Evaporation behaviors of R32/R1234ze(E) mixtures on a copper surface using molecular dynamics simulations

XX Deng and Y Liu and C Liu, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS IN HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER, 138, 106400 (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2022.106400

As an essential heat transfer mode, evaporation has received much research attention. The evaporation char-acteristics of a mixed refrigerant are greatly affected by the fraction of each component. Hence, it is essential to analyze the effect of the composition of the mixed refrigerants with different mass fractions on evaporation. Here, the evaporation behaviors of R32/R1234ze(E) mixtures with various mass fractions on a copper surface were studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Prior to conducting the evaporation simulation, several thermophysical properties were calculated to verify the reliability of the potential function used in MD simu-lations. Then, the evaporation behaviors of five different R32/R1234ze(E) mixture systems (mass fraction xR32 = 1, 0.67, 0.50, 0.33, 0) on the copper wall were simulated to determine the effect of the composition ratios on the evaporation. The results show that the R32 molecules are easier to evaporate than R1234ze(E), and an increased fraction of R32 increases the evaporation rate of the mixed refrigerant systems. Furthermore, the intermolecular interaction energies were calculated to explain the simulation results. The present study is also helpful for un-derstanding the previous experimental finding that a high mass fraction of R32 can enhance the evaporation heat transfer performance of mixed refrigerants.

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