Prediction and verification of the thermodynamic performance of vapor–liquid separation condenser

• A program was proposed to predict the thermal performance of the LSC.
• The program was used to optimize the tube pass strategy of the LSC by PF.
• The corresponding experiments were proved the validity of the program.
• Well-designed LSCs could offer better thermodynamic performance.

This paper proposed a computation program to predict the in-tube thermodynamic performance of the LSC (liquid–vapor separation condenser). The refrigerant circuit of the LSC was then optimized using the Penalty Factor with the predicted results. The proposed program was used to calculate a case and an optimized tube pass strategy was obtained under a fixed condition. Higher heat transfer coefficient and lower pressure drop appeared in a number of LSCs compared with an equivalent serpentine condenser under the same operating conditions. To verify the results of the proposed program, a group of corresponding experiments were conducted to measure the heat transfer and pressure drop of the LSC using the optimized circuit strategy. The results from most experimental data demonstrated that both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop fell into the range of ±30%.