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The Role of Heat Transfer in Refrigeration

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J. A. R. Parise & R. Pitanga Marques
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Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
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editorial

The Role of Heat Transfer in

Refrigeration
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J. A. R. PARISE and R. PITANGA MARQUES

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontifı́cia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Refrigeration plays a key role in today’s society, providing
human comfort and food preservation. From ice and large food-
packing plants to oil refineries and chemical manufacturing, in-
dustrial processes rely heavily on refrigeration. According to
the International Institute of Refrigeration [1], approximately
15% of the world’s electricity consumption goes to refrigerating
and air conditioning systems. The importance of refrigeration is
also reflected in the ever-growing number of specialized litera-
ture and conferences held worldwide. No doubt, there is much
room for improvement, especially by reducing the impact of re-
frigeration on the environment and improving equipment design
(thereby improving energy utilization). The systematic applica-
tion of the science of heat transfer to refrigeration engineering
will certainly contribute to achieve these ends.
The efficiency of a heat pump cycle is primarily dictated
by the temperature levels at which the cycle operates. In the
vapor compression cycle, this means that the pressure levels
that affect compressor behavior are ultimately determined by the
performance of the heat exchangers that establish the interaction
between the working fluid and the heat source and heat sink.
In the vapor compression refrigeration cycle, poor heat ex-
changer efficiency will result in greater temperature differences
across both the condenser and evaporator, given heat sink (ambi-
ent) and source (refrigerated medium) temperatures. Thus, the
thermodynamic cycle would operate under increasingly sepa-
rated temperature levels. Because the heat extraction (evapo-
rator) and heat rejection (condenser) occur with phase change,
Address correspondence to Dr. J. A. R. Parise, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Pontifı́cia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 22453-900
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: parise@mec.puc-rio.br
pressure levels are also altered, and compressor performance
is consequently modified by heat transfer conditions. Energy
consumption, refrigeration capacity, and overall efficiency will
be affected—hence, the need to focus on different heat transfer
issues for improved refrigeration performance.
HEAT EXCHANGERS
New technologies for refrigeration heat exchangers have to
meet two main criteria: a reduction of energy consumption and
an improvement of their environmental impact. To be thermody-
namically sound, heat exchangers must exhibit high effective-
ness and low pressure drop in both fluid sides. To be environ-
mentally acceptable, refrigeration systems will have to cope with
new challenges in the design of heat exchangers. In the past, heat
exchanger design combined improved heat transfer and reduced
pressure drop. Today, zero leakage and minimum refrigerant
charge were included in the specification for the manufacturing
of condensers and evaporators, which will lead to more com-
pact and more efficient heat exchangers. However, in air-cooled
condensers and air-source evaporators, an increased demand for
noise reduction may point to the opposite direction—of large
frontal areas resulting in low air velocity (for lower noise lev-
els), which in turn gives rise to lower heat transfer exchange.
Condensers
Both in-tube (air- and water-cooled condensers) and exter-
nal tube (shell-and-tube condensers) condensation can occur

