Research

ACRC faculty members and their research associates cover a wide range of topics in the ACRC projects related to thermal management and energy conversion systems:

  • Thermophysical and Transport Properties: viscosity, conductivity, surface tension, VLE data for pure & blended refrigerants, lubricants and lubricant/refrigerant mixtures
  • Processes:
    • Air and refrigerant-side heat transfer & pressure drop measurements and correlations
    • Two-phase flow characterization (heat transfer, pressure drop, void fraction, flow regimes, visualizations)
    • Improved refrigerant distribution
    • Mass transfer
    • High-speed flow visualization and IR thermography, optical and IR microscopy
    • Frosting (fundamentals, HX frosting, frost retention & defrosting, …)
    • Control systems & algorithm development, capacity modulation strategies
    • Tribology
    • Oil separation, management & circulation
    • Refrigerant charge: modeling, reduction, migration, etc.
    • Novel materials
    • 3D printed HX
    • Acoustics and vibration
    • Surfaces (hydrophilic & hydrophobic morphology and coatings, surface enhancements (microgrooves and fins), fouling, corrosion, anti-bacterial coatings
  • Components: evaporators, condensers, gas coolers, internal heat exchangers, economizers, RTPF, microchannel, BPHX, passive & active expansion devices, ejectors and their control, work & heat recovery, insulation
  • Systems: vapor compression-based and not in kind: for refrigeration, air-conditioning, heat pumps with all related system issues: controls, transients, etc.
  • Applications: mobile (automotive HVAC and transport refrigeration), aerospace and naval VCS, residential (air-conditioning and heat pump systems), domestic refrigerators and freezers, commercial refrigeration, ORC, thermal storage, defense HVAC&R, etc.
  • Refrigerants: natural (CO2, HC, air, water, NH3) and synthetic low-GWP HFOs, blends, single-phase heat transfer fluids and indirect (secondary loops), etc.