The Influence of the Thermophysical Fluid Properties of the New Ozone-Safe Refrigerants on Performance

Published

March 1, 1999

Author(s)

David Didion

Abstract

The selection a working fluid as a refrigerant for the vapor compression cycle is discussed. For thermodynamic performance to be optimized particular attention must be paid to the fluid's critical point and molar heat capacity. To achieve a reasonable balance between volumetric capacity, which implies equipment size, and coefficient of performance, which is efficiency, it is necessary to select a fluid with a critical point such that the application's condenser will operate in a reduced temperature range of approximately 0.7 to 0.9. It is also necessary to select fluids within a rather limited range of molar heat capacity values. The specifics as to how these properties affect the cycle's performance are presented in detail. For a better matching of the working fluid to a given application, both azeotropic and zeotropic mixtures of fluids are used. The characteristics and performance advantages and disadvantages of these mixtures are discussed.

Citation

International Journal of Applied Thermodynamics

Volume

2

Issue

No. 1

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

azeotropic mixtures, refrigerants, thermophysical properties, two-phase flow, vapor compression

Citation

Didion, D. (1999), The Influence of the Thermophysical Fluid Properties of the New Ozone-Safe Refrigerants on Performance, International Journal of Applied Thermodynamics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860777 (Accessed May 13, 2026)

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