A roadmap for implementing minichannels in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems: current status and future directions.

The evolution of compact heat exchangers was driven by the needs for reducing their size and weight, and for enhancing the individual component and overall system performance. These needs are also becoming relevant for stationary refrigeration and air-conditioning applications. The reduction in volume and footprint of the systems is foremost in the minds of urban architects, while the reduction in refrigerant charge and enhancement in performance remain important safety and operating considerations. Minichannels provide viable solution to address these concerns and are expected to be wed widely in large as well as small commercial, industrial and residential systems. This paper provides a roadmap for their implementation, with a critical review of the current status of our understanding in this field, recommendations for obtaining fundamental performance data and correlations, and a new configuration for minichannel heat exchangers.