Comparative analysis of air condensers

Background: The refrigeration industry continues to develop new technologies utilized in the daily operations of various businesses and plants. A clear example is the development of microchannel air heat exchangers. They are characterized by high energy efficiency, material savings and low refrigerant consumption. Despite all advantages, microchannel condensers have one major drawback — they are poorly known. Therefore, this paper studies these heat exchangers, including the experimental study of heat exchange parameters and comparative analysis of microchannel and tube plate air condensers.

Aim: To compare microchannel and tube plate condensers in relation to temperature gradient and thermodynamic efficiency of refrigeration units.

Methods: The problems are solved by an experimental study of microchannel and tube plate condensers in the laboratory, experimental data processing, measurement error assessment, and thermodynamic analysis of operating cycles of refrigeration units based on air condensers.

Results: We calculated the temperature gradient, subcooling temperatures of the studied heat exchangers, and refrigerating factors of the units.

Conclusion: The study shows that the difference between condensation and ambient temperatures in a microchannel condenser is smaller than in the tube plate heat exchanger. The microchannel refrigeration unit has a higher effective refrigerating factor.