Effect of Fins spacing on the Performance Evaluation of a Refrigeration System using LPG as Refrigerant

In this paper, experimental analysis was carried out on a vapour compression system by varying the parallel tube condenser fins spacing under the same atmospheric condition in a selected Refrigeration and Air-conditioning laboratory to examine the performance characteristics of the refrigeration system. The fins spacing were 2, 4 and 6 mm using Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as working fluid with a mixture proportion of 17.2% isobutene, 56.4% butane, 24.4% propane. The result shows that the coefficient of performance of the system when working with condenser fins spacing of 2 mm was 28.8 and 35.9% higher compared to when the system worked with the fins spacing of 4 and 6 mm respectively. Energy consumed by the single hermetic compressor when the system worked with condenser fins spacing of 2 mm reduced by 16.4 and 18.7% compared to when the refrigerator worked with fins spacing of 4 and 6 mm respectively. The pull down time of the cooling system was attained in 2 hours 45 minute with minimum evaporator temperature of -13 °C while working with 30 g mass charge of LPG.