REFRIGERANT OUTGASSING FROM COMPRESSOR LUBRICANT OIL FLOWING TROUGH PIPES

摘要

The interaction between the refrigeration oil and the refrigerant working fluid is relevant to several phenomena occurring inside refrigerating systems. Regarding the refrigeration cycle, good miscibility of oil and refrigerant assure easy return of circulating oil to the compressor through the reduction of the oil viscosity. Inside the compressor the lubricant is mainly used for leakage sealing, cooling of hot elements and lubrication of sliding parts. In the compressor bearing systems the presence of refrigerant dissolved in the oil greatly influences the performance and reliability of the compressor due to the outgassing experienced by sudden changes in temperature and pressure resulting in a two-phase mixture with density and viscosity strongly affecting the lubricant characteristics. A general understanding of the oil-refrigerant mixture flow is crucial in developing lubrication models to be used in analysis and simulation of fluid mechanics problems inside the compressor. In the present investigation the refrigeration oil flow with refrigerant outgassing is explored experimentally. A mixture of oil saturated with refrigerant is forced to flow in two straight horizontal tubes of constant diameter. One tube is used for flow visualization and the other is instrumented for pressure and temperature measurements. At the tubes inlet liquid state prevails and as flow proceeds the pressure drop reduces the gas solubility in the oil and outgassing occurs. Initially small bubbles are observed and eventually the bubble population reaches a stage where foaming flow is observed. Pressure and temperature distributions are measured along the flow and from that mixture quality and void fraction were estimated. The flow visualization allowed identification of the two-phase flow regimes experienced by the mixture and the applicability of some flow regime maps was verified.