EXPERIMENTAL STAND FOR ECO-REFRIGERANTS TESTING

Abstract

The environment protection has become a priority in European Union. This priority, through the European environmental legislation aquis, directly involves the field of refrigerants and for that reason an intense research activity is carried out at international level in order to find substitution alternatives for pollutant refrigerants. In this context, the Chair of Thermodynamics Refrigeration and Thermal Systems of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics - UPB develops several research themes. This paper presents an experimental stand which is entirely dedicated for experimental investigation of alternative refrigerants. The stand allows: experimental performance comparison of a vapor compression refrigeration system working on various refrigerants; to establish the compatibility between alternative and pollutant refrigerants; the observation of technical problems that appear during the process of replacement and also, endurance and reliability tests. To ensure accuracy of experimental investigation, the stand was designed to allow the use, in parallel, of two methods for determining the performance parameters of the refrigeration system: a main method, direct determination of the performances and a secondary one, for validation.