Experimental and Numerical Design and Optimization of a Counter-Flow Heat Exchanger

A new inexpensive counter-flow heat exchanger has been designed and optimized for a vapor-compression cooling system in this research. The main aim is to experimentally and numerically evaluate the effect of an internal heat exchanger (IHX) adaptation in an automotive air conditioning system. In this new design of IHX, the high-pressure liquid passes through the central channel and the low-pressure vapor flows in several parallel channels in the opposite direction. The experimental set-up has been made up of original components of the air conditioning system of a medium sedan car, specially designed and built to analyze vehicle A/C equipment under real operating conditions. The results show that this compact IHX may achieve up to 10% of the evaporator capacity while low pressure drop will be imposed on this refrigeration cycle. Also, they confirm considerable decrease of compressor power consumption (CPC), which is intensified at higher evaporator air flow. A significant improvement of the coefficient of performance (COP) is achieved with the IHX employment too. The influence of operating conditions has been also discussed in this paper. Finally, numerical analyses have been briefly presented, which bring more details of the flow behavior and heat transfer phenomena, and help to determine the optimal arrangement of channels.