3161 -- Two-Phase Refrigerant Flow Measurement with Liquid and Vapor Separation Technique PDF

Refrigerant flow rate measurement is always important in calculating the performance of refrigeration equipment. The task becomes difficult when the refrigerant is not fully condensed in the condenser. Conventional two-phase flow measuring techniques are either too expensive or have low accuracy or both. This paper presents an accurate measurement in which the liquid and vapor are separated and the flow rate of each phase is measured with conventional flow meters. A low-cost and low-pressure drop separator was built and tested on a split heat pump system. The results indicate that the separator worked as expected by separating the twophase refrigerant for vapor quality from 6.1% to 14.7%, with refrigerant pressure drop ranging from 2 to 5 psi (13.8 to 34.5 kPa) in most tests.

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