Modeling and experimental investigation of accumulators for automotive air conditioning systems

A stream analysis model was developed to simulate the behavior of accumulators and their influence on the automotive air conditioning (A/C) systems. It allows a comprehensive steady state simulation with a set of input conditions such as refrigerant vapor mass flow rate and pressure at the inlet of an accumulator. In this study, the refrigerant/oil mixture is R134a/PAG oil which are totally miscible, but could be any air conditioning refrigerant/oil, including carbon dioxide (CO₂)/oil. The model accounts for all major effects inside the accumulator, such as friction, bends, sudden expansion, sudden contraction and heat exchange. The outputs are vapor quality, pressure and temperature at various positions of accumulator. In order to verify the mathematical model, experiments are performed in an experimental setup made up of real size automotive air conditioning components. The simulated results agree well with the experimental data. The simulation and experimental results show an important function of accumulators that is to determine the vapor quality into compressor, and thus has influence on the performance of whole automotive A/C systems.     

A complex investigation of the nanofluids R600а-mineral oil-AL2O3 and R600а-mineral oil-TiO2. Thermophysical properties

This paper presents experimental data for the density, solubility, viscosity and capillary constant for solutions of the natural refrigerant isobutane (R600a) with mineral compressor oil and nanoparticles Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ over a wide range of temperatures and concentrations. Based on obtained information for the capillary constant, the surface tension of the solutions isobutane/mineral oil/Al₂O₃ nanoparticles and isobutane/mineral oil/TiO₂ nanoparticles is determined. SP-QSPR (Scaling Principles–Quantitative Structure Property Relationship) model has been successfully applied for fitting the experimental data obtained for solutions of isobutane with mineral compressor oil and nanoparticles Al₂O₃ and TiO₂. It was shown that the nanoparticle additives lead to increase of the viscosity and reduce surface tension of the refrigerant/oil solutions.     

Oil mass fraction measurement of CO2/PAG mixture

In this study, a method of using a capacitance sensor was investigated as a means to measure the mass fraction of a type of PAG oil flowing with CO₂ in a transcritical cycle. The test facility equipped with the capacitance sensor was fabricated to establish and maintain a known oil mass fraction and to measure the capacitance of the CO₂/oil mixture. By using this facility, the relationship among three parameters (reduced CO₂ density (CO₂ density divided by the critical density of CO₂), oil mass fraction, and relative dielectric constant of the CO₂/PAG oil mixture) was developed. For the range of oil mass fraction 0–0.07, the error of new measurement method was within 0.005 for a wide range of pressures and temperatures tested. This study established the method of measuring the oil mass fraction continuously in the transcritical CO₂ cycle without affecting the cycle performance. Through this method, the effect of oil mass fraction on the characteristics of the oil circulation behavior and the performance of the transcritical CO₂ cycle can be investigated.     

Flow boiling heat transfer of carbon dioxide with PAG-type lubricating oil in pre-dryout region inside horizontal tube

A flow boiling heat transfer model for horizontal tubes is proposed for CO₂ with entrained polyalkylene glycol (PAG) type lubricating oil in the pre-dryout region. A general power law-type model with a power number of 3 is used together with the average thermodynamic properties of the CO₂–oil mixture. A convective enhancement factor (F) is recommended according to the relationship between the Lockhart–Martinelli parameter and the ratio α_tp/α_l, which was obtained based on previous experimental results for CO₂ and oil. A new suppression factor (S) is introduced that comprises a suppression term for forced convection and oil concentration term for bubble generation. A comparison of six correlations showed that the proposed correlation can depict the influence of the mass and heat fluxes on both nucleate and convection boiling reasonably well.     

