Experimental study on the performance of R-502 alternative refrigerant mixtures

R-502 대체 혼합냉매의 성능에 관한 실험적 연구

This paper is concerned about the performance of alternative refrigerants of R-502 which has been widely used in transport and low temperature refrigeration. A breadboard heat pump was constructed with counterflow heat exchangers and tested with R-502 and transitional alternatives of R-402A and R-402B and long-term alternatives of R-404A and R-507 to compare the performance of each refrigerant. Measurements were conducted at two different condensing temperatures of $43.3^{\circ}C$ and $52.0^{\circ}C$ and the evaporating temperature was varied over a range from $-25^{\circ}C$ to $-5^{\circ}C$. The evaporator superheat and condenser subcooling were maintained constant at about $5^{\circ}C$ for all tests. Test results showed that all alternative fluids tested in this research work can be used as 'drop-in' fluids to replace R-502 without any major problem. It is also found that in the long run HFC alternatives are to be used due to their favorable environmental characteristics and better performance.