Equipment design and installation features to disperse refrigerant releases in rooms—part I: experiments and analysis

There is always a risk of leakage of refrigerant into a room that refrigeration and air conditioning equipment occupies. Mitigation of build-up of flammable concentrations from leakage through appropriate equipment construction and installation criteria minimises the potential for ignition. This paper is the first part of an investigation into design and installation measures to disperse leaked flammable refrigerant. It mainly describes the experiments and provides an analysis of the data. The paper describes a purpose built test facility, which was used to carry out experiments to study the dispersion of carbon dioxide to simulate leaked refrigerant. By measuring carbon dioxide concentrations and making flow visualisation, the effects of parameters such as equipment airflow and installation height were observed. The observed trends provide guidance for designing refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, which helps to ensure rapid dispersion of flammable concentrations in the event of a leak of flammable refrigerant. A second paper (Part II) discussed the development of numerical correlations, which are used in the resulting design procedure.