Theoretical and experimental study on ice-slurry use in comfort air-conditioning.

This paper develops a theoretical and experimental study on convective heat transfer characteristics in a mini-channel type air-cooler, operating with ice-slurry. Although ice slurry is usually employed as a secondary fluid in air conditioning systems, this paper investigates its behaviour as a primary fluid. Furthermore, since previous investigations on ice slurry mostly referred to plate heat exchangers, little information is yet available in the literature regarding ice slurry use in mini-channel heat exchangers, this study employed several correlations recommended by the open literature for binary mediums, such as ice-slurry, in order to identify the best fitted correlation in terms of best agreement with the experimental results obtained for the given geometrical configuration of the heat exchanger, ice mass fraction, and specific operating conditions. Besides the theoretical study, the authors have also developed an experimental study and a comparative analysis of theoretical vs. experimental results with respect to the heat transfer coefficient on ice-slurry side as a function of ice mass fraction, of ice-slurry flow rate and air flow rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]