Frozen mackerel flesh was subjected to measurement of its fracture stress (bending energy) in a low temperature range. The optimum conditions for low temperature cutting, "cryo cutting," were estimated from the results of enthalpy changes measured by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC).
There were two enthalpy changes for gross transition on the DSC chart for mackerel, one was at -63°C to -77°C and the other at -96°C to -112°C. Thus we estimated that mackerel was able to cut by bending below -63°C and that there would be a great decrease in bending energy occurring at around -77°C and -112°C.
In testing, there were indeed two great decreases of bending energy for the test pieces of mackerel that had been frozen at -40°C, one was at -70°C to -90°C and the other was at -100°C to -120°C. Therefore, the test pieces of mackerel could be cut by bending at -70°C. The results showed that the DSC measurement of mackerel flesh gave a good estimation of the appropriate cutting temperature of mackerel.

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In the present study, an effective thermal conductivity of the packed bed of an adsorbent including water was measured experimentally by using the transient hot wire method in temperature range from about -40°C to room temperature. Zeolite particle and activated carbon particle were employed as the adsorbent. The water included in the adsorbent was classified to three kinds; namely, the adsorbed water in the adsorption site with a nanometer order in particle, the osmosis water existing in gap with lager size than the adsorption site and the free water around particle. The measurement was performed with changing the mass ratio of adsorbed water and osmosis water and was also performed for the particle filled by the free water. As the results, the effective thermal conductivity of the packed bed increased with the increase of temperature except the case containing free water. In zeolite, the effective thermal conductivity of the packed bed of particles with adsorbed water became bigger than that of the desorbed particle about 10% though the adsorbed water was trapped in the adsorption site as a single molecular in zeolite particle. In activated carbon, the effective thermal conductivity was larger than that of desorbed particle about 20%. Next, in the packed bed of particle with the osmosis water, the effective thermal conductivity indicated about two times of that of particle with the adsorbed water. In the packed bed of particle filled by free water, the effective thermal conductivity increased suddenly under 0°C. It is considered that the thermal conductivity of ice affected seriously to the effective thermal conductivity because ice was the continuous phase in the bed.

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This paper presents a prediction method of flow regimes during evaporation of pure refrigerants in a horizontal spirally grooved steel tube with 12mm in average inner diameter. Circumferential temperature distributions on the external surface of the tube and boiling heat transfer coefficients were obtained through the experiments on the flow boiling heat transfer using two kinds of fluorocarbon refrigerants, HCFC123 and HCFC22. Based on the temperature distributions and the characteristics of heat transfer coefficient against vapor quality, we discussed the conditions of liquid film formed on the heat transfer surface. The experimental data were classified into four kinds of flow regimes according to the viewpoint on the liquid film conditions and heat transfer characteristics: annular flow, annular flow with liquid meniscus, separated flow with liquid meniscus and separated flow with dry surface. In order to predict the transition quality from separated flow to annular flow, we developed the correlation for border angle of well-wetted perimeter for the present grooved tube based on the Mori et al. correlation proposed for smooth tubes. The correlation for the transitional quality between separated flow with dry surface and separated flow with liquid meniscus was developed empirically as well as the correlation for the transient transitional quality between annular flow and annular flow with liquid meniscus.

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A semiconductor-manufacturing plant operates for long hours throughout the year. Clean rooms require air-conditioning year-round. To reduce the chilled water pumping power, we implemented two techniques: 1) implementing the adjustable control of water flow based on heat load, and 2) adding a surfactant. It is well known that a drag reduction effect can be obtained by adding a drag reduction additive. The air-conditioning system performance was immediately lowered after a drag-reducing additive charge in a short period. We explained the mechanism of degraded heat transfer performance , devised a countermeasure to minimize the adverse effect caused by the problem, and successfully reduced the pumping power . The annual energy-saving amount reached 2.1 x 10⁶ kWh, which is corresponding to reduction effect at 50.8% compared with the conventional system.

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The cogeneration system provides electricity as well as heating and cooling, which consequently leads to a complexity of the design and operation of the system. It requires, therefore, the optimization of parameters such as the number of machines and the capacity of equipment. Generally, the problem can be expressed as a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, and a lot of efforts would be required to solve it.
In this paper, we present a different approach to the optimization of cogeneration systems, which facilitates to find a quasi-optimum solution. The particle swarm optimization combined with a simulation of the system is applied to the minimization of the primary energy consumption and of the system cost. The results present the optimum system constitutions for medium- and large-sized buildings. The result of the system cost minimization under a constraint of the energy saving rate is also discussed.

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Mass absorption rate of ammonia vapor into ammonia water solution is investigated experimentally, by feeding a superheated ammonia vapor into a test cell to be absorbed into stagnant pool of ammonia water solution with an initial mass concentration of Ci = 0.0 to 0.63 kg/kg. The flowing of the ammonia vapor is due to a pressure difference of ΔP = 50 to 300 kPa between the ammonia vapor cylinder and the pressure of the test cell. The main objectives are, to investigate the effect of initial pressure difference on the absorption rate of ammonia vapor and to develop an equation which predicts the total absorbed mass of ammonia with initial pressure difference, initial concentration and time. The experiment shows that the total absorbed mass of ammonia linearly increases with increasing initial pressure difference. A correlation can be proposed to yield the total absorbed mass of ammonia measured in the experiment. In addition, the absorbed mass at no pressure difference, namely free absorption, could be estimated from the absorbed mass at initial pressure difference.

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In this study, a new method of ice slurry formation was proposed, and the related phenomena were investigated. In the method, ethanol solution, as thermal storage material, evaporates on a low-pressure condition, and the remained solution is cooled and frozen due to the latent heat of evaporation. It is necessary to clarify a behavior of ethanol solution during ice production, and estimate the COP of this method for practical use. Thus, the relationship between concentration of ethanol solution and of the vapor, which is evaporated from it, was measured. Using this relationship, the COP was estimated. As the results, it was found that the difference in concentration between the solution and the vapor increases as the concentration of the solution increases. It was also found that the COP is affected by the concentration of the solution, the temperature in condenser and the type of freezing point depressant. Since the estimated COP is so high, it can be said that this method has advantage for producing ice.

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An important issue in heat pumps is increasing their efficiency, in order to achieve a significant optimization for heat exchangers. Techniques to simulate the flow length averaged heat transfer coefficient and static pressure drop through the flow passage are presented in this paper. In addition, an analytical evaluation of the cost reduction for a cross-fined tube heat exchanger of outdoor heat pump units is instantiated.
The dimensionless factors, Colburn's factor j and Fanning's friction factor f, express the heat transfer performance and frictional characteristics, as a function of Reynolds number. These depend on slit possession, an original parameter used in this study. Further, this paper describes an approximate expression of the fin efficiency, which can be used for to survey the fin parameters. The above three concepts were necessary to forecast the performance on the airside. In the results, the cost minimum point was obtained with a comparable performance.

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