Online Measurement of Oil Concentrations of R134a–Oil Mixtures with a Density Flowmeter

A very high accuracy, straight vibrating tube type of density flow meter has been used online to measure oil concentraiton of flowing R-134a/oil mixtures. The calibrations covered oil concentrations from 0-6 wt.% oil over the temperature range from -9.4 to 5.9°C. The oil concentrations were correlated statistically as a function of density, temperature and liquid compressibility to an average error of 0.09 wt.% oil with a 95% confidence limit of 0.21 wt.% oil. In addition, a simplified method not requiring calibration tests was developed for general industrial application of the density flowmeter to any refrigerant-oil mixture combination, with an average error of 0.22 wt.% oil and 95% confidence limit of 0.67 wt.% oil for the present data set.