Chapter X Evaporator Design

Different factors, such as refrigerant velocity, evaporator material, and tube diameter, will be considered when designing evaporator. The main objective of this design is to determine the length of the evaporator. The necessary computations to obtain the length are shown in this chapter.

EVAPORATOR DIAMETER SELECTION Evaporator diameter is important in the evaporator design since the refrigerant velocity depends on it. The refrigerant velocity should fall within the specified range. If not, recalculation should be done. The refrigerant discharge, once computed, is constant. Therefore, the variation will be on the on the evaporator diameter. For economical purposes, the selection of the diameter is based on the standard sizes of the chosen material. Customized evaporator tubes are high cost and should not be done. Nomenclatures:             

 

Recommended velocity of the refrigerant in the evaporator is the range of 100 to 250 feet per minute.     
  

To avoid many recalculations, the range of the diameters based on the given range of velocity is to be determined.

> For V = 100 fpm:  > For V = 250 fpm:  According to the computation, the diameter of the evaporator should be greater than or equal to 0.4221 in but less or equal to 0.6674 in (0.4221 d 0.6674 ). The common material for evaporator tube is copper. The acquired range will be modified and changed based on the standard sizes of copper tubes. Inside diameter range based on standard sizes of copper tubes.

There is no need to compute for the velocity range given the standard diameter range since the range of standard sizes is between the original range of diameter. The preferred diameter of the evaporator tube is the average of the two diameters (upper range and lower range). The bigger, closest diameter will be selected based on standard sizes.  

The table shown below is a list of the technical data of the copper tube based from the acquired catalog.

Table 10.1: Details and Specifications of Selected Copper Tube Material Type: Characteristic: Nominal Standard Size: Outside Diameter: Inside Diameter: Wall Thickness: ACR Annealed Temper 5/8 inch 0.625 inch 0.555 inch 0.035 inch

OUTSIDE HEAT CONVECTION COEFFICIENT

Naturally, there is an air film on the outside of the evaporator tube. The air film should be considered in computing the overall heat transfer coefficient for this reduces the heat transfer and affects the resulting evaporator length. Typical range of the air-free convection is from 5 to 25 W/m2K. Use the average value for the outside heat convection coefficient. Nomenclatures:         

INSIDE HEAT CONVECTION COEFFICIENT

The film inside the evaporator tube is due to the refrigerant passing through the tube. Like the air film, it should be considered in the calculation of the overall heat transfer coefficient for the same reason. Computation of the inside heat convection coefficient is provided on the next page.

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From a property calculator found on the internet, the properties of R134a at evaporator temperature of -3 F and pressure of 19.7448 psi are the following:

  

 

The Reynolds number, the Nusselt number and the said property values are needed to compute for the inside heat convection coefficient. The formulas are also stated in the calculation. > For the Reynolds number:

  

 

> For the Nusselt number: ; The value of n for cooling is 0.3 

Substitute the required values to the formula provided in order to obtain the inside heat convection coefficient.

OVERALL HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT The overall heat transfer coefficient is a measure of the overall ability of a series of conductive and convective barriers to transfer heat. The value of U depends on the number of resistances considered in the computation. The lesser the resistances, the greater the overall heat transfer coefficient and vice versa. For the U-value of the evaporator tube, four resistances will only be considered: inside heat convection coefficient, outside heat convection coefficient, copper resistance, and fouling factor.

Figure 10.1: Heat Transfer Diagram of the Copper Tube

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The outside and the inside heat convection coefficient are already computed in the previous section. The copper resistance formula is already substituted in the U-formula. The thermal conductivity of copper and the fouling resistance are given below for they are required to compute for the value of U. Copper thermal conductivity.      

Typical fouling resistance. 

> Overall heat transfer coefficient computation.

     

LOG MEAN TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE

The logarithmic average of the temperature difference between the hot and cold streams at each end of the exchanger is called log mean temperature difference. LMTD is more often used in the heat exchangers because it shows a more exact value of the temperature difference and presents the temperature driving force for heat transfer in flow systems compare to the normal temperature difference.

Figure 10.2: Inlet at Outlet Temperatures of R134a and Air

EVAPORATOR LENGTH The evaporator length is simply computed by substituting the computed values from the previous section to the given formula. From the formula, Q is amount of heat that must be removed. The refrigerating effect is adjusted to the refrigerating capacity of the compressor. This is more convenient to use as stated in Chapter VII.

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