Fundamentals of Cooling

Berkeley Lab’s Global Cooling Program conducts experimental and theoretical research to explore and understand the fundamentals of the cooling systems such as detailed physics of heat transfer and transport processes for vapor compression systems and components.

The main objective of this area is to maximize cooling system energy efficiency and enable next generation refrigerants, while at the same time minimizing system cost. 

Industry Tools

We use industry-standard design tools, such as CoilDesigner and VapCyc, to conduct heat exchanger design simulation and component-level system optimization. Computational fluid dynamics is used to improve the airflow behavior of the key air conditioner components, such as fan blades or fins of a heat exchanger.

In addition, low-GWP refrigerants typically tend to be flammable or mildly flammable. Our research also covers leak risk assessment, which helps us to understand the limits on flammable refrigerants charge and mitigate the fire risk.  

Meanwhile, we work with industry partners to make low-cost high-efficiency prototype designs. Our work aims to help small and medium manufacturers improve their R&D capability during the low-GWP refrigerant transition. 

The Cooling Efficiency Research Program’s Fundamentals of Cooling research area investigates:

• Vapor Compression Systems and Components
• Heat Exchanger Design
• Fan Blade Design
• Separate Sensible and Latent Cooling
• Flammable refrigerant leak risk assessment
• Flame radiation and fire simulation
• Airflow distribution modelling
• Anti-corrosion Technology