A numerical simulation of fluid flow of Refrigeration R32 in annular pipe

Abstract

To increase the performance of Air conditioning it is needed to propose any modifications. One of the potential modification is installing internal heat exchanger which is typically an annular pipe. The objective of this study is to explore fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of Refrigerant R32 in an annular pipe heat exchanger. The fluids flow in the inner annulus is hot fluid and the cold-water flows in the outer annulus. In this study, CFD model is developed which is solved using ANSYS Fluent and validated with the previous available data, the dimension of annulus internal heat exchanger for heat fluid diameter of 6.35 mm. The working pressure and temperature are 290 psi and 32.5°C, respectively. While the cold fluid flows at annular with outer diameter of 9.525 mm and working pressure and temperature are 90 psi and -8°C, respectively. In addition, the external diameter is 19.05 mm, the direction of the fluidsisa counter flow between hot and cold fluids for the numerical simulation. The fluid flow characteristics are plotted and the heat transfer rates are examined.