Vendor profile
HEAT EXCHANGER SOFTWARE ADVANCES NATURAL REFRIGERANT APPLICATIONS CoilDesigner’s latest upgrades incorporate small-diameter MicroGroove tubing, which supports CO2 and hydrocarbon systems – By Michael Garry
Dennis Nasuta and Cara Martin, Optimized Thermal Systems
IN
any refrigeration, air conditioning or heat pump system, the heat exchanger is where the action is – cooling the air in the evaporator, or heating the air in the condenser or gas cooler. The better the heat exchanger, the more efficient the equipment. Over the past 15 years, the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) has been developing heat exchanger design software called CoilDesigner that enables HVAC&R system designers and heat exchanger engineers to design and simulate heat exchangers that best meet their requirements. The software predicts vital metrics like heattransfer coefficients and pressure drops for refrigerants and air. Since 2009, Optimized Thermal Systems, Inc. (OTS), Beltsville, Md., has held an exclusive license for the software, making custom versions and providing commercial licenses to the industry.
50
Accelerate America October 2015
“CoilDesigner enables you to design a wide variety of heat exchangers,” said Cara Martin, chief operating officer of OTS. “It’s not limited by real-world manufacturing constraints or by refrigeration type. Some designs can’t be manufactured today, but in three to five years you could manufacture them. It’s a tool to push the boundaries and come up with next-generation products.” CoilDesigner has been used to accurately design and simulate heat exchangers using natural refrigerants like CO2 and propane. “We were able to design and build those heat exchangers, test them and find good agreement with the results predicted by the software,” said Dennis Nasuta, engineering manager of simulation for OTS. For example, OTS and others have used CoilDesigner to design heat exchangers using hydrocarbons (such as isobutane) or CO2 for vending machines and cold beverage cases.