Obstructed airflow through the condenser of an automotive air conditioner – Effects on the condenser and the overall performance of the system

The performance of a cross-flow, microchannel condenser of an automotive air conditioning system (AACS) subjected to the maldistribution of airflow has been studied experimentally. The maldistribution of airflow has been created by placing different upstream screens with uniform, middle, side or peripheral block having 30%, 40% or 50% area blockage and a total of 52 set of experiments were conducted over a wide range of parameters. Infrared imaging was used to assess the deterioration of condenser cooling under blocked condition. Though there has been a significant reduction of the performance of the condenser, the refrigerant flow was observed to increase with the increase of area of blockage. The cooling capacity and COP of the system decreased by 8.16% and 16.8% respectively for an area blockage of 50% compared to the normal operating condition. Effect of side and middle blockage were noted to be more severe while, the peripheral blockage had a minimum effect.