Effect of refrigerant oil additive on R134a and R123 boiling heat transfer performance

This paper investigates the effect that an additive had on the boiling performance of an R134a/polyolester lubricant (POE) mixture and an R123/naphthenic mineral oil mixture on a roughened, horizontal flat surface. Both pool boiling heat transfer data and lubricant excess surface density data are given for the R134a/POE (98% mass fraction/2% mass fraction) mixture before and after use of the additive. A spectrofluorometer was used to measure the lubricant excess density that was established by the boiling of the R134a/POE lubricant mixture before and after use of the additive. The measurements obtained from the spectrofluorometer suggest that the additive increases the total mass of lubricant on the boiling surface. The heat transfer data show that the additive caused an average and a maximum enhancement of the R134a/POE heat flux between 5 kW m⁻² and 22 kW m⁻² of approximately 73% and 95%, respectively. Conversely, for nearly the same heat flux range, the additive caused essentially no change in the pool boiling heat flux of an R123/mineral oil mixture. The lubricant excess surface density and interfacial surface tension measurements of this study were used to form the basis of a hypothesis for predicting when additives will enhance or degrade refrigerant/lubricant pool boiling.     

Heat transfer of oil-contaminated HFC134a in a horizontal evaporator

The introduction of chlorine-free refrigerants to the market requires experimental investigations of their behaviour in heat pumps and refrigerators. One particular area of interest is the effect of the new oils on the heat transfer in evaporators and condensers. Oil can either increase or decrease the heat transfer coefficient. This paper presents the results from an experimental investigation of the effect of three different ester-based oils on the heat transfer of HFC134a in a horizontal evaporator. The tests were carried out at heat fluxes between 2 and 8 kW m⁻² (corresponding to mass fluxes between approximately 40 and 170 kg s⁻¹ m⁻²). The evaporation temperature was varied from−10 to +10°C. The global oil concentration ranged from 0 to 4.5 mass percentage based on the total liquid flow. The heat transfer coefficient decreased in most of the cases. The results indicate that the decrease seems to depend on the viscosity of the oil. The decrease can fairly well be estimated with the correlation for pure refrigerants by Shah if the viscosity of the mixture is used in the calculations. The data for the oil-contaminated refrigerant also agree well with data for pure refrigerants in a plot of α_tp/α_lo^* versus the inverse Martinelli-Lockhart parameter when α_lo^* is calculated with a modified Dittus-Boelter correlation and the mixture viscosity is used in the calculations. The heat transfer is found to increase when introducing oil in the special cases where the flow rate is low and the viscosity is low (oil A, 2 and 4 kW m⁻² oil B, 6kW m⁻² at +10°C). This is most likely due to surface tension effects. It has been suggested that the increased surface tension leads to a better tube wetting and thus an increased heat transfer.     

Performance analysis of SiO2/PAG nanolubricant in automotive air conditioning system

The performance of an automotive air conditioning system (AAC) needs to be enhanced in order to minimize its environment impact and reduce global fuel consumption. Implementing nanofluid technology using nanolubricants inside compressors can improve its performance. Therefore, this paper presents the development of an AAC system performance test rig. The SiO₂/PAG nanolubricant was prepared in a prior performance experiment and the stability of the colloidal was also attained. The experiment was conducted with initial refrigerant charge ranging from 95 to 125 gram and compressor speeds of 900 to 2100 RPM. The performance of the AAC system was evaluated by determining the heat absorb, compressor work and coefficient of performance (COP). The results found that the maximum increase and the average COP enhancement for SiO₂/PAG nanolubricants are 24% and 10.5%, respectively. It can be concluded that the COP was highest at 0.05% volume concentration for all compressor speeds.     

Experimental investigation on TiO2 nanoparticle migration from refrigerant–oil mixture to lubricating oil during refrigerant dryout

The application of nanorefrigerant–oil mixture in refrigeration system requires continuous circulation of nanoparticles; however, only a small part of nanoparticles circulate by migration from the mixture to vapor within refrigerant dryout process. This study points out a more important nanoparticle circulation way by migration from bulk refrigerant–oil mixture to oil excess layer, and quantitatively evaluate the mixture-to-oil migration ratio affected by oil mass fraction, nanoparticle mass fraction and heat flux. The nanorefrigerant–oil mixture is TiO₂/R141b/NM56; experimental conditions cover oil mass fraction of 5%–20%, nanoparticle mass fraction of 0.2%–1.0%, and heat flux of 10–100 kW m⁻²; the mixture-to-oil migration ratio is measured by absorbance method. The results show that mixture-to-oil migration ratio ranges within 0.388–0.969, and increases averagely by 51.8%, 28.3% and 8.0% with increasing oil mass fraction, reducing nanoparticle mass fraction and lowering heat flux over the whole range of present conditions, respectively.     

