Influence of two-phase suction injection on performances of the scroll refrigeration compressor with a high-temperature shell

Abstract

The two-phase suction injection can reduce the discharge temperature of scroll refrigeration compressors, which work under a high-pressure ratio. The heat transfer along the pipe axis from the shell affects the two-phase suction injection significantly for the compressor with a high-temperature shell. In this paper, the suction mixing and heat transfer model was developed to calculate the heat transfer along the pipe axis from the high-temperature compressor shell. Then the model was coupled with the two-phase compressor model to obtain the compressor performance under different suction injection volume flow rates. The compressor with two-phase suction injection was tested under different injection volume flow rates to validate the model. The results indicated that the discharge temperature decreased by 2 °C when the mass injection ratio increased by 1%. As the injection volume flow rates increased, the total mass flow rate increased due to the reduction of the specific volume of the suction fluid; the input work decreased because of the reduction of specific work and the improvement of the motor's electric efficiency. The cooling capacity decreased since the cooling capacity of the injection refrigerant was wasted for cooling the suction process and the compressor shell, especially at high injection volume flow rates. The coefficient of performance reached the maximum value at the injection volume flow rate of 0.015 m3·h−1 and became lower than the coefficient of performance without injection when the injection volume flow rate raised to 0.035 m3·h−1. Hence, the two-phase suction injection can reduce the discharge temperature efficiently at low injection volume flow rates with a slight improvement of coefficient of performance.