The smaller, the better? What can we benefit from using mini/micro channel heat exchangers in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems? Any thoughts shared here will be much appreciated. The following are my bits for your comments.

1. Compact from high heat transfer area-to-volume ratio (e.g., the ratio ~ 1/d for a cylindrical flow channel while d is the channel diameter)

2. Reducing refrigerant charge from small refrigerant-side volume with small OD tubes

3. Maximising capacity/COP with trade-off between decreasing pressure drop and increasing heat transfer coefficient by effective refrigerant flow distributing/circuiting

4. Air-side heat transfer coefficient increase from enhanced air flow disturbance with small OD tubes and narrow spacing tube banks

5. Low air flow pressure drop from using small OD tubes so both fan power and noise may be decreased

The smaller, the better for heat exchanger fluid flow channel size? This is one of the hot topics with users of our Refriglab cloud eTools ( www.refriglab.com being available for free trials). For developers and designers, an interesting question is how we can benefit more from a single mini/micro channel air coil design.

This post is a follow-up to my previous ones at LinkedIn:

https://lnkd.in/g68uaJW

https://lnkd.in/gsC9xWU

https://lnkd.in/g4kRSq8

https://lnkd.in/gPbb8E7

https://lnkd.in/eBNvrYF