Energy and Exergy Analysis on a Parallel-Flow Condenser With Liquid-Vapor Separators in an R22 Residential Air-Conditioning System

The effect of an air-cooling liquid-vapor separation condenser (LSC) on a refrigeration system was investigated. The LSC was also compared with a traditional serpentine condenser (SC) and a parallel-flow condenser (PFC), which had identical fin and tube structures, heat transfer areas, and front face areas. The performances of the three condenser units were tested in an enthalpy difference laboratory under varying environmental temperatures of 29 degrees C to 41 degrees C. Energy and exergy analyses were performed on the three units. Under environmental temperatures that varied from 29 degrees C to 41 degrees C, the coefficient of performance of the LSC unit was higher by 5.41% to 7.56% and by 6.51% to 7.16% than that of the SC and PFC units, respectively. The exergy loss coefficients of the condensers, evaporators, compressors, and capillary tubes of the three systems were calculated to obtain the exergy efficiencies of the units. The improvement of exergy efficiencies of the LSC unit was found to be 6.89% to 9.13% and 6.89% to 8.71% more than that of the SC unit and PFC units, respectively, because this unit had the lowest exergy loss in the compression process, which made the largest contribution to the exergy loss of the individual units. Results indicated that the liquid-vapor separators give LSC units advantages on system performance over common SC and PFC units.