Thermo-Fluids

• Applications of Bio fuels in IC engines
• Experimental fluid mechanics
• Natural fluids refrigeration
• Micro hydro turbines
• Micro channel heat sink
• Solar thermal energy applications
• Phase change materials heat sink
• Vacuum Distillation
• Adsorption Refrigeration

Members

• Dr. Taqi Ahmad Cheema
• Dr. Muhammad Asif
• Dr. Ahmad Abbas

GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in collaboration with Isotherm Inc., USA has established the Natural Fluids Refrigeration Center (NFRC) to provide refrigeration solutions on a global scale. The NFRC seeks to accomplish its mandate by providing the industry with continuing improvement in refrigeration processes. The Center offers world class research and analytical services to industry, academia, private and government organizations. The NFRC is one of the unique research centers that has been actively conducting research on thermal hydraulic characteristics of high efficiency heat exchangers using natural refrigerants. Primary goal of the Center is to work on new and innovative techniques related to natural refrigerants and their effective use in refrigeration systems. The Center has a team of highly qualified researchers and well-trained technical staff with advanced equipment. The Center collaborates with universities, institutes and companies from around the world that are interested in the core subject.

Mission Statement

To conduct applied and fundamental research, both short and long term, and provide consultancy and analytical services to worldwide industry in the areas of Process Heat Transfer, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning related challenges.

The Team

• Zahid Ayub, PhD, P.E., Fellow ASME, Fellow ASHRAE, President Isotherm, Inc., USA—Founder
• Ahmad Abbas, PhD, Assistant Professor—Director
• Taqi Ahmad Chema, PhD, Assistant Professor

The Center embarked its activities with the ASHRAE funded project entitled “Evaporation in Flooded Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers with Ammonia and Ammonia/Miscible Oil (RP-1352)” which was successfully completed resulting in a doctoral thesis. The main objective of the project was to experimentally investigate  thermo-hydraulic characteristics of a commercial chevron plate heat exchanger in single and two phase applications with and without lubricant effects and develop generalized correlations for heat transfer coefficient and friction factor.

The Facility

The Center has been established with the view to provide an experimental facility for the industry with a goal to perform detailed analysis of problems and challenges. The modular design of the test facility at NFRC provides operational flexibility and control of experimental parameters. The facility has been so designed that condensation and evaporation heat transfer experiments could be carried with minor changes in the set up. Therefore, several types of experiments could be easily conducted for different refrigerants on different types of heat exchangers in single and two phase applications.

The NFRC serves as a research and development hub covering all aspects of refrigeration technology, i.e., compressors, heat exchangers, controls, piping, novel materials and metallurgy. It also concentrates on the environmental issues related to the region and the world. The Center coordinates with different International Institutes and technical societies that has common goals.

Completed Projects

• Evaporation in Flooded Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers with Ammonia and Ammonia/Miscible Oil.
• Shell Side Direct Expansion Evaporation of Ammonia on Plain Tube Bundle with Inlet Quality and Exit Superheat Effects.

Current Projects

• Experimental investigation of ultra-low charge vertical shell and tube ammonia flooded and direct expansion evaporator with special enhanced tubes (Sponsored by Isotherm, Inc. USA and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan)
• Experimental pressure drop analysis of a vertical shell and tube segmental baffle exchanger with up flow and down flow (Sponsored by Isotherm, Inc. USA)
• Experimental study of heat transfer and pressure drop with left and right turn twisted tape insert in laminar and transition region (Sponsored by Isotherm, Inc., USA and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan)

Publications:

1. Ahmad Abbas, Zahid Ayub, Adnan Ayub and Javed Chattha, “Shell side direct expansion evaporation of ammonia on a plain tube bundle with inlet quality effect in the presence of exit superheat”, International Journal of Refrigeration, 82, pp. 11-21, 2017.
2. Ahmad Abbas, Zahid Ayub, Adnan Ayub, Tariq Saeed and Javed Chattha, “Shell side plain tube bundle performance of a multi-pass direct expansion evaporation of ammonia at various degrees of exit superheat”, International Journal of Refrigeration, 78, pp. 70-82, 2017.
3. Zahid Ayub, Ahmad Abbas, Adnan Ayub, Tariq Saeed and Javed Chattha, “Shell side direct expansion evaporation of ammonia on a plain tube bundle with exit superheat effect”, International Journal of Refrigeration, 76, pp. 126-135, 2017.
4. Ahmad Abbas, Zahid Ayub, Adnan Ayub, Tariq Saeed and Javed Chattha, “A review of correlations for outside evaporation of ammonia in shell and tube heat exchangers”, Heat Transfer Engineering, 2017.
5. Ahmad Abbas and Zahid Ayub, “Experimental study of ammonia flooded boiling on a triangular pitch plain tube bundle”, Applied Thermal Engineering, 121, 484-491, 2017.
6. T.S. Khan, M.S. Khan and Z.H. Ayub, “Single Phase Flow Pressure Drop Analysis of a Plate Heat Exchanger”, Journal of Heat Transfer Engineering, 38(2), 256-264, 2017.
7. Tariq S. Khan, Mohammad S. Khan, Zahid H. Ayub,  “Experimental investigation of single phase heat transfer in a plate heat exchanger”,  Journal of thermal science and engineering applications, Vol. 7, issue 4, 2015
8. T. S. Khan, M. S. Khan, M. C. Chyu, and Z. H. Ayub. “Ammonia Evaporation in a Mixed Configuration Chevron Plate Heat Exchanger with and without Miscible Oil” International Journal of Refrigeration 51, pp.120-134, 2015.
9. Mohammad S. Khan, Tariq S. Khan, Ming-C. Chyu, Zahid H. Ayub, “Evaporation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Ammonia in a Mixed Configuration Chevron Plate Heat Exchanger” Int. J. of Refrigeration, Volume 41, May 2014, Pages 92-102.
10. Zahid Ayub, Sultan M. Khan, Amir Jokar,  Tariq S. Khan  and Neil Hayes,  “Recent Developments in Plate Exchangers – Ammonia/Carbon Dioxide Cascade Condensers, Int. j. Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol. 34, issue 5-6, 2013, pp. 401 – 408
11. Mohammad S. Khan, Tariq S. Khan, Ming-C. Chyu, Zahid H. Ayub,  “Experimental investigation of evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop of ammonia in a 30° chevron plate heat exchanger”  International Journal of Refrigeration,  Vol. 35, Issue 6, Sept.  2012, Pages 1757-1765.
12. Tariq S. Khan, Mohammad S. Khan, Ming-C. Chyu, Zahid H. Ayub, “Experimental Investigation of Evaporation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Ammonia in a 60 Chevron Plate Heat Exchanger”, International Journal of Refrigeration, Volume 35, Issue 2, March 2012, Pages 336-348.
13. T.S. Khan, M.S. Khan, Ming-C. Chyu, Z.H. Ayub, 2010, “Experimental investigation of single phase convective heat transfer coefficient in a corrugated plate heat exchanger for multiple plate configurations”, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 30(8-9), pp. 1058-1065.
14. Tariq S. Khan, Mohammad S. Khan, Zahid H. Ayub, Ming-C. Chyu and Javed A. Chattha, 2009, “Review of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Correlations for Evaporation of Fluid Flow in Plate Heat Exchangers (RP-1352)”, HVAC&R Research, Vol. 15(2), pp. 169-188.