1
 2 J. A. R. PARISE AND R. PITANGA MARQUES
in refrigeration systems. Any change imposed by a design re-
quirement will likely alter condensation characteristics. With
the adoption of replacement refrigerants and the widespread use
of new enhanced surfaces, well-established condensation heat
transfer and pressure drop correlations have become inaccurate
to be used in some new applications. Thus, renewed effort is re-
quired for the characterization of flow conditions and associated
predictive procedures for condensation heat transfer [2].
It is well known that the heat and momentum transfer pro-
cesses during in-tube condensation are largely dependent on the
occurring two-phase flow regime, and a considerable amount of
work, dedicated to the prediction of the predominant flow regime
and the resulting heat transfer and pressure drop calculations,
can be found in the literature. As expected, for enhanced tubes
(typically, micro-fin, cross-grooved, and herringbone tubes), this
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dependence still exists, but with new correlations for two-phase
flow regime transitions, pressure drop and heat transfer. A fair
amount of work has already been done on this matter. However,
data on the condensation of refrigerant mixtures inside enhanced
tubes is not as abundant as in the other cases [2]. Experimental
data are still needed to study condensation inside smooth circular
tubes of halogenated refrigerants operating near the critical point
and of CO2 at low temperatures (cascade systems). This will fur-
ther extend the interval of confidence of simulation and design
tools, as suggested by Cavallini et al. [2]. For enhanced tubes,
heat transfer-predicting procedures are available in the literature,
but are limited to particular geometry and operating conditions.
According to [2], additional experiments, which would include
the presence of oil mixed with the working fluid, are needed
to extend the range of geometric and operating conditions. For
their reduced airside pressure drop, oval tubes are natural candi-
dates for the manufacturing of new equipment. This will require
additional studies on in-tube heat transfer (single-phase, boiling,
and condensation).
As far as external tube condensation is concerned, the shell-
side heat transfer mechanism of refrigerant vapor condensing
over bundles of horizontal tubes (finned or smooth) is generally
affected by a number of factors, including tube geometry and
layout, condensate inundation and vapor shear, gravity, and fluid
properties [2]. There is still no simple and fully reliable method
for the prediction of bundle condensation of zeotropic mixtures
(such as R-407C), accounting for the penalization of mass dif-
fusion resistance build-up, even though bundle condensation for
zeotropic mixtures is not encouraged for a number of reasons
[2].
There is a substantial scope for the investigation of the effect
of oil on condensation. How heat transfer characteristics of com-
mon refrigerants vary in the presence of oil is still an unsolved
problem. Oil does affect the phase-equilibrium behavior of re-
frigerants, thereby modifying heat transfer coefficient values. In
addition, the presence of oil, when mixed with the refrigerant,
is known to decrease the heat transfer coefficient and increase
the pressure drop. According to Cavallini et al. [2], in spite of
its detrimental influence on the cycle performance, the associ-
ated experimental information is still quite poor. Efforts to find
heat transfer engineering
a unique interpretation of the different effects of oil on conden-
sation heat transfer are thwarted by the large number of types of
oil used, of which thermophysical and thermodynamic proper-
ties (in particular, viscosity) may vary substantially from one to
another. In bundle condensation, the influence of the presence
of lubricating oil in the refrigerant is to be further investigated
[2].
With the advent of microchannel technology, much experi-
mental and theoretical research is needed on condensation, flow
pattern, and heat transfer. There is evidence that the thermal per-
formance of microchannel condensers is heavily dependent on
pressure drop. It is not inconceivable that this emerging tech-
nology, today restricted to automotive air-conditioning, will in
the near future conquer the domestic refrigeration market. Con-
siderable attention should be given to the study of the thermal
performance of multiport microchannel heat exchangers. Ac-
cording to [2], there is considerable scope for the study of flow
patterns within microchannels, heat transfer and pressure drop,
and flow distribution in headers as well.
Finally, Cavallini et al. [2] point out the possibility of us-
ing the refrigerant circuitry (in fin-and-tube condensers) or the
number of tube passes (in shell-and-tube condensers with in-tube
condensation) to optimize the design of the heat exchanger, tak-
ing into account two apparently opposing requirements (namely,
high refrigerant-to-cooling fluid heat transfer rate and low pres-
sure drop due to frictional effects).
Evaporators
The use of evaporators with multichannel passages with hy-
draulic diameters less than 10 mm (usually called microchannel
heat exchangers, if less than 1 mm) has brought up new chal-
lenges in the prediction of saturated boiling in these passages.
Many complexities arise from the prediction of flow boiling heat
transfer inside small passages [3]: two-phase flow regime tran-
sitions observed in small channels differ from those occurring in
larger channels; single-phase flow equally operates in the lami-
nar, transition, and turbulent flow regimes; and single-phase and
two-phase pressure drop is relevant and obviously, in the latter,
affects the saturation temperature. To avoid excessive pressure
drop on the refrigerant side, mass fluxes are generally smaller
than those found in conventional heat exchangers, which leads
to a dominant convective heat transfer mechanism associated
with slug/churn two-phase flow, conditions that require differ-
ent descriptive procedures of the heat and momentum processes.
To avoid excessive pressure drop for subcooled liquid, low mass
fluxes lead to laminar flow. For large channels, a number of
correlations for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient
are available in the literature, taking into account the presence of
nucleate or convective boiling mechanisms or a combination of
the two. On the other hand, according to Watel [3], there is still
a lack of an established design methodology and accompanying
databases for compact and microchannel evaporators. Validated
correlations for boiling heat transfer are lacking, and their de-
termination is further complicated by the strong dependence
vol. 26 no. 9 2005
 J. A. R. PARISE AND R. PITANGA MARQUES 3

