Traçability of refrigerant leak tightness

Isabelle Morgado (1) , Pierre Otal (1) , Jean-Claude Legras (1) , Denis Clodic (2)

1 LCM - Laboratoire commun de métrologie LNE-CNAM
2 CEP - Centre Énergétique et Procédés

Nowadays leak detection is widely used in various fields such as the automotive and the refrigeration industries. In France, the leak tightness of installations charged with refrigerants must be controlled periodically by refrigerant detectors, whose sensitivity thresholds are qualified according to several tests described in the European standard EN 14624. The tests described in the European standard are mainly a comparison between the detector signals and several appropriate calibrated leaks. In order to ensure the traceability of the calibrated leak flow rates, a project involving the Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (LNE), the Centre d'Energétique et des Procédés (CEP) and the Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (ADEME) was carried out to develop a national standard for calibrating R-134a leaks which are used in the tests. Besides, to ensure the fidelity of the sensitivity threshold measurements, a study has been carried out to identify the potential influence parameters. This document presents the national standard and the conclusions of this study.

Mots clés: refrigerant gas; leak detector; leak flow rate

Domaines: Génie des procédés

Isabelle Morgado, Pierre Otal, Jean-Claude Legras, Denis Clodic. Traçability of refrigerant leak tightness. XIX IMEKO World Congress Fundamental and Applied Metrology, Sep 2009, Lisbon, Portugal. pp.1407-1412. ⟨hal-00576012⟩