Analisis Efektivitas Liquid Suction Heat Exchanger Pada Performansi AC Split 0,5 PK Menggunakan Simulasi CFD

Abstract

This study analyses the thermal effectiveness of Liquid Suction Heat Exchanger (LSHE) in a 0,5 PK split AC system with R-290 refrigerant using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The use of LSHE aims to improve the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle amidst demands for the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants with low Global Warming Potential (GWP). Transient numerical simulation was performed on the fluted tube-in-tube LSHE geometry using ANSYS Fluent, with boundary conditions validated from experimental data. Simulation results indicate that the LSHE functions effectively in the ideal domain, reducing the liquid refrigerant temperature from 32.2°C to an average of 29.93°C and increasing the vapour refrigerant temperature from 19.8°C to 21.16°C. The ideal simulation results show that the heat transfer effectiveness reaches 18.27%. However, there is a significant gap with the experimental results which only recorded an average effectiveness of 12.11%. This discrepancy is due to the heat loss to the environment during the experiment. Nonetheless, the Split AC system with the addition of LSHE was managed to achieve. In conclusion, LSHE has high theoretical potential, but its actual performance is greatly affected by practical factors such as external heat loss, which is closely related to thermal insulation.