liquid recirculation systems. A customized
has been built to evaluate the relative performances test facility
of R134a and of the mixture R32/R134a (in the comp
25/75 by mass). The comparison is based on osition
the. evaluation of four parameters: the compressor
temperature, the pressure ratio across the compressor discharge
, the coefficient of performance and the refrigerating
capacity.
Baseline testing results with Rl34 a are presented
in this paper, but only preliminary results with R32/1
mixture are reported. Experimental work is still in 34a
progress and involves gaschromatographic analyses
composition within the liquid/vapor separator. of mixture

63
 TES T FAC ILIT Y
der reciprocating
ion refrigerating machine utilizing a two-cylin
The experimental facility is a vapor compress of the facility, with the location of
driven by a variable speed electric motor. A schematic flow diagram
compressor
measurement sensors, is shown in Fig. 1.
nomenclature
Cd condenser
Ev evaporator
F filter
F# flowmeter
M electric motor
Mt torque sensor
pr# sampling point
P# pressure sensor
rpm speed sensor
Tls R liquid receiver
;-l@--
~==Cd====~;::;:!:::::;:========~.,.:
S vapor/liquid separator
Sc subcooler
So oil separator
Sr superheater
T# thermocouple
: -- :i Vg float valve
----n;r-1 Vm manual expansion valve
-----mr-@l--1 Vp pilot operated valve
Vt thermostatic expansion valve

bed
Fig. 1 schematic view of the experimental test
flowing through the
ense r and the evap orato r are coun terflow heat exchangers, the refrigerant
The cond superheater which
li. The sucti on line to the com press or is provided with a refrigerant tube-in-tube
surroundi ng annu g is obtained before the
refri gera nt from flow ing throu gh the compressor. Additional liquid subcoolin
prevents liqui d ing fluid transfers heat to
gera nt enter s the expa nsio n devic e by a brazed plate heat exchanger, in which the work
refri
a water circuit.
uced in the condenser is
r/ethylene-glycol mixture circuit; heat prod
Heat to the evaporator is provided by a wate · two motorized three-
by
res of the cold and the hot tanks are controlled
transferred to a water circuit. The temperatu ure in separate plate heat
the water and the water/ethylene-glycol mixt
port valves, which regulate the flows of by prop ortio ning valves on the
source and the heat sink are controlled
exchangers, while the flow rate of the heat
pumps.
dry expansion mode or a liquid recirculat
ion mode, depending on
The test facility can be operated either in a m uses either a manual
chosen. In the dry expansion mode, the syste
the expansion device and associated circuitry mode, the expansion is
valve, while in the liquid recirculation
expansion valve or a thermostatic expansion d/vapor separator vessel.
which maintains a constant level on the liqui
performed by a low pressure side float valve
mixture entering and
erature of water and water/ethylene-glycol
Type T thermocouples measure the temp nt flow ing throu gh the various parts
and the temperature of the refrigera
leaving the various heat exchanger sections each therm ocou ple is mounted on the
cold junc tions are main taine d at 0°C in an ice-water bath and
of the plan t The ures are measured using
er tube s and are insul ated from any ambient effects. Refrigerant press
surfa ce of the copp gement. Since the compressor
press ure strai n-ga uge trans ducers based on a Wheatstone bridge arran
twel ve abso lute l arrangement. The toothed
gem ent, the spee d of the compressor is measured by a toothed whee
is an open arran r. Compressor torque is
led to an electronic analog voltage transmitte
wheel, with 60 teeth, is magnetically coup compressor. The instrument
a strai n-ga uge appa ratus , place d between the variable-speed drive and the
meas ured by imperfect arbor alignment. A
the moto r and com press or by two flexible couplings which allow an
is conn ected to the refrigerant mass flow-
nstream of the condenser, is used to measure
Coriolis-effect mass flowmeter, located dow

64
 rate. A turbine flowmeter measures the volumetric flow rate of the refrigerant in the low pressure side
of the circuit,
and it is located downstream of the hermetic pump,· while three electromagnetic flowmeters measure
the volumetric
flow-rate of the water and the water-glycol mixture which flow through the condenser, the evaporator
, and the
superheater.

The data acquisition system used is connected to a PC which collects measured data, manipulated by
programs
running in Labview software environment. The data are then processed in real time in order to calculate
both the
thermophysical properties of the refrigerant and the refrigerating system performance. The evaluation
of the
thermophysical properties of refrigerant has been performed with REFPROP [5] which has been interfaced
with
Labview.

As performance parameters are usually not directly measured but calculated from measured quantities,
a
thorough investigation has been carried out, as proposed in [6], to evaluate how the measurement
uncertainties
propagate into the performance parameters. The calculated uncertainties are reported as error bars within
the graphs
showing our experimental results.