Influence of oil on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer of refrigerant on metal foam covers

Nucleate pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant/oil mixture on metal foam covers were experimentally investigated. The refrigerant is R113, and the oil is VG68. The copper foams, having ppi (pores per inch) of 10 and 20, porosity from 90% to 98%, and thickness of 5 mm, are selected in this study. Experimental conditions include a saturation pressure of 101 kPa, oil concentrations from 0 to 5%, and heat fluxes from 0 to 80 kW m⁻². The experimental results indicate that the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient on copper foam covers is larger than that on flat heated surface by a maximum of 160% under the present experimental conditions; the presence of oil deteriorates the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer on copper foam covers by a maximum of 15% under the present experimental conditions, and the deterioration of oil on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer on copper foam covers is lower than that on a flat heated surface. A correlation for predicting the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant/oil mixture on copper foam cover is developed, and it agrees with 95% of the experimental data within a deviation of ±20%.     

An investigation of the performance of a scroll compressor under liquid refrigerant injection

In this study, fundamental and practical influence of liquid refrigerant injection on the performance of a refrigerant scroll compressor has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. In the theoretical analysis, a compression model of vapor/liquid mixture is developed by taking account of heat transfer from the cylinder wall to suction, compression and injection refrigerant. An experiment has been done under the condition of keeping the oil temperature constant in order to investigate the fundamental influence of the liquid refrigerant injection on the compressor performance, and the results were compared with the theoretical ones. It was found that the injection basically increases the compression power and decreases the compressor efficiency, though the situation depends on the condition of the heat transfer to the injection refrigerant. And furthermore, the performance of the liquid refrigerant injection compressor under practical operating condition without controlling the oil temperature has been investigated. Under this condition, the compressor showed recovery and slight improvement of performance due to the decrease of the oil and cylinder temperatures by the injection. In addition, influence of the refrigerant injection on the oil viscosity and refrigerant solubility in the oil, which relate mechanical loss and reliability of the compressor, have been discussed.     

Experimental investigation of two phases evaporative heat transfer coefficient of carbon dioxide as a pure refrigerant and oil contaminated under forced flow conditions in small and large tube

The evaporative two-phase heat transfer coefficient of CO₂/oil contaminated as a refrigerant under forced flow conditions through a smooth horizontal tube was experimentally investigated. The experiments were carried out for two test sections of evaporators. The test sections were made of seamless precision steel tubes with a length of 1.12 m and two inner diameters of 4 and 10 mm to fulfill the influence of the evaporator geometry. Experimental parameters include mass fluxes varied from 90 to 750 (kg m⁻² s), heat flux ranged from 5 to 40 (kW m⁻²), evaporation temperatures changed from −10 to −35 °C, and the oil concentration is varied from 0.2 to 7 %. The results from the experiment are compared with those calculated from correlations reported in the literature. The results of this study are of technological importance for the efficient design of evaporators when systems are assigned to utilize CO₂ as a refrigerant.     

Cooling performance of a variable speed CO2 cycle with an electronic expansion valve and internal heat exchanger

The cooling performance of a CO₂ cycle must be improved to develop a competitive air-conditioning system with the conventional air-conditioners using HFCs. In this study, the cooling performance of a variable speed CO₂ cycle was measured and analyzed by varying the refrigerant charge amount, compressor frequency, EEV opening, and length of an internal heat exchanger (IHX). The basic CO₂ system without the IHX showed the maximum cooling COP of 2.1 at the compressor discharge pressure of 9.2 MPa and the optimum normalized charge of 0.282. The cooling COP decreased with the increase of compressor frequency at all normalized charges. The optimum EEV opening increased with compressor frequency. Simultaneous control of EEV opening and compressor frequency allowed optimum control of the compressor discharge pressure. The optimal compressor discharge pressure of the modified CO₂ cycle with the IHX was reduced by 0.5 MPa. The IHX increased the cooling capacity and COP of the CO₂ cycle by 6.2–11.9% and 7.1–9.1%, respectively, at the tested compressor frequencies from 40 to 60 Hz.     

