A Modeling-Based Flammable Risk Treatment of Refrigerant Leakage from a Commercial R-290 Refrigeration Machine

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Abstract

Because of serious concerns about global warming, manufacturers have started phasing out high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants in commercial refrigeration equipment (e.g., R-134a). As a potential replacement, propane (R-290) is an environmentally friendly refrigerant for commercial refrigeration equipment because its GWP is only three. However, propane is flammable and is therefore classified as a Class A3 refrigerant per ASHRAE Standards, so safety is a very important consideration when propane-based equipment is designed and deployed in buildings. In the event of a refrigerant leak, flammability of the refrigerant depends on the refrigerant’s local concentration, which is highly affected by the indoor air environment, including temperature and air flow. In this study, a ventilation system attached to a commercial R-290 refrigeration device was designed to eliminate the flammability risk. Moreover, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to investigate the refrigerant leak, thereby evaluating effects of the ventilation system. The CFD model can visualize the flammable zones owing to the leak.

Original languageEnglish
Article number53
JournalInventions
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2024

Keywords

  • CFD modeling
  • flammable refrigerant leaking
  • low GWP refrigerants
  • risk assessment

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