Experimental investigation on the effect of mixing length on the performance of two-phase ejector for CO2 refrigeration cycle with and without heat exchanger

In ejector system using the promising natural refrigerant CO2, the mixing of high-speed two-phase primary flow and suction vapor is crucial in designing an efficient ejector. In this study, the effect of mixing length on ejector system performance was analyzed experimentally. The mixing lengths used were 5 mm, 15 mm, and 25 mm, with constant rectangular cross-section. The experiments were performed for both ejector and conventional expansion systems with and without internal heat exchanger (IHX) at different operating conditions. Based on the experimental results, mixing length had significant effect on entrainment ratio and on magnitude and profile of pressure recovery. The 5 mm and 15 mm types yielded the lowest and highest ejector efficiency and COP in all of the conditions used in this research, respectively. The use of IHX had net positive effect on system performance which verified the results of our previous study. A COP improvement of up to 26% over conventional system was obtained but improper sizing of mixing length lowered the COP by as much as 10%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.