An Ice Rink Refrigeration System Based on CO2 As Secondary Fluid in Copper Tubes
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
E:369 An Ice Rink Refrigeration System based on CO2 as Secondary Fluid in Copper Tubes by Khuram Shahzad Master of Science Thesis Master Program of Sustainable Energy Engineering 2006 Department of Energy Technology Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden CO2 as Secondary Fluid in a Copper Tube System ABSTRACT This report is a study of the use of copper tubes with CO2 as heat transfer fluid in ice rink applications. Copper tubes can be rolled rather easily up to the required length which decreases installation cost and simplifies the procedure. A test ice rink was built at IUC Ref Centre, Katrineholm with copper tubes. FEMLAB and EES are two softwares that were used for analysis. The comparison between 12.7 mm diameter copper tubes with and without plastic foil cover, 9.5 mm diameter copper tubes with and without plastic foil cover, 21.3 mm diameter steel pipes and 25 mm diameter plastic pipes is presented in the report. The reason to have plastic foil over copper tubes is to avoid the minor risk of chemical corrosion. Furthermore the foil serves as mechanical wear protection as well, which in this case could appear if rubbing would occur due to thermal expansion and contraction. It is found that 12.7 mm copper tube with plastic foil is good choice in terms of heat transfer. At rated heat flux of 100 W/m2 and with a pitch of 100 mm, it is 0.18 oC better than 9.5 mm copper tube with plastic foil. This report includes the investigation which shows that there is no danger of movement of copper tubes inside the rink bed due to thermal expansion and contraction during operation. It also includes the comparison of average Friedel pressure drop model and average homogeneous pressure drop model with experimental results. Average Friedel pressure drop method gave good results. It predicted 20 to 25 % higher pressure drop at lower CR and about 60 % at higher CR than the experimental results for 120 meter long and 12.7 mm diameter copper tubes. 120 meter long copper tubes are good choice; as header can be placed on short side of the ice rink. It will reduce the header length and connections to half. FEMLAB modelling for conduction heat transfer gave good results and can be used as a tool for design and optimization. The optimization of the pitch of the copper tubes and circulation rate of CO2 is also analyzed. This analysis reveals that practically, absolute cost per year does not change much with the change of pitch. It will depend on the interest and conditions to go for smaller pitch than 100 mm. The analysis for optimum circulation rate reveals that there is no practically optimum circulation rate since it is very small degree that we can optimize for. The circulation rate that we should operate at is the one that gives circulation rate more than one at the highest cooling load to avoid dry evaporation It also includes the investigation which shows that thermal conductivities of plastic foil and concrete can be improved to rise to evaporation temperature. 2 CO2 as Secondary Fluid in a Copper Tube System ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Björn Palm and Samer Sawalha at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and Jörgen Rogstam at IUC Ref Centre, Katrineholm for their invaluable help during my thesis work. All of them gave me full support when I needed and gave me push in the right direction. I would also like to thank Per-Olof Nilsson at IUC Ref Centre who helped me in measurements and lab work and also David Sharp and Bengt Julin from Outokumpu Copper Products AB who helped me for the economical statistics of copper tubes. I would also like to say special thanks to the financiers of the project; Katrineholms Kommun, Outokumpu Copper Products AB, Sörmlands Sparbank/Tillväxtbanken and The Swedish Energy Agency. At last I must say thanks to all who did not bother to sacrifice their presence during my thesis work. 3 CO2 as Secondary Fluid in a Copper Tube System CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 6 2 ICE RINK TECHNOLOGY 8 2.1 Types of Ice Rinks 8 2.2 Applications of Ice Rinks 9 2.2.1 Ice Hockey Rink 10 2.2.2 Curling Rink 10 2.2.3 Figure Skating Rink 11 2.2.4 Speed Skating Rink 11 2.2.5 Recreational Skating Rink 12 2.3 Ice Rink Floor Design 12 2.3.1 Preparation of Rink Floor 14 2.3.2 Open or Sand Fill Type Rink Floor 14 2.3.3 Permanent General-Purpose Rink Floor 14 