Thermodynamic analysis of two-component, two-phase flow in solar collectors with application to a direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pump

Two-phase flow of pure chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants in solar collector tubes has been examined in previous studies in connection with applications in direct-expansion, solar-assisted heat pumps (DX-SAHP). The present work extends the thermodynamic analysis of solar collectors to the multicomponent and multiphase domain to cover newly proposed refrigerant mixtures which are potential candidates for replacing CFCs in future DX-SAHP systems. A computational methodology is developed to determine the size of a solar collector of a DX-SAHP that uses a binary refrigerant mixture whose thermodynamic and transport properties are predicted from a computer code. The energy equation for the elemental collector tube control volume, incorporating the local thermodynamic and heat transfer characteristics, is integrated to determine the tube length for a given set of inlet and exit thermodynamic states of the refrigerant mixture. Effects of various parameters such as the collector mass-flow rate and operating pressure, tube diameter and absorbed solar radiation on the collector tube length, heat transfer coefficient, and the local refrigerant temperature in the tube are also considered. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.