Evaluation of low GWP refrigerants as alternatives for R134a in a vapor compression refrigeration cycle under varying operating conditions

Abstract EN

The present work is a numerical comparative study for low GWP refrigerants based on R161, R152a, R1234ze(e) and R1234yf as a substitute for R134a in a vapor compression refrigeration cycle under varying operating conditions.

A computational model is developed by engineering equation solver software (EES).

The effects of degree of subcooling, superheating, evaporating and condensing temperatures on the main performance parameters in term of mass flow rate of refrigerant, pressure ratio, volumetric cooling capacity, compressor input power and coefficient of performance are computed for selected refrigerants.

The performance results are compared with respect to R134a.

The results indicated that the coefficient of performance for R152a is slightly better than the other refrigerants under various operating conditions.

The refrigerant R1234ze(e) has approximately the same COP and VCC of R134a and it has the lowest compressor input power and TEWI value over the four compared low GWP refrigerants.