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Guilherme
18-03-2002, 05:13 PM
Hi everybody! This is first time i use this forum section, so i hope this would be a good way to answer some of my questions...

Well, iīm writing here to ask if someone can help me (or give me any information) about helical condensers, used in glass door refrigerators.
These condensers are easily manufactured and cheap, but its project is very complex because of the air flow distribution through its surface.
The picture attached shows a helical condenser with 3 towers (17 helical rings per tower). The air flows in the direction showed by the arrow. How can i calculate the heat exchange of the condenser without measuring it? Is there some correlation used for this kind of flow?

I aprecciate your attention! Thanks!

Guilherme
22-04-2002, 01:43 PM
:-)

Itīs really a weird condenser construction... but itīs the best when your condenser is near to the floor: the other ones getīs dusty in a few months and are more difficult to clean.
No need to say that a dirty condenser is a bad heat exchanger!

Buy the way, I have submitted this condenser and another one (with 2 helical towers) to lab tests. They returned almost the same performance (pressures and temperature).

So, I applied the mathematical model of a cilinder externall flow to calculate their heat exchange. The results obtained in the tests and the calculations were very similar. The difference was that the calculated results were lower than the mesured ones.

I think the explanation for this is that the mathematical model donīt "see" the turbulence effect of the ar inside a tower. Iīm still waiting for some good correlation to be used in the project of this kind of condenser!

Thanks again!