Summary

This work presents an experimental approach to study the refrigerant flow through capillary tube-suction line heat exchangers. Lateral heat exchanger performance with refrigerant HFC-134a was experimentally evaluated for a range of heat exchanger geometries and operating conditions typically found in household refrigerators and freezers. Based on the resulting performance data base, the influence of the operating conditions (condensing pressure, subcooling and temperature at the inlet of the suction line) and of the geometry (capillary tube inner diameter and length of the heat exchanger) on the mass flow rate were examined. The experimental data base (mass flow rate and temperature profiles) was also compared with the predictions of a numerical model available in the literature and a reasonable agreement is shown.

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