Abstract
Considering the environmental challenges the refrigerant charge minimization is one of the most important targets for refrigerating and air conditioning applications. This paper presents a charge minimization study of transport refrigerator with eutectic plates. It was found that in traditional system significant charge increase in evaporator during the initial stage of pull-down was caused by interaction of thermostatic expansion valve and outlet pressure downstream regulator. For the baseline system (A) the charge increase was ~1 kg, i.e. 25% of total charge. This charge increase may be minimized through implementation of different control systems. Other important factors are the volumes of receiver, heat exchangers and liquid line. Two low-charge refrigerators with different control systems were developed and tested. The charge decrease was 40-50% comparing to baseline systems.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.18.1.1290
Highlights
The first part of this work [1] presented a review of refrigerant charge studies and analysed general strategies of charge reduction
Calculating the refrigerant charge we considered the Ø15×1 two branch evaporator design for baseline system and Ø18×1 serial design for system with electronic expansion valve (EEV)
Such system is very cost-efficient, since the refrigerant charge and energy consumption is decreased without increasing system cost. The objective of this project was to develop two low-charge eutectic refrigerating systems. During the research it was found, that big variation of active refrigerant charge in baseline systems is related to significant increase of refrigerant charge in evaporator at initial stages of pulldown
Summary
The first part of this work [1] presented a review of refrigerant charge studies and analysed general strategies of charge reduction. From the analysis of available experimental data it was found that for low charge system it is advantageous to reduce subcooling in condenser – the charge should just ensure complete condensation. Such system could be the system with high pressure liquid receiver, in which liquid subcooling is not allowed by design. Further the applicability of general charge reduction strategies for refrigerating plant with eutectic system is analyzed together with some aspects specific to low temperature systems. Experimental results obtained for low charge eutectic systems are presented
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