Modelling refrigerant distribution in microchannel evaporators

The effects of refrigerant maldistribution in parallel evaporator channels on the heat exchanger performance are investigated numerically. For this purpose a 1D steady state model of refrigerant R134a evaporating in a microchannel tube is built and validated against other evaporator models. A study of the refrigerant distribution is carried out for two channels in parallel and for two different cases.

In the first case maldistribution of the inlet quality into the channels is considered, and in the second case a non-uniform airflow on the secondary side is considered. In both cases the total mixed superheat out of the evaporator is kept constant. It is shown that the cooling capacity of the evaporator is reduced significantly, both in the case of unevenly distributed inlet quality and for the case of non-uniform airflow on the outside of the channels.