Air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers (HXs) are fundamental components in HVAC&R systems, and considerable research has focused on reducing size and weight while improving efficiency.
Recent advancements in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and optimization algorithms have allowed researchers to employ tube shape and topology optimization to design high performance HXs with reduced size, weight, cost, and refrigerant charge compared to current state-of-the-art HXs while maintaining or improving system-level performance, thereby reducing overall environmental impact.

This is especially important given governmen ...