of certain two-phase flow regimes to the geometry of the mi- effect on the compressor performance, notably energy consump-
crochannel. tion and volumetric capacity [6]. For this reason, the accurate de-
termination of the gas-cylinder interface heat transfer coefficient
has been the objective of many workers involved with the sim-
Transcritical CO2 Refrigeration Cycles
ulation and design of positive-displacement compressors. Most
correlations, some imported from internal combustion engines,
Recent concerns on the greenhouse effect of fluorinated com-
have been traditionally based on models that assume that the
pounds such as R-134a (a substitute of CFC12 on automotive
heat transfer process follows Newton’s law (i.e., that the heat
air conditioning systems) have led to the proposal of their grad-
flux is proportional to the instantaneous temperature difference
ual phase out, from 2008 onward, in the European Union [4].
between the bulk gas and the cylinder wall). Among this group
Natural refrigerants, including air, water, noble gases, hydrocar-
is Annand’s correlation [7], which, in spite of being originally
bons, ammonia, and carbon dioxide, have been gradually con-
developed for internal combustion engines, has been success-
sidered as long-term substitutes; among them, CO2 is the only
fully applied to compressors. There is sufficient evidence, how-
non-flammable and non-toxic working fluid that is capable to
ever, that part of the heat transfer rate also depends on the rate of
operate in a vapor compression cycle below 0◦ C. For typical
change of the gas temperature and not the temperature difference
ambient temperatures (compared to conventional refrigerants),
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alone. To the best of our knowledge, this is still an open ques-

