CH-93-20-4 -- Laboratory Evaluation of an Ozone-Safe Nonazeotropic Refrigerant Mixture in a Lorenz-Meutzner Refrigerator Freezer Design PDF

Notes that the Lorenz-Meutzner (LM) refrigerator freezer (RF) circuit has been proposed as a design which would operate with nonazeotropic refrigerant mixtures (NARMs) and significantly increase the thermodynamic efficiency of household refrigerators. States that several ozone-safe and more environmentally acceptable refrigerants are known which could be blended into a NARM to replace R12 for this domestic refrigeration application. Describes laboratory tests on a Lorenz-Meutzner RF using an R32/R124 NARM. Makes comparisons between the baseline performance of the refrigerator with R12 before it was modified to the LM design and that of the LM circuit operating with R12 and the NARM. Also presents computer modelling and compressor calorimeter results for R12 and the NARM used in the test unit. Finds small performance gains (around 3%) for the NARM over R12 in the same refrigerator freezer circuit. Discusses possible reasons for this unexpectedly poor gain.

KEYWORDS: Laboratory testing, testing, refrigerators, domestic, freezers, circuits, refrigerants, mixtures, non azeotropic, efficiency, performance, models, calculating, R12, R32, R124, comparing.