Temperature Profiles for An Air to Water Heat Pump Counterflow Condenser

Experimental investigations have been made on the refrigerant-water counterflow condenser section of a small air-water heat pump. The condenser consisted of 15 meters of a thermally coupled pair of copper pipes, one containing the R12 working fluid and the other water lowing in the opposite direction. Thermocouples were inserted in both pipes at one meter intervals and transducers for measuring pressure and fluid flow rate were also included. Readings were taken under variety conditions; air temperature ranging from 18 to 26 degree Celsius, water inlet temperature from 13.5 to 21.7 degrees, R12 inlet temperature from 61 to 82 degrees and water mass flow rate from 6.7 to 32.9 grams per second. Temperature profiles and other related parameters have been predicted and compared with experimental values. The model gives a satisfactory prediction of the physical behavior.