MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

The University of the South Pacific

School of Engineering and Physics
MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Lab 4: BYPASS FACTOR OF A HEATING COIL

Lab Session Time: Tuesday 3-6 pm

Student Names: Siddhant Vishal Chand(s11108833)
Philip Tanikoba(s11102239)
Samson Hagarigia (s11091715)

AIM

To determine the Temperatures at the inlet, outlet and heating coil as well as the mass flow rate of air that is
passing through the heating duct.

To use the three Temperatures recorded to determine the bypass factor and also determine the amount of
bypass air.

EQUIPMENT

Figure 1: HVAC cooling and heating system [available at the USP engineering Fluids Lab]

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MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

INTRODUCTION

In the HVAC and Refrigeration field, cooling and heating coils are used to exchange heat to/from air to a
heat exchange fluid. A heat exchange fluid is flown through the coil and as air is passed over the coil, the air
is either heated or cooled. Coils consist of a metal box framing, which holds a series of copper tubes.

Figure 2: Heat transfer at the inside Coil

The amount of heat that is transferred is related to the amount of surface area that the air is in contact with.
In order to increase surface area, the size of the tubes may be decreased and more tubes can be provided, the
number of rows increased or the amount of fins per inch are increased. Aluminum or copper fins are
provided on each tube to increase the amount of surface area. Coils are rated by the height of the fins and the
number of fins per inch.

Cooling and Heating Coil Fluids There are several different types of heat exchange fluids used in
cooling/heating coils.

Refrigerant: Hot refrigerant gas or cool refrigerant liquid can be used in a coil to provide either heating or
cooling. In a heating-coil, cool air is passed over a coil containing hot gas. Heat is exchanged to the cool air,
which warms the air. The heat lost by the refrigerant gas causes it to condense to a liquid. In a cooling-coil,
warm air is passed over a coil containing cool refrigerant liquid. Heat is exchanged to the cool refrigerant
liquid, causing it to evaporate. The warm air loses heat, thereby decreasing the air temperature.

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MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Water: Chilled water or hot water can be used in a coil to provide either heating or cooling. The air
temperature is either raised or lowered as heat is transferred to raise or lower the temperature of the chilled
or hot water.

Steam: Steam can be provided to a coil to provide heating. Steam enters the coil and as the air passes over
the coil its air temperature increases. As the steam loses heat, it condenses to its liquid form.

The bypass factor describes the percentage of air that is not cooled to the ADP. The air that is bypassed
remains unchanged from the entering coil conditions or in other words it is the percentage of air that passes
through the coil unchanged.[i.e : no heat exchanging takes place] The bypass factor is a function of the
airflow, number of rows, surface temperature, number of fins per inch, height of fins and many other
construction attributes of coils. The origin of the bypass factor is not important, but the use of the bypass
factor in calculations is important. The bypass factor can be found through the use of (a) enthalpy, (b) dry
bulb temperature or (c) humidity ratio

hentering coil h Leaving coil

Bypass factor=
h entering coil happaratus dewpoint

Where h is the Enthalpy

T entering coil T Leaving coil

Bypass factor=
T entering coil T apparatus dewpoint

Where T is the Dry bulb temperature

W entering coil W Leaving coil

Bypass factor=
W entering coil W apparatus dewpoint

Where W is the Humidity ratio

RESULTS

Case 1(2KW)

Tambient = 26 C = 299 K

T1 = 26 C = 299 K

T2 = 44 C = 317 K

T3 = 81.8 C = 354.8 K

H= 21 mmH2O
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MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

1.) Finding the Volume flow rate

V =0.0247 H

V =0.0247 21
3
m
V =0.113
s

2.) Finding the mass flowrate

Patm V air ( 101.3 x 103 ) ( 0.113 ) 12753.67

m=
= =
R T amb ( 287 ) (299) 85526

m
a=0.13339 kg / s

3.) Finding the bypass factor

T d 3T d 2 354.8317 28.1
x= = = =0.677
T d 3T d 1 354.8299 37.1

4.) Finding the amount of bypass air

Ammount of Bypass air=m

.x

( 0.13339 ) .(0.677)

0.09 kg /s

Case 2 (2kW)

Tambient = 26 C = 299 K

T1 = 26 C = 299 K

T2 = 38.5 C = 311.5 K

T3 =65.8= 338.8 K

H= 49 mmH2O

1.) Finding the Volume flow rate

V =0.0247 H

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MM 321 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

3
m
V =0.0247 49=0.1729
s

2.) Finding the mass flowrate

Patm V air ( 101.3 x 103 ) ( 0.1729 )

m=
=
R T amb (287 ) (299)

m
a=0.2041 kg /s

3.) Finding the bypass factor

T d 3T d 2 338.8311.5
x= = =0.6859
T d 3T d 1 338.8299

4.) Finding the amount of bypass air

Ammount of Bypass air=m

.x

( 0.2041 ) .(0.6859)

0.14 kg /s

DISCUSSION

Two different sets of experiments were done with different mass flow rates to check the bypass factor of the
system. It is to be considered that the higher the bypass factor, the poorer the performance. This is because
the bypass factor is the fraction of air passes through the coils unchanged. The opposite of this is the contact
factor which takes into account the amount of air coming in contact with the coils. The bypass factor is a
function of the airflow, number of rows, surface temperature, number of fins per inch, height of fins and
many other construction attributes of coils. However, in this experiment the only thing we varied was the
flow rate hence the experiment used two different flow rates. From the experiment, two flow rates of
0.13kg/s and 0.2 kg/s were used. The temperature of the coils, in ambient temperature and the outlet air
temperature were noted after the system stabilized and gave consistent readings. From the temperature
readings, the bypass factors were found to be 0.677 and 0.6859 respectively. It is evident that since the
system used is the same, the bypass factor should be the same. However the mismatch in the two bypass
factors are due to errors such as direct convectional wind onto the system while taking readings from the two
separate experiments. Also, looking at the amount of bypass air of the two results, the test where a larger
flow rate was used, there was a larger amount of bypass air and vice versa.

CONCLUSION

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After the completion of this experiment, the bypass factor was successfully found and compared with the
two separate tests. There was some mismatch between the two values due to errors stated in the discussion
section. Key learning was that as the flow rate increased, the amount of bypass air also increased. The
bypass factor however, remains same as the bypass factor depends on the coil design, the airflow and the fin
specifications which could not be varied since experiment was done on a single system. All in all, this
experiment gave an insight of how the bypass factor affects the performance of a system and hence as we
found know the larger the bypass factor, the poorer the performance.

REFERENCE

[1] Nabeel, "Psychrometrics of Air condition processes", eng.uokufa, 2016. [Online]. Available:
http://www.eng.uokufa.edu.iq/staff/nabeel/2.pdf. [Accessed: 01- Sep- 2016].

[2]"HVAC Equipment and Systems - Coils for the Mechanical PE Exam", Engproguides.com, 2016.
[Online]. Available: http://engproguides.com/coil.html. [Accessed: 01- Sep- 2016].

[3]K. Elder, "Air Conditioning design- Psychrometrics and coil load calculations",Courses.washington.edu,
2016. [Online]. Available: http://courses.washington.edu/me425/425%20Psychrometric%20Review
%202007.pdf. [Accessed: 01- Sep- 2016].

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