An experimental investigation and modelling of the thermodynamic properties of isobutane–compressor oil solutions: Some aspects of experimental methodology

This paper presents experimental data for the solubility, density and capillary constant for solutions of natural refrigerant isobutane with commercial mineral compressor oil Azmol over a wide range of temperatures and concentrations. Based on information for the capillary constant, the surface tension of the solutions isobutane/Azmol is determined. The experimental data were obtained in the temperature range from 303 K to 363 K and at pressures up to 1.7 MPa using static methods. The experimental data obtained for the solutions of the natural refrigerant isobutane with the commercial mineral compressor oil Azmol are sufficiently described with the help of correlations based on the theory of thermodynamic similarity. The paper reports variation of the vapor pressure, density, capillary constant and surface tension as a function of concentration for the isobutane/Azmol solutions. The enthalpy of liquid phase of the isobutane/Azmol solutions is calculated. The analysis of the behaviour of the excess thermodynamic functions is carried out. The paper examines experimental and methodical uncertainties in the investigation of thermodynamic properties of the refrigerant/oil solutions (ROS). The influence of the time taken to establish thermodynamic equilibrium in the experimental cell on the uncertainty of the experimental data for gas-saturated mixtures such as ROS is discussed. Information about the changing concentration of refrigerant in the liquid phase of the ROS and in the surface layer of the liquid phase of the ROS at increasing temperature is presented. In addition, the experimental data for the density, surface tension and refractive index of the mineral compressor oil Azmol are reported.     

制冷剂-润滑油互溶混合物系流动沸腾特性测试装置的研制

在对已有相关测试装置设计技术的利弊分析基础上,提出了一种测试制冷剂-润滑油互溶混合流体管内流动沸腾特性的装置,其特征是通过与制冷剂流动沸腾换热测量回路并联接入一开式的润滑油回路,从而实现灵活控制和调节实验段内润滑油量的目的.通过在压缩机出口串连接入3个油分离器进行三级油分,从而实现压缩机出口的润滑油零排放.该装置具有连续在线注油、达到稳态时间短、操作灵活、控制简单等优点.     

Modelling commercial refrigeration systems coupled with water storage to improve energy efficiency and perform heat recovery

A basic CO₂ transcritical/subcritical commercial refrigeration system is considered, applied to cold rooms and display cabinets in a supermarket. Subcooling of the refrigerant or heat recovery from condensation can be performed, taking advantage of a large fire prevention water tank. The whole refrigeration system is modelled in a TRNSYS environment, taking into account the hourly weather data and calculating the hourly cooling load demand from display cabinets and cold rooms equipment. New types have been written to describe display cabinets and cold rooms, CO₂ refrigerating units and a particular water store.Simulations consider a simple double compression cycle with liquid receiver, and other options among which an auxiliary compressor. Results show that CO₂ plants are feasible and energetically acceptable in mild climates, provided that improvements to standard cycle are adopted. Furthermore, heat recovery can be effectively performed through the employment of a heat storage.     

Cooling performance of several CO2/propane mixtures and glide matching with secondary heat transfer fluid

This paper presents the cooling performance of several CO₂/propane mixtures measured in air-conditioning test rig at several conditions. The discharge pressure of CO₂/propane mixtures is reduced with increasing mole fraction of propane and their reduced values coincide approximately with the circulation concentrations of propane. Since propane is the refrigerant having a higher refrigerating effect and a much lower vapor density than CO₂, adding propane to CO₂ improves the system efficiency and reduces the cooling capacity. The temperature glide effect of CO₂/propane mixtures on the cooling performance was analyzed based on the experimental data. To utilize the temperature glide effect successfully, a sufficient heat exchange area is required, and the temperature gradient of refrigerant must be similar to that of secondary heat transfer fluid. It is better the temperature change of refrigerant can prevent pinching with that of the secondary heat transfer fluid.     

