Abstract
A two-dimensional numerical study on non-absorbable gas behavior in the absorber/evaporator of an absorption chiller has been performed. In the present study, the effect of the pitch-to-diameter ratio of a cylinder bundle in the absorber was highlighted. From the results, a sudden decrease of the overall heat transfer coefficient of the absorber was observed at a certain mean concentration of non-absorbable gas for each pitch-to-diameter ratio. Such a critical concentration was also found to decrease as the pitch-to- diameter ratio increased. The sudden decrease occurs due to the sudden disappearance of recirculating region, which is formed between the absorber and the evaporator, and where most of non-absorbable gas stays when it exists. As the pitch-to-diameter ratio increases, the recirculating region becomes weak because the velocity of the high velocity region supporting the recirculating flow decreases. Then, the critical mean concentration of non-absorbable gas is found to decrease as pitch-to-ratio increases.
