The impact of fouling on the condenser of a vapor compression refrigeration system: An experimental observation

• Experiments are performed by blocking the air passage to simulate performance degradation.
• The change in both system and performance parameters are presented.
• The variations with respect to heat exchanger degradation are found to be logarithmic.
• This logarithmic variation is shown to be connected to theory of phase-change heat exchangers.
• Comparison with other works shows a consistent behavior for both properties and system parameters.

In this paper, an experimental study on the nature of the effects of condenser fouling on some performance characteristics and properties of a simple vapor compression system is presented. This is performed by gradually blocking the condenser air passage and measuring the change in condenser pressure, superheat temperature at the compressor exit, compressor power consumption and COP. The room temperature is kept at approximately 21 °C while the ambient temperature is at 31.6 °C with R22 as the cycle refrigerant. The variation in the above-mentioned quantities is found to be logarithmic in nature and this is connected to heat exchanger theory for phase change processes. Comparison with other works is also done and a consistent behavior is concluded for both properties as well as performance parameters.