The Pumping Up Phenomenon of Double-Stage Bubble Pump with Water and Aqueous LiBr Solution

Abstract

The double-stage bubble pump, using thermal energy as driving force to transport the solution, can replace the mechanical solution pump in the double-effect lithium bromide absorption chiller. By building a bench, a lot of experimental research and analysis were conducted with water and different concentrations of lithium bromide solution as the working fluid of the bubble pump. The first-stage bubble pump in the experiment pumps up by the external heat source. The heat for driving the second-stage bubble pump is provided by refrigerant steam produced from the first-stage bubble pump. The experiment data shows that the heating of refrigerant vapor is only one of the elements of pump-up phenomenon. Another is that the intermediate solution flashes to vapor to become bubbles. The pump-up phenomenon of double-stage bubble pump has much to do with the pressure difference of intermediate solution and first-stage refrigerant vapor. With water as the working fluid, when the pressure difference between refrigerant vapor and the intermediate liquefied refrigerant is 3.5-3.9 kPa, the bubble pump can pump up and run for some time and the start-up time decreases with the driving head. When the working fluid is lithium bromide solution, the pressure difference of the double-stage bubble pump increases with the solution concentration and is bigger than that of water. The start-up time increases with the concentrations of lithium bromide solution within the range of 45.5 to 54% and decreases within the range of 54-59.5%. The start-up time is largest at 54% under this experimental condition. The experimental result is also compared with the single-stage bubble pump. The start-up time of double-stage bubble pump decreases with the driving height, which is contrary to the single-stage bubble pump.