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A Flexible Top-Down Numerical Modeling of an Air-Cooled Finned-Tube CO 2 Trans-Critical Gas Cooler

Author

Listed:
  • Angelo Maiorino

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, Università di Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

  • Ciro Aprea

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, Università di Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

  • Manuel Gesù Del Duca

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, Università di Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

Abstract

Carbon dioxide trans-critical refrigeration systems have been deeply investigated over the last years, with the aim to improve their performance by using several possible technical solutions. However, most of them lead to a more complex and expensive system, and therefore a trade-off is always needed to identify the best viable solution. Therefore, many efforts have also been focused on the study of a critical component of the basic carbon dioxide trans-critical cycle, which is the gas cooler, especially by numerical simulations. This work shows a new flexible approach to numerically model an air-cooled finned-tube CO 2 trans-critical gas cooler integrating a Top-Down methodology with a Finite Difference Method to solve the governing equation of the thermodynamic processes involved. The model was developed to reproduce the behavior of an experimental CO 2 refrigeration system, which provided the experimental data used for its validation. In detail, the model showed a good agreement with the experimental data, with average deviations of 1 K (0.3%), 0.9 bar (1%) and 0.15 kW (2.8%) regarding the refrigerant outlet temperature, the refrigerant outlet pressure and the rejected heat, respectively. The Top-Down numerical approach slightly outperformed the performance of previous numerical models available in the literature. Furthermore, the analysis of the refrigerant temperature and pressure along the tubes and rows also shows that the model can reproduce their behavior consistently and accordingly to data reported in the literature. The proposed approach can be used for detailed thermo-economic analysis of the whole refrigeration system, with the aim to optimize the design of the gas cooler.

Suggested Citation

  • Angelo Maiorino & Ciro Aprea & Manuel Gesù Del Duca, 2021. "A Flexible Top-Down Numerical Modeling of an Air-Cooled Finned-Tube CO 2 Trans-Critical Gas Cooler," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-30, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:22:p:7607-:d:678922
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yu, Binbin & Yang, Jingye & Wang, Dandong & Shi, Junye & Chen, Jiangping, 2019. "An updated review of recent advances on modified technologies in transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
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