Document mBE795aYdjm4BMg4pbzBBx8KZ

896 CHAPTER 35 1958 Guide loads, is also minimized. This is especially valuable for outside air pre heaters. Water Coils The performance of water coils, for heating or cooling, depends on the elimination of air from the system and proper distribution of water. Air elimination is taken care of in the system piping as described in Chapter 21. To assure a pressure drop sufficient for adequate distribution, but at the same time to provide against excessive pumping head where large water quantities are handled, water coils are provided with various water circuit Wzt> outlet | Air Heating and Cooling Coils 897 sion valve system depends upon the thermal valve automatically feeding just as much liquid to the coils as is required to maintain the superheat at the coil suction outlet within predetermined limits, which vary from about 6 to 10 deg. The thermal valve arrangement is in common use for the type of coils covered by this chapter, while the flooded system is rarely used. With the flooded system the refrigerant distribution through the tubes depends on properly selecting the length of the feeds, and the head of liquid imposed upon the liquid inlets. No auxiliary distributing devices are re quired. With the thermal valve system, there are two factors to consider. There must be, generally, more than one refrigerant feed through the. coil per thermal valve to keep the pressure drop through the refrigerant circuit within practical limits, and to reduce the corresponding penalty in increased Water mitt) 12-arcwts Fig. 2. Various Water Circuit Arrangements arrangements. For instance, a typical coil 18 tubes high and 6 tubes deep in the direction of air flow can be arranged for 6, 9, 18, 24, or 36 parallel water circuits, as conditions may require. Orifices in individual tubes are occasionally employed, but are usually unnecessary as the resistance of individual water circuits is generally sufficient to effect a satisfactory distri bution. In precooling coils using well water, where there may be consider able sand and other foreign matter in the water, provision for cleaning of individual tubes is of advantage. It is important to arrange water coils for complete drainage (see Fig. 2). The drains are usually provided in the water piping at the coil header. Direct-Expansion Coils Coils for volatile refrigerants present more complex problems of fluid distribution than do water, brine or steam. It is desirable that the coil be effectively and uniformly cooled throughout, and necessary that the compressor be protected from entrained, unevaporated refrigerant. There are two types, namely, flooded systems, and thermal expansion valve sys tems, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In a flooded coil, the circulation is similar to that in a water tube boiler. The liquid is maintained at the proper level by the action of a float regulator as shown in Fig. 3. The thermal expan- Fig. 3. Direct-Expansion Coii, with Flooded System Fig. 4. Direct-Expansion Coil with Thermal Valve System evaporating temperature. At the same time the coil must be so arranged that the required suction superheat can be attained with a minimum sacri fice in the performance of the coil as a whole. It is general practice to attain this superheat within the coil itself, and not by the use of external heat exchangers or other auxiliary devices. With thermal expansion valves it is advantageous to keep the pressure drop through the refrigerant feeds as low as possible. The feeds are laid out to expose each to the same mean temperature difference so that it handles the same refrigerating load. Here, a distributing means is imposed between valve and coil liquid inlets to divide the refrigerant equally among the feeds. Such a distributor must be effective for distributing both liquid and vapor, because the entering refrigerant is a mixture of the two. Fig. 5 shows three typical types of distributors. In distributor A the liquid and gas mixture from the thermal valve is led tangentially into a chamber. coil feed connections extend outward radially at the top of this chamber. In distributor B the refrigerant is discharged at a high velocity through a central jet against the end plate, forming a uniform mixture of ^ wr ^Quid within the distributor, from which individual connections are led as shown. In type C the refrigerant enters at high velocity from vid i?18! va^ve and is discharged against the end plug in which the indi in "ti hquid feeds are closely arranged. These distributors can be used h ar) 6r vertical or horizontal position. There are also other types of neF18 35 centrifugal and weir type. The individual liquid con- ctions from the distributor to the coil inlet are commonly made of small .ameter tubing, and are all of the same length and diameter in order to pose the same friction between the distributor and the coil. Since the