Heat transfer characteristics of accumulator heat exchangers under various geometric and operating conditions

To minimize the possibility of flash gas generation at the inlet of the expansion device in multi air-conditioners, an accumulator heat exchanger is usually adopted. In this study, the heat transfer rate and subcooling difference in an accumulator heat exchanger were measured under various operating and geometric conditions. The effect of the operating conditions on the performance of the accumulator heat exchanger was analyzed for R-22, R-134a, and R-410A. The performance of the accumulator heat exchanger was also analyzed by varying diverse geometric parameters: the inner volume and the ratio of the diameter to height of the accumulator, and the diameter, length, and bending diameter of the inner heat exchanger. In addition, the flow of the refrigerant-oil mixture inside the accumulator was visualized. Based on the measured data, a dimensionless correlation for predicting the subcooling difference across the accumulator heat exchanger was developed.