Abstract
Domestic refrigeration system is one of the major energy-consuming devices. Improving its energy and exergy efficiencies plays a vital role in the energy conservation strategies on domestic energy sector. One of the methods to improve the performance is the replacement of existing components and operation of the system in low condensing pressure. Therefore, in this work, the conventional air-cooled condenser has been replaced with water-cooled brazed plate heat exchanger. Besides the COP, exergy efficiency and irreversibility in all the basic components of a 190-L domestic refrigerator have been studied. The experimental results show that the COP and exergy efficiency of the proposed system are 52–68 and 46–55 %, respectively. This is higher than that of the conventional system. Moreover, the irreversibility of the proposed system is 34 % less than that of the conventional system, and the exergy efficiency of HC mixture is 4–7 % higher than R134a under similar operating conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- BPHE:
-
Brazed plate heat exchanger
- HC:
-
Hydrocarbon
- HCM:
-
Hydrocarbon mixture
- RTD:
-
Resistance temperature detector
- b :
-
Breadth of brazed plate heat exchanger (m)
- COP:
-
Coefficient of performance
- h :
-
Enthalpy (J kg−1)
- I:
-
Irreversibility (W)
- l :
-
Length of brazed plate heat exchanger (m)
- \(\dot{m}\) :
-
Mass flow rate (kg s−1)
- Q:
-
Heat transfer rate (W)
- s :
-
Entropy (J kg−1 K−1)
- T:
-
Temperature (°C)
- t :
-
Thickness of brazed plate heat exchanger (m)
- W:
-
Work of compressor (W)
- Ψ:
-
Specific exergy (J kg−1)
- comp:
-
Compressor
- cond:
-
Condenser
- capi:
-
Capillary tube
- dis:
-
Discharge
- evap:
-
Evaporator
- in:
-
inlet
- out:
-
outlet
- suc:
-
Suction
- o:
-
Ambient
References
Daioglou V, van Ruijven BJ, van Vuuren DP. Model projections for household energy use in developing countries. Energy. 2012;37:601–15.
Aprea C, Greco A, Maiorino A. An experimental evaluation of the greenhouse effect in the substitution of R134a with CO2. Energy. 2012;45(1):753–61.
Geppert J, Stamminger R. Analysis of effecting factors on domestic refrigerator’s energy consumption in use. Energy Convers Manag. 2013;76:794–800.
Diener BJ, Frank WP. The China–India challenge: a comparison of causes and effects of global warming. Int Bus Econ Res J. 2010;9(3):21–6.
Alam M-J, Begum IA, Buysse J, Rahman S, Van Huylenbroeck G. Dynamic modeling of causal relationship between energy consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth in India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2011;15:3243–51.
McNeil MA. Progress towards managing residential electricity demand: impacts of standards and labeling for refrigerators and air conditioners in India. In: 5th international conference on energy efficiency on domestic appliances and lighting EEDAL. Berlin, Germany; 2009.
Ayub ZH. Plate heat exchanger literature survey and new heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for refrigerant evaporators. Texas Heat Transf Eng. 2003;24(5):3–16.
ASHRAE. HVAC systems and equipment handbook. Atlanta, GA: ASHRAE, Inc.; 1992.
ASHRAE Handbook. HVAC systems and equipment. Atlanta, GA: ASHRAE, Inc.; 2008.
Longo Giovanni A. Refrigerant R134a condensation heat transfer and pressure drop inside a small brazed plate heat exchanger. Int J Refrig. 2008;31:780–9.
Saidur R, Masjuki HH, Jamaluddin MY. An application of energy and exergy analysis in residential sector in Malaysia. Energy Policy. 2007;35:1050–63.
Dincer I, Cengel YA. Energy, Entropy and exergy concepts and their roles in Thermal engineering. Entropy. 2001;3:116–49.
Pandey AK, Tyagi VV, Rahim NA, Kaushik SC, Tyagi SK. Thermal performance evaluation of direct flow solar water heating system using exergetic approach. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2015;121(3):1365–73.
Kilicaslan C, Songnetichaovalit T, Lokathada N. Experimental comparison of R22 with R417A performance in a vapour compression refrigeration system. Energy Convers Manag. 2004;45:1835–47.
Yumrutas R, Kunduz M, Kanoglu M. Exergy analysis of vapour compression refrigeration systems. Int J Exergy. 2002;2:266–72.
Wang J, Liu Z, Yuan F, Liu W, Chen G. Convective heat transfer optimization in a circular tube based on local exergy destruction minimization. Int J Heat Mass Transfer. 2015;90:49–57.
Ansari N, Yadav B, Kumar J. Theoretical exergy analysis of HFO-1234yf and HFO-1234ze as an alternative replacement of HFC-134a in simple vapour compression refrigeration system. Int J Sci Eng Res. 2012;4(8):137–44.
Wu-Chieh W, Lee T-S, Chang C-H. Energy and exergy analysis for improving the energy performance of air-cooled liquid chillers by different condensing-coil configurations. Entropy. 2012;14:517–32.
Aprea C, Greco A. An exergetic analysis of R22 substitution. Appl Therm Eng. 2002;22:1455–69.
Ahamed JU, Saidur R, Masjuki HH. A review on exergy analysis of vapor compression refrigeration system. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2011;15:1593–600.
Mohanraj M, Jayaraj S, Muraleedharan C, Chandrasekar P. Experimental investigation of R290/R600a mixture as an alternative to R134a in a domestic refrigerator. Int J Therm Sci. 2009;48:1036–42.
Rasti M, Aghamiri SF, Hatamipour M-S. Energy efficiency enhancement of a domestic refrigerator using R436A and R600a as alternative refrigerants to R134a. Int J Therm Sci. 2013;74:86–94.
ISO, International Standard Organization, International Standard-8187, Household refrigerating appliances (refrigerators/freezers) characteristics and test methods. Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization; 1991.
Gupta A, Anand Y, Anand S, Tyagi SK. Thermodynamic optimization and chemical exergy quantification for absorption-based refrigeration system. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2015;122(2):893–905.
Bayrakci HC, Ozgur AE. Energy and exergy analysis of vapour compression refrigeration system using pure hydrocarbon refrigerants. Int J Energy Res. 2009;33:1070–5.
Joseph Sekhar S, Mohan Lal D, Renganarayanan S. Improved energy efficiency for CFC domestic refrigerators retrofitted with ozone-friendly HFC134a/HC refrigerant mixture. Int J Therm Sci. 2004;43:307–14.
Saravanakumar R, Selladurai V. Exergy analysis of a domestic refrigerator using eco-friendly R290/R600a refrigerant mixture as an alternative to R134a. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2013;115(1):933–40.
Lemmon EW, Huber ML, McLinden MO. Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties (REFPROP),Version 9.1, in NIST Standard Reference Database 23. Gaithersburg: National Institute of Standards and Technology; 2007.
Holman JP. Experimental methods for engineers. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Publishers; 2000.
Kalaiselvam S, Saravanan R. Exergy analysis of scroll compressors working with R22, R407 and R717 as refrigerant for HVAC system. Therm Sci. 2009;13:175–84.
Siva Reddy V, Panwar NL, Kaushik SC. Exergetic analysis of a vapour compression refrigeration system with R134a, R143a, R152a, R404A, R407C, R410A, R502 and R507A. Clean Technol Environ Policy. 2012;14:47–53.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Raveendran, P.S., Joseph Sekhar, S. Exergy analysis of a domestic refrigerator with brazed plate heat exchanger as condenser. J Therm Anal Calorim 127, 2439–2446 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-5847-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-5847-2