DRY EXPANSION AND LIQUID RECIRCU LATION PERFORM ANCE COMPAR ISON FOR R134a

The dry expansion configuration is the most conventional and therefore the results obtained with this
type of
configuration are used as baseline data. The refrigerant leaves the evaporator as saturated vapor
or as slightly
superheated vapor, and the superheat is controlled to the desired level by means of the superheater heat
exchanger.
The experimental runs have been performed maintaining constant the temperature of the hot source
and
varying the temperature of the cold tank, i.e. the situation where the heat sink has a fixed temperatur
e, and the heat
source, the ambient to cool, can vary its temperature depending on the specific plant demands.

The tested parameters are the pressure ratio across the compressor, the discharge temperature, the refrigeratin
g
capacity and the Coefficient Of Performance (COP). The refrigerating capacity includes the heat exchanged
in the
superheater.

The COP has been calculated dividing the refrigerating capacity by the power absorbed by the compressor
,
since in this way is it possible to take into account also the thermal and mechanical losses at the compresso
r, e.g. the
heat which is dispersed into the surroundings and the internal friction.

The tests were performed at 3 different hot tank temperature, namely 35°C, 45°C and 50°C; for each
of them
the cold tank temperature was set at three values successively: 4°C, 8°C, l2°C. The compresso
r speed was
maintained at 800 rpm, and the superheat level at the compressor inlet was set at 9°C. During the liquid
recirculation
configuration tests a recirculation ratio of 2 was used.

The results for the test in dry expansion configuration are presented in Fig. 2, where the variations
of the
refrigerating capacity and COP at different cold tank and hot tank temperatures are shown. As expected,
both the
refrigerating capacity and the coefficient of performance are decreasing when the hot tank temperature
is increasing,
and are increasing when the cold tank temperature is increasing.

The same results for the liquid recirculation configuration are displayed in Fig. 3. The refrigerating
capacity
and the COP have the same trend as in the dry expansion tests.

The beneficial characteristic of the liquid recirculation system are not evident from the analysis of Fig.
2 and 3.
However, they can be underlined when the two cycles are compared on a pressure-enthalpy chart.
The cycles are
ahnost the same, except for the evaporation process: the liquid recirculation system has a higher
evaporation
temperature, which means a smaller power is required from the compressor. This is a consequence of
the better heat
exchange process that is the characteristic of this configuration, since the heat tranferred is the
same, but the
potential for this process, i.e. the temperature difference between the refrigerant and the heat transfer
fluid, is lower.
The presence of an additional heat exchange device downstream the condenser (the subcooler), whose
effect is to

65
 es the performance of the dry expansion
diminish ~e vapor quality ~t the ex?ansion device outlet, improv
n the two configuration is less evident.
configuratiOn. Therefore, the difference m performance betwee

~
18 2.4

~
16 2.2
-~
0.
14
o::l p... 2.0
(,l
12 0
1:>0
t:: u 1.8
·.::::: 10
o::l
t 1.6
1:>0 8
;E
~ 6
14
1.4
2 4 6 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Cold tank temperature [oC] Cold tank temperature [ C]

0

0 Hot tank temp.=35°C 0 Hot tank temp.=45°C 0 Hot tank temp.=50°C

ration
Fig. 2 Experimental results for R134a operating in dry expansion configu
(heat exchanged at superheater i§. include d)

~
18 2.4
16 2.2
·o~
o::l 14
§' 2.0
(,l
12 ~
1:>0
t::
u 1.8
·~ 10
t1:>0 8
1.6

~ 6
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
1.4
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
Cold tank temperature [ C) Cold tank temperature [°C]

Hot tank temp.=35°C 0 Hot tank temp.=45°C 0 Hot tank temp.==50°C

0
configu ration
Fig. 3 Experimental results for Rl34a operating in liquid recirculation
(heat exchanged at superheater i§. include d)

two configurations on the tests at 45°C

Figure 4 shows the comparison between the experimental results for the
e ratio, refriger ating capacity and COP are the compared
hot tank temperature: discharge temperature, pressur
which is absorbed by the superheater, so to
parameters. Here the refrigerationg capacity does not include the heat
in the two different configuration. It can be
focus on the difference of the heat transfer processes in the evaporator
d, higher values for the liquid recirculation
noticed that the refrigerating capacity and the COP have, as expecte
system, due to a better heat exchange.

N WITH Rl34a
LIQUID RECIRCULATION RESULTS FOR R32/134a AND COMPARISO
conditions presented in the previous
Tests for the mixture R32/134a (25175 by mass) where run at the same
tures in order not to exceed allowable
paragraph for Rl34a, but at lower (27, 32 and 35°C) hot tank tempera
5 shows, in the usual pattern, the results for
pressures. The refrigerant charge was the same as in Rl34a tests. Figure
temperatures.
the refrigerating capacity and for the COP at different hot and cold tank

66
 In comparison with R134a , the tested mixture presen
ts a sensible increase in the values of the refrigerating
capacity but similar values of the COP. The compared
values of refrigerating capacity and COP at 32°C hot
temperature and for different values of cold tank tempe tank
rature are presented in Fig. 6. The fact that the COP is
the same, while the refrigerating capacity varies, is almost
due to the fact that the mixture has better thermodynam
properties, but needs higher power from the compressor. ic

