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.