Air conditioning systems commonly adopt multipath heat exchangers

which require distributors to guide the two-phase refrigerant to each flow path of heat exchangers uniformly. The gas-liquid two phase refrigerant may separate when it flows through the connecting tubes of distributors with bends

resulting in the deterioration of distribution uniformity. In this study

an optimization method was proposed for changing the traditional single-bending of tubes to the multi-bending of tubes to reduce the degree of separation of the gas-liquid two phase refrigerant. First

the influence of the bending structure factors of the connecting tubes on the distribution uniformity was investigated

including the bending angle

bending radius

and tube diameter. Second

the optimized structural parameters of the bending angle

bending radius

and tube diameter were combined to design an optimized connecting tube for the distributor. Finally

the distribution unevenness was compared between the optimized and original connecting tubes of the distributor. The results from the case studies in this study show that the bending angle is the main influencing factor

and the proposed optimization connecting tube of the distributor with three bends can reduce the distribution unevenness by 64.4% compared with the original one with a single bend.