Entropy generation during flow boiling of pure refrigerant and refrigerant–oil mixture

Abstract Optimization of evaporators in refrigeration systems, for instance, can be conducted using entropy generation as a criterion. The latter can be used for choosing a technology (smooth tubes, enhanced tubes, tube diameter, etc) or selecting a fluid. Once this optimization is performed, the refrigerant charge can be evaluated. In this paper, different entropy generation expressions are presented for a diabatic two-phase flow of a pure refrigerant and a refrigerant–oil mixture. These expressions are developed based on the separated flow model. Depending on the boundary conditions, the equations are different and the conclusions differ from one to the other. It is shown that for a heat flux condition at the tube wall, the use of enhanced tubes is recommended at low mass velocities whereas, the use of smooth tubes is better at higher mass velocities. On the contrary, for a constant wall temperature, the use of enhanced tubes is always better than smooth tubes. The role of oil is also emphasized. The higher the oil concentration in the refrigerant, the higher the entropy generation.