2.3.4 All-Purpose Rink Floor 15 2.3.5 Portable Rink Floor 15 2.4 Refrigeration Systems in Ice Rinks 16 2.4.1 Direct Refrigeration System 17 2.4.2 Indirect Refrigeration System 17 2.5 Heat Loads 17 2.5.1 Conductive Loads 18 2.5.2 Heat Gain to the Piping 18 2.5.3 Heat Gain from Coolant Circulating Pump 18 2.5.4 Ice Surfacing 18 2.5.5 Convective Loads 18 2.5.6 Radiant Loads 19 3 MINIATURE ICE RINK AT IUC REF CENTRE 20 3.1 Miniature Ice Rink Geometry and Layout 20 3.2 Structural Design Analysis 22 3.2.1 Stress Calculation 22 3.2.2 Fatigue Evaluation 24 3.2.3 Conclusion 25 3.3 Experimental Equipment 25 4 THEORETICAL MODELLING AND SIMULATION 28 4.1 Heat Transfer Analysis 28 4.1.1 Conduction Heat Transfer-FEMLAB Modelling 28 4.1.2 Convective Heat Transfer-EES 31 4.1.3 Results and Remarks 31 4.2 Pressure Drop Analysis 37 4 CO2 as Secondary Fluid in a Copper Tube System 5 EXPERIMENTATION 39 5.1 Analysis of Movement of Copper Tubes inside Ice Rink Bed 39 5.1.1 Comparison and Conclusion 40 5.2 Cooling Load of the Ice Rink 41 5.2.1 First Test 42 5.2.2 Second Test 42 5.2.3 Third Test 44 5.2.4 Conclusion 44 5.3 Pressure Drop in 60 Meter Copper Tubes 45 5.3.1 12.7 mm Copper Tubes 45 5.3.2 9.5 mm Copper Tubes 46 5.3.3 Conclusion 48 5.4 Heat Transfer in 60 Meter Copper Tubes 48 5.5 Pressure Drop in 120 Meter Copper Tubes 49 5.5.1 Conclusion 50 5.6 Heat Transfer in 120 Meter Copper Tubes 50 5.7 Conclusion for Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer Analysis 54 6 VERIFICATION OF FEMLAB MODEL 55 7 OPTIMIZATION 56 7.1 Economical Optimization 56 7.1.1 Conclusion 60 7.2 Optimization of Circulation Rate (CR) 61 7.2.1 Conclusion 64 8 POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS 65 8.1 Plastic Foil 65 8.2 Concrete 66 9 CONCLUSION 69 10 REFERENCES 71 APPENDIX I 73 Analysis for Movement of Each Copper Tube inside Rink Bed 73 APPENDIX II 77 EES Model for Convective Heat Transfer inside Copper Tubes 77 EES Model for Average Friedel Pressure Drop 78 EES Model for Average Homogeneous Pressure Drop 79 5 CO2 as Secondary Fluid in a Copper Tube System 1. INTRODUCTION Sustainable energy system is an important topic these days around the world. Sustainability is not being considered only in technical but also in economical aspect. The majority of the energy being used is from non-renewable fossil fuel sources and very small percentage comes from renewable sources. It is not easy task to make an energy system, which is based on non-renewable fossil fuel sources, as a sustainable one because these non-renewable fossil fuel sources may last for few decades. Any system produces or consumes energy must be sustainable in both technical and economical aspect. Ice rinks systems consume a lot of energy and it is a rapidly increasing application. The ice rink refrigeration technology must be optimized technically and economically in such a way that it may become more sustainable. Research and investigations are going on for in this direction. Ice rink refrigeration systems have been working in two ways: first solution is direct expansion system with ammonia or R-22 as refrigerant and second solution is indirect system with calcium chloride, glycol or CO2 as secondary fluid. Direct expansion ammonia system is not allowed for indoor ice rinks because of risk of leakage while R- 22 is practically phased out. Indoor ice rinks are now common due to weather condition, hence indirect system is necessary. The most common heat transfer fluid for indirect system is calcium chloride solution which is pumped in plastic pipe system. Pumping power for such system in full scale is 12 to 15 kW; hence a significant amount of pumping energy is required on a yearly basis. Many ice rinks remain operational 10 to 11 months per year which means that the required annual pumping power is significant [Jörgen Rogstam; 2005]. CO2 is a phase changing fluid and now being used in some ice rink installations in indirect system solutions. Because of its phase changing property, pumping power can be reduced by 90 to 95% compared to the traditional calcium chloride solution [Jörgen Rogstam; 2005]. Due to high pressure, CO2 requires metal pipes instead of plastic. Direct ammonia systems have been made with steel pipes because it has favourable properties which are strength, corrosion resistance and compatibility with concrete. Steel pipes are also used for the systems with CO2 as heat transfer fluid in indirect systems. There are about 15 indirect ice rink systems based on CO2 as heat transfer fluid in Europe.