Experimental investigation on mass flow characteristics of R245fa through electronic expansion valve

Highlights: • The mass flow rate characteristics of R245fa through EEVs are studied experimentally. • Two empirical correlations for mass flow rate prediction are proposed. • Polynomial fit correlation gives a better agreement with experimental data compared to that of power-law correlation. • Relative deviations of polynomial fit correlation are within 10%. - Abstract: In this paper, the mass flow rate characteristics of R245fa refrigerant flowing through electronic expansion valves (EEV) under varying operating conditions are studied experimentally. It is found that the mass flow rate increases with increasing EEV opening, condensing temperature, subcooling temperature, and orifice diameter. Based on the measured experimental data, two empirical correlations for mass flow rate prediction of R245fa through EEVs are proposed using the power-law correlation and the polynomial fit correlation. Predicted data of the polynomial fit method showed more consistency with the experimental results compared to that of power-law correlation, and 96.6% of the predicted mass flow rates deviate from the experimental data within ±10%.