Investigation of a refrigeration cycle as a function of condenser water volume flow rate and refrigeration load

Energy is an important parameter in many applications. The world population and demand for energy have been increasing rapidly day by day. Due to the decline in world resources, scientists have started to research the alternative energy production methods and to use the available energy more efficiently. Refrigeration and air conditioning systems globally consume more than 15% of total energy. In this experimental study, in a vapour compression refrigeration cycle using R134a as the refrigerant, the effect of the water volume flow rate flowing through the water-cooled condenser on the evaporator capacity, condenser capacity, the power delivered to the compressor, coefficient of performance (COP) and the total entropy generation were investigated. Keeping water volume flow rate through the condenser constant, the effect of the evaporator capacity on the condenser capacity, the power delivered to the compressor and COP were also investigated. At the increasing values of the water volume flow rate, the condenser capacity, the evaporator capacity and the COP increased, but the compressor power consumption and the total entropy generation of the system decreased. The total entropy generation of the system decreased by 14.02% and the COP of the system increased by 20.3% at flow rates ranging from 100L/h to 500L/h.