Behaviour of ternary blends in heated suction accumulator

The results of an experimental study on the behaviour of azeotropic ternary refrigerant mixtures in heated suction accumulator are presented. The expe riment set up was composed of a fully instrumented air-source heat pump wit h a capacity of 36000 BTUH and equipped with a heated suction accumulator. Standard test conditions were used at the condenser inlet; however, the ref rigerant temperatures were varied at the evaporator entrance from 2 to -40 degrees C, to simulate various conditions encountered in extreme air-source heat pump applications. The primary parameters observed during the course of this study were mass flux, heat flux, and quality, evaporator and conden ser thermal capacities, and power consumed and pressure ratios for the azeo tropic refrigerant mixtures under investigation. The test results showed that heated suction accumulators enhance the evapor ation of the more volatile component of ternary azeotropic refrigerant mixt ures. Thus, increasing the mixture thermal capacity as well as the coeffici ent of performance (COP). Furthermore, experiments have also shown capacity increases of 27% with heated accumulator over unheated accumulator at -30 degrees C outside air temperatures. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, L td.