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Abstract The condenser in a refrigeration system is a heat exchanger that generally rejects all the heat from the system. This heat consists of heat absorbed by the evaporator plus the heat from the energy input to the compressor. The compressor discharges hot, high-pressure refrigerant gas into the condenser, which rejects heat from the gas to some cooling medium. Thus, the refrigerant condenses back to the liquid state and drains from the condenser to continue in the refrigeration cycle. The common forms of condensers may be classified on the basis of the cooling medium as (1) water-cooled, (2) aircooled, and (3) evaporative (air- and water-cooled) condensers. Evaporative condenser is the subject of this research. As with watercooled and air-cooled condensers, evaporative condensers reject heat from a condensing vapor into the environment. In an evaporative condenser, hot, highpressure vapor from the compressor discharge circulates through a condensing coil that is continuously wetted on the outside by a recirculating water system. Air is simultaneously directed over the coil, causing a small portion of the recirculated water to evaporate. This evaporation removes heat from the coil, thus cooling and condensing the vapor. Evaporative condensers reduce the water pumping and chemical treatment requirements associated with cooling tower/refrigerant condenser systems. In comparison with an air-cooled condenser, an evaporative condenser requires less coil surface and less airflow to reject the same heat, or alternatively, greater operating efficiencies can be achieved by operating at a lower condensing temperature. The evaporative condenser can operate at a lower condensing temperature than an air-cooled condenser because the ambient dry-bulb temperature limits the air-cooled condenser. In the evaporative condenser, the ambient wet-bulb temperature limits heat rejection, which normally is 8 to 14 °C lower than the ambient dry bulb. Also, evaporative condensers typically provide lower condensing temperature than the cooling tower/water-cooled condensers because the heat and mass transfer steps (between the refrigerant and the cooling water and between the water and ambient air) are more efficiently combined in a single piece of equipment, allowing minimum sensible heating of the cooling water. Evaporative condensers are, therefore, the most compact for a given capacity.In this research an experimental investigation is conducted on the condensation of R11 refrigerant in an evaporative condenser under saturated condition. This investigation is to study the different factors affecting the evaporative condenser performance. A test rig is designed, constructed and installed in the refrigeration laboratory, for the purpose of investigating these factors. Many test runs are carried out by changing the refrigerant vapor pressure, the air face velocity (or the air flowrate) and the water flowrate. The air inlet conditions are kept constant at 33.5 °C and 45% RH. In an evaporative condenser, heat flows from the condensing refrigerant vapor inside the tubes, through the tube wall, to the water film outside the tubes, and then from the water film to the air. The driving potential in the first step of heat transfer is the temperature difference between the condensing refrigerant and the surface of water film, whereas the driving potential in the second step is a combination of temperature and water vapor enthalpy difference between the water surface and the air. Sensible heat transfer between the water stream and the air-stream at the water-air interface occurs because of the temperature gradient, while mass transfer (evaporation) of water vapor from the water-air interface to the air-stream occurs because of the enthalpy gradient. The experimental data were represented in curves. The results obtained indicate that the rate of heat transfer is increased very much with respect to the dry operation. However, the overall heat transfer coefficient is not necessarily increased. The increase in pressure DROP due to the reverse flow direction of the sprayed water leads to an increase in the energy consumption of the blower circulating the air. This energy increase is incomparable to the reduction in the energy consumed by the refrigeration cycle. |