the heat rejection of the carbon dioxide vapor compression cycle
tion in rotary compressors (rolling piston, sliding vane, screw
will take place at a supercritical pressure so that the cycle be-
and scroll machines) where the differences go beyond geome-
comes transcritical. This brings about a number of peculiarities
try, as the unsteady heat transfer interactions between gas and
and new issues concerning the heat rejection process, including
cylinder walls of rotary compressors differ considerably from
the physical factors influencing in-tube forced convection heat
those of reciprocating machines. Basically, in rotary compres-
transfer; the deterioration or improvement of heat transfer in the
sors, each point of the cylinder wall exchanges heat with the gas
supercritical region; the effects of buoyancy-driven secondary
at a specific time of the compression process, as opposed to a
flows on heat transfer in tube flow; heat transfer correlations
time-averaged situation, typical of a reciprocating compressor.
for in-tube flow of a supercritical fluid; the coefficient of fric-
More CFD efforts in this direction, supported by experimental
tion of a supercritical fluid; and the influence of lubricant on
data, are expected to be seen in the near future. Also, the thermal
heat transfer. There is still some controversy [4] in the litera-
interaction between gas, the cylinder wall, and the lubricating
ture on whether the use of single-phase flow correlations (e.g.,
oil film has been scarcely investigated so far.
Dittus-Boelter or Gnielinski correlations for heat transfer, and
Colebrook and White for pressure drop) is applicable for in-
tube supercritical pressure flow of carbon dioxide. As Kim et al.
Heat Transfer in Hermetic Compressors
[4] point out, there exist insufficient data to believe that the de-
pendence of heat transfer and pressure drop on fluid properties
Hermetic compressors are complex systems from a thermo-
are not captured adequately by these conventional single-phase
dynamic and heat transfer point of view. They present an intri-
flow correlations. It seems that discrepancies occur at high heat
cate network of heat exchange where in a hermetic reciprocating
flux and conditions close to the pseudocritical state, when buoy-
compressor, for example, all of its components (stator-rotor as-
ancy effects and thermophysical property variation may be large
sembly, suction and discharge mufflers, cylinder body and case
enough to turn the use of single-phase correlations incorrect [4].
walls, crankcase/crankshaft assembly, discharge line) are ex-
As for the evaporator, it is worth mentioning that, according to
posed to both lubricant oil and low-pressure suction gas from
[4], the observed two-phase flow patterns did not fit any con-
the evaporator. In addition, the interaction between refrigerant
ventional generalized maps or transitions lines, perhaps due to
and lubricating oil may lead to foam formation in the compressor
the high pressure and low liquid/vapor density near the criti-
shell or in internal gas leakage passages. The modeling of the
cal point. How to achieve uniform two-phase flow distribution
presence of oil in the heat transfer processes in hermetic com-
through the existing parallel circuits in CO2 plate or microchan-
pressors is further complicated by the fact that oil composition
nel evaporators is a further challenging issue. Computational
is usually unknown, which prevents an accurate determination
fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, supported by appropriate exper-
of its thermophysical properties. There is still scope for the ex-
imental data, have been recently applied to study this problem
perimental determination of local heat transfer coefficients in
[5]. Microchannel evaporators design is also being rethought to
most parts of the hermetic compressor, as available data in the
tolerate frost formation.
literature are still scarce. The prediction of the actual entry tem-
perature of refrigerant into the compressor [8], positioning of the
COMPRESSORS suction muffler with respect to the suction line [9], and the posi-
tioning of the overload protection relay [8], to name a few, point
In reciprocating or rotary positive-displacement compres- to the importance of thermal mapping of a hermetic compressor.
sors, the heat transfer process that takes place in the interface This has been carried out by many researchers, mainly through
between the working fluid and cylinder walls has a considerable lumped-parameter analyses (for example, [10]), although a few
heat transfer engineering vol. 26 no. 9 2005
 4 J. A. R. PARISE AND R. PITANGA MARQUES
efforts by CFD methods are reported in the literature (for exam-
ple, [8]). It is expected that many more studies with the latter
technique will appear in the literature in the near future.
CONCLUSIONS
Heat transfer plays a key role in refrigeration. Researchers
and engineers are challenged by several open issues. Each com-
ponent of a refrigeration cycle, in its own right, calls for a
renewed research effort. Transcritical cycles bring about new
equipment manufacturing challenges as they operate at pres-
sures and conditions previously unknown and alter heat transfer
mechanisms. For all that, detailed studies of heat transfer and
pressure drop and their mutual interactions would constitute a
major contribution that heat transfer specialists can offer to the
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refrigeration community.
REFERENCES
[1] International Institute of Refrigeration, How to Improve Energy
Efficiency in Refrigerating Equipment, 17th Informatory Note on
Refrigerating Technologies, Institut International du Froid, Paris,
France, November 2003.
[2] Cavallini, A., Censi, G., Del Col, D., Doretti, L., Longo, G. A.,
Rossetto, L., and Zilio, C., Condensation inside and outside
Smooth and Enhanced Tubes—A Review of Recent Research, In-
ternational Journal of Refrigeration, vol. 26, pp. 373–392, 2003.
[3] Watel, B., Review of Saturated Flow Boiling in Small Passages
of Compact Heat-Exchangers, International Journal of Thermal
Sciences, Vol. 42, pp. 107–140, 2003.
[4] Kim, M.-H., Pettersen, J., and Bullard, C. W., Fundamental Pro-
cess and System Design Issues in CO2 Vapor Compression Sys-
tems, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, vol. 30, pp.
119–174, 2004.
[5] Kim, M.-H., and Bullard, C. W., Development of a Microchannel
Evaporator Model for a CO2 Air-Conditioning System, Energy,
vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 931–938, 2001.
[6] Fagotti, F., and Prata, A. T., A New Correlation for Instantaneous
Heat Transfer between Gas and Cylinder in Reciprocating Com-
pressors, Proc. 1998 International Compressor Engineering Con-
ference at Purdue, vol. 1, pp. 871–876, West Lafayette, IN, USA,
July 14–17, 1998.
heat transfer engineering
[7] Annand, W. J. D., Heat Transfer in the Cylinder of Reciprocat-
ing Internal Combustion Engines, Proc. Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, vol. 177, no. 36, pp. 521–526, 1963.
[8] Raja, B., Joseph Sekhar, S., Mohan Lal, D., and Kalanidhi, A., A
Numerical Model for Thermal Mapping in a Hermetically Sealed
Reciprocating Refrigerant Compressor, International Journal of
Refrigeration, vol. 26, pp. 652–658, 2003.
[9] Srikanth, R., and Doyle Thompson, H., How the Design of the
Suction Return Affects Compressor Efficiency, Proc. 1988 Pur-
due International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue,
vol. 1, pp. 615–622, West Lafayette, IN, USA, July 18–21, 1988.
[10] Todescat, M. L., Fagotti, F., Prata, A. T., and Ferreira, R. T. S.,
Thermal Energy Analysis in Reciprocating Hermetic Compres-
sors, Proc. 1992 Purdue Intenational Compressor Engineering
Conference at Purdue, vol. 1, pp. 1419–1428, West Lafayette, IN,
USA, 1992.
José Alberto Reis Parise obtained his B.S. and
MSc in mechanical engineering from the Pontif-
ical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, PUC-
Rio, Brazil, and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineer-
ing from UMIST, England, in 1983. From 1991
to 1993, he worked as a guest researcher of the
HVAC&R Equipment Performance Group at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
NIST, USA. His main area of interest is the sim-
ulation of refrigeration systems. He has given a
number of invited and keynote presentations on this subject in Brazil and Latin
America. Presently, he is the dean of the Science and Technology Center of
PUC-Rio and vice-president of the Brazilian Society for Engineering Education
(ABENGE).
Rui Pitanga Marques has been a collaborator of
the Heating and Refrigeration Laboratory of the
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, for more than ten years. He received his
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the City
University, London, in 1989. His research is
mainly focused in power and refrigeration cycles
and organic working fluids. He was a visiting lec-
turer at the Polytechnic Institute of the State Uni-
versity of Rio de Janeiro, where he did research
on the phase-equilibrium of organic fluid mixtures.
vol. 26 no. 9 2005