Development of compact heat exchangers for CO2 air-conditioning systems

Compact and lightweight heat exchangers are needed for motor vehicle air-conditioning systems and for several types of unitary equipment. The high-pressure natural refrigerant CO₂ is now being evaluated for use in such applications, and efficient heat exchangers are being developed and investigated. Carbon dioxide heat exchangers are designed for high refrigerant mass flux and use small-diameter tubes or extruded flat microchannel tubes. Refrigerant-side heat transfer coefficients are higher than with fluorocarbons, and reduced internal surface areas can therefore be tolerated. Both small-diameter mechanically expanded round-tube heat exchangers and brazed microchannel-type units have been built and tested successfully. Results show that compact heat exchangers optimized for CO₂ are very competitive with baseline HFC/HCFC units in terms of physical dimensions, exchanger mass and thermal performance. Smaller tube and manifold dimensions can give reduced size compared with HFC-134a equipment. The temperature approach between air inlet and refrigerant outlet is much lower in CO₂ gas coolers than in baseline system condensers of equal size and capacity, and the reduced refrigerant exit temperature has a marked influence on the coefficient of performance, Microchannel heat exchangers give the best overall efficiency. Refrigerant distribution in multiport manifolds and heat transfer tubes does not seem to be a problem.     

Investigation of R-744 Voorhees transcritical heat pump system

Using economizer in R-744 heat pump cycle is an effective way to improve the heating capacity in cold climates. In this paper, a modification construction of reciprocating compressor with economizer port, a Voorhees compressor was introduced and the heat pump cycle with Voorhees economizer was compared with the traditional screw or scroll economizer cycles. Both the R-744 transcritical heat pumps with and without Voorhees economizer were tested at the same conditions with different air mass flow rates and different evaporating temperatures. The results show that the heating capacity of the heat pump with Voorhees economizer can be two times higher than the transcritical heat pump without economizer at low evaporating temperature conditions. At the same capacity operation conditions, the efficiency of the heat pump with Voorhees economizer is higher at high refrigerant mass flow rate conditions. The optimum discharge pressure of the heat pump with Voorhees economizer is found to be higher than the heat pump without economizer at the same ambient conditions. For mobile heat pump application, CO₂ transcritical heat pump with Voorhees economizer demonstrates better performance comparing to the conventional transcritical CO₂ heat pump without economizer when the evaporating temperature is lower than −20 °C, or when the mobile is idling with low compressor RPM.     

Experimental research on wetting behavior of refrigerant–oil mixture on micro/nanostructured surface

The wettability of micro/nanostructured surface is a key property for its application in enhancing the boiling heat transfer of refrigerant–oil mixture. The objective of this research is to experimentally investigate the wetting behavior of refrigerant–oil mixture on micro/nanostructured surface. Three types of surfaces including plain copper surface (PS), micro/nanostructured surface (MNS) and micro/nanostructured surface with fluorinated self-assembled monolayer (MNFS) were fabricated; and the wetting behavior of pure R141b as well as R141b-NM56 mixtures with different oil concentrations on three types of surfaces was measured. The experimental results show that the protuberant liquid film is formed during the wetting of refrigerant–oil mixture on MNS or PS, but does not exist on MNFS; the presence of F-SAM or micro/nanostructure modified by F-SAM reduces the surface wettability, while the presence of micro/nanostructure increases the surface wettability; oil increases the wettability of refrigerant on MNS, while it reduces the wettability of refrigerant on MNFS.     

Comparitive analysis of an automotive air conditioning systems operating with CO2 and R134a

This paper evaluates performance merits of CO₂ and R134a automotive air conditioning systems using semi-theoretical cycle models. The R134a system had a current-production configuration, which consisted of a compressor, condenser, expansion device, and evaporator. The CO₂ system was additionally equipped with a liquid-line/suction-line heat exchanger. Using these two systems, an effort was made to derive an equitable comparison of performance; the components in both systems were equivalent and differences in thermodynamic and transport properties were accounted for in the simulations. The analysis showed R134a having a better COP than CO₂ with the COP disparity being dependent on compressor speed (system capacity) and ambient temperature. For a compressor speed of 1000 RPM, the COP of CO₂ was lower by 21% at 32.2°C and by 34% at 48.9°C. At higher speeds and ambient temperatures, the COP disparity was even greater. The entropy generation calculations indicated that the large entropy generation in the gas cooler was the primary cause for the lower performance of CO₂.