A general and simple ‘‘deterministic” model of a refrigeration condenser is presented. The model assumes
that the condenser can be divided into three distinct zones on the refrigerant side: the vapour de-superheating
zone, the two-phase zone and the sub-cooled liquid zone.
The model inputs are the air supply temperature, the air mass flow rate, the refrigerant supply temperature
(or the over-heating), the exhaust sub-cooling and the refrigerant mass flow rate. The model is able
to identify the pressures and temperatures in each zone and the corresponding heat flows. The model also
gives the geometrical repartition among the zones and the pressure drop on air-side.
The condenser model is validated with a total of 183 tests. Testing conditions cover a very wide
domain, including pressures up to 40 bars with refrigerant R134a. The model is able to predict with a
probability of 95% the condenser supply pressure within a confidence interval of +0.5 and 0.1 bar.