Analysis of mass flow and enhanced mass flow methods of flashing Refrigerant-22 from a small vessel /

The mass flow characteristics of flashing Refrigerant-22 from

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nutter, Darin Wayne, 1964-
Format: Thesis Book
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] ; 1994.
Subjects:
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Description
Summary:The mass flow characteristics of flashing Refrigerant-22 from
a small vessel were investigated. A flash boiling apparatus
was designed and built. It was modeled after the flashing
process encountered by the accumulator of air-source heat
pump systems. Three small pyrex glass vessels were used to
hold the refrigerant and allow for visualization studies of
the flashing process. Baseline experiments were run varying
initial pressure, initial refrigerant amount, orifice
diameter, and vessel geometry. Three sets of experiments
were run using two passive enhancement methods (the addition
of steel balls and the addtion of small amounts of oil) and
one active enhancement method (the addition of an immersion
heater). Furthermore, a lumped-parameter analytical model
was developed from basic thermodyamic principles that
predicted the rate of depressurization for the flashing
refrigerant. The study showed that the initial refrigerant
amount and the orifice size had the greatest influence on the
mass flow and pressure characteristics during each sixty
second test. The initial pressure and vessel volume had less
of an impact under the condtions tested. Two of the
enhancement methods consistently increased the amount of
refrigerant flashed during the tests as compared to the
baseline data for the same intial conditions. The addition a
I cm layer of 3.6 mm steel balls to the base of the vessel
increased the amount flashed from 2 1 % to 8 1 % and the
addition of the 215-watt flat-spiral immersion heater the
increased the amount flashed from 47% to I 1 1%. Foaming at
the vapor-liquid interface was observed with the refrigerant-
oil mixture experiments as two of the eight test conditions
averaged an increase while six averaged a decrease, ranging
depressurization model predicted general pressure and mass
flux trends, and revisions to the model improved pressure
predictions to within ︢11%.
Item Description:Vita.
"Major Subject: Mechanical Engineering".
In title, numerals are used.
Physical Description:xx, 188 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm.
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.