Experimental and Numerical Studies on an Automobile Air Conditioning System With the Refrigerants R134a, R1234yf, and R1234ze(E)

Abstract

The Montreal Protocol of 1987 has put the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the category of ozone-depleting substances. The hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), synthesized as alternatives to CFCs, though possess zero ozone-depleting potential, have high global warming potential (GWP). Despite this, numerous applications currently employ HFCs for refrigeration and air conditioning. The 2016 Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol suggested a phase out of the HFCs, and this process will go on until 2036 in developed nations and until 2047 in developing nations to accomplish a condition of 85% decrease in the use of HFCs. The refrigerant R134a used in mobile air conditioning has a global warming potential (GWP100) of 1300, which prompted researchers to look for new low GWP refrigerants. Recent research has revealed that the HydroFluoroOlefin (HFO) refrigerants R1234yf and R1234ze(E) with a GWP100 of 4 or less show promise for application in the automobile air conditioning (AAC) field. The AAC requires special attention due to frequent leakages of HFC caused by vibration-induced pipe failures. In this research, the low GWP refrigerants R1234yf and R1234ze(E) are considered to explore the AAC system performance, and comparisons are made with the currently used refrigerant R134a. The numerical simulations are performed by including and excluding liquid-to-suction heat exchanger/internal heat exchanger (IHX). The results show that the use of IHX is advantageous for both R1234yf and R1234ze(E). Even though R134a performed better, R1234yf with IHX is a better low GWP alternative in the current AAC system working with R134a without IHX, with only a slight compromise in the system performance and the performance of R1234yf is better than R1234ze(E). Finally, the numerical simulation results are validated against the experimental results for R134a and R1234yf and found that most of the results agree within 10% deviation for system without IHX and within 15% deviation for system with IHX. Thus, if the AAC systems change to R1234yf with an IHX, the directives set out in the Kigali amendment of 2016 to Montreal Protocol (namely the discontinuation of HFCs for refrigeration) will be satisfied without any significant loss in the performance.