Simulation and experimental validation of a helical coil used as condenser in a heat pump for domestic water heating in a tank

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

Although the use of helical coils are widely used in engineering applications for heating and cooling production there is little information available about their thermal behavior. The purpose of this work was to simulate the behavior of a helical coil used as condenser in a heat pump for domestic hot water heating in a tank. The simulation was carried out by developing a mathematical model. The mathematical model was implemented in a computer program. The program results were validated against the experimental results obtained by using an experimental set-up. In the paper the mathematical model is detailed, the experimental setup and the experimental procedure are described and the results are presented and discussed.