7.2 .......-.----.---r---r---r-~-.-,..---,;-,.-,--,
G
~ 80 6.8

B
t 78
0
·.;:s
e
v
64
.
v :; 6.0
OJ) 76
~ "'"' 5.6
~
...s::
~ 74
i5 5.2
72 ~----'-.....J---'--...J..-~1.......-'---J..---l.
.-........____. 4. 8 ....___.___.___.__..__,___.___'---'-____.__.___.___.,
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
2.4 ,....--,--- r---r---r- -'..,...--r- --r--r---r _,....--r-- 1

2.2

Q., 2.0
0
u 1.8

1.6
1.4 ...__.___ ......,_....._....__~ ...........
_..___._~

2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Cold tank temperature [ C] 0
Cold tank temperature [0 C]
• Dry expansion configuration 0 Liquid recirculation configuration
Fig. 4 Comparison betwe en perfor mance of Rl34a in dry
expansion and liquid recirculation configuration
(heat exchanged at superheater is not included) (results
obtained at 45°C Hot tank temperature)
Of great interest is also the comparison between the two
refrigerants when working in dry expansion mode and
the comparative analysis of perfor mance in both config
urations: in other words it is necessary to evaluate if, during
dry expansion operations, the mixtu re related impro
vements are of the same magnitude or higher than
experienced during liquid recirculation operations. These those
results are not yet available: work on this subject is still
under way, coupled with a systematic analysis of mixtu
re composition in different vapor/liquid separa tor locatio
ns.

~ 18
2.4
.0 16
·n
o:l 14
2.2
§'
u 12 p.. 2.0
OJ) 0
·=:u 10
u 1.8
~
OJ) 8 1.6
~
~ 6
1.4
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Cold tank temperature [ C] 0
Cold tank temperature [0 C]
D Hot tank temp.=32°C 0 Hot tank temp.=35°C
Fig.5 Experimental results for R32!1 34a (25/75 by mass)
operating in liquid recirculation configuration
(heat exchanged at superheater~ included)

67
 2.4
~
........
18
16 2.2
·n0ca 14
g. p.. 2.0
u 12 0
bl) u 1.8
·~= 10
~ 1.6
bl) 8
;s
~
6 1.4
~
10 12 14 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
2 4 6 8
0
Cold tank temperature [ C] Cold tank temperature [°C]

0 R32/134a 0 Rl34 a
d recirculation configuration
6 Com paris on of expe rime ntal results for Rl34 a and R32/134a (25n 5 by mass) in liqui
Fig. re)
(results obtained at 32°C Hot tank temperatu
(heat exchanged at superheater!.§ included)

CON CLU SIO NS

on the behavior of pure

ts of an expe rime ntal inve stiga tion carried out with a purpose-built test bed
The resul this paper. Results for pure
refri gera nts oper ating in liqui d recirculation systems is presented in
and mixe d with the liquid recirculation
a have been obta ined eithe r with the dry expansion configuration and
refri gera nt Rl34 the performance of mixture
have been prese nted as baseline data. Preliminary results for
conf igura tion. They pared with Rl34 a. Mor e
ion configuration are also presented and com
R32/134a (25n 5 by mass) in liquid recirculat c mixtures, such as R32/134a,
better understand the behavior of azeotropi
experimental work is under way in order to
ms.
in dry expansion and liquid recirculation syste

ACK NOW LED GME NTS

in the IV Framework for
work has been supp orted by the Euro pean Union as part of the Joule Project with
This ica".
ersita e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnolog
RTD and by the Italian "Ministero dell'Univ

REF ERE NCE S

, Mich.
tion", Business News Publishing Co., Troy
[1] Stoecker W. F., 1988, "Industrial refrigera of Refrigeration,Vol.
anical refrigeration", lnternationa Journal
[2} Cavallini, A., 1996, "Working fluids for mech
19, No. 8, pp.485-496. native refrigerants and
ansk i P. A. and Didi on D. A., 1993 , "Thermodynamic evaluation of R22 alter
[3) Dom
99 (2) pp. 636-.
refrigerant mixtures", ASHRAE Transactions, "Handling zeotropic
Davi es M., Mor rison J. D., and Murphy F. T., 1995,
[4] Low R. E., Gilbert B. E., ce, Washington D.C. pp.
nal CFC and Halon Alternatives Conferen
refrigerants", Proceedings of the Internatio
216-223. ynamic Properties of
and Morrison, G., 1996. NIST Thermod
[5) Huber, M., Gallagher, J., McLinden, M., Insti tute of Standards and
base (REFPROP) Version 5.0, National
Refrigerants and Refrigerant Mixtures Data
Technology, Thermophysics Division. ntal thermal and fluid
rtainties in experimental results", Experime
[6] Moffat, R., 1988, "Describing the unce
sciences, Vol. 1, pp. 3-17.

68