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Abstract
In the present study, new experimental data on the performance of a never before seen two-phase ejector refrigeration cycle
(TPERC) is presented. In this cycle, a two-phase ejector is used as an expansion device. The TPERC enables the evaporator to
operate as in a liquid-recirculation system. The results are compared with those of the conventional refrigeration cycle (CRC).
The effects of external parameters, i.e., heat sink and heat source temperatures on the system performance are discussed. The
results show that the coefficient of performance of the TPERC is higher than that of the CRC over the whole range of
experimental conditions. This is due to a higher refrigerant-side heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator, resulting from the
higher refrigerant mass flow rate passing through the evaporator. However, the increase becomes relatively smaller as the heat
sink temperature increases.
q 2004 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Refrigerator system; Experiment; Expansion; Ejector; COP; R-12; R-134a
1. Introduction
Throttling loss in the expansion device, through which
the refrigerant is expanded from the condenser pressure to
the evaporator pressure, is one of the thermodynamic losses
in a conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycle.
This expansion results during the isenthalpic process in
which the kinetic energy developed as the refrigerant
pressure decrease is dissipated to the refrigerant as friction
heat. The isenthalpic process causes the larger amount of the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 662-470-9115; fax: 662-4709111.
E-mail address: somchai.won@kmutt.ac.th (S. Wongwises).
0140-7007/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2004.04.002
588
Nomenclature
COP
cp
coefficient of performance
specific heat at constant pressure
(kJ kg21 K21)
m
_
mass flow rate (kg s21)
n
circulation ratio
P
power (kW)
Q
cooling capacity (kW)
T
temperature (8C)
Subscripts
comp
compressor
e
evaporize
evap
evaporator
hw
hot water
in
inlet section
out
outlet section
p
primary or motive
s
suction
2. Experimental apparatus
The schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is
shown in Fig. 1. The system consists of three main loops: the
refrigerant loop, the cold-water loop, and the hot-water loop.
The refrigerant loop is designed in order to operate in
both the conventional refrigeration cycle (CRC) and the
two-phase ejector refrigeration cycle (TPERC). It consists
of the vapor compression cycle components: compressor,
condenser, expansion valve and evaporator, and other
accessory parts-the oil separator, liquid receiver, filter/drier,
sight glass and the accumulator. The operating conditions of
the apparatus are similar to those of a typical airconditioning application. The principal modifications from
the standard refrigeration system are the addition of a
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two-phase ejector and a liquid vapor separator. A commercial R-134a is used as the working fluid.
Refrigerant is discharged by a two-cylinder single stage
reciprocating compressor (Bitzer, Model III), driven by an
electric motor. The speed of the motor is varied to regulate
the refrigerant flowing through the motive nozzle by an
inverter (Yaskawa, CIMR-G5A47P5). Compact plate heat
exchangers (SWEP, CBE-B8-24/C) are used for condenser
and evaporators. The evaporator referred to in this paper is
the main evaporator as shown in Fig. 1. A filter/drier, placed
downstream of the receiver, is provided to keep the
circulating refrigerant free from harmful substances:
moisture and foreign particles that might remain in the
system. An oil separator is used to keep the oil content in the
refrigerant to a minimum.
The motive and the suction mass flow rates are measured
by volumetric flow meters (Bailey F and P, 10A3225)
located downstream of the sight glass and of the liquid
vapor separator, respectively. All flow meters are specially
calibrated for R-134a from the manufacturer (Bailey F and
P). The total capacity of all refrigerant flow meters is 0.3 to
3.3 LPM. The manufacturers listed accuracy is 0.1% of the
full scale. The temperatures are measured by T-type
thermocouples having accuracy of 0.1 8C. All the temperature-measuring devices are well calibrated in a controlled
temperature bath using standard precision mercury glass
thermometers. Bourdon gauges, calibrated against the dead
weight test, are used to measure the pressures. All static
pressure taps are mounted flush in the tube wall.
In order to collect data at various conditions, the heat
load to the evaporator is supplied by using the hot-water
loop. The water in the tank is heated with a 4.5 kW electric
heater and supplied through the evaporator by the circulating pump. The condenser rejects heat to the water coming
from a cold water tank. The water is cooled by a separated
refrigeration system using R-22 as refrigerant. The separated refrigeration system consists of a condensing unit with
a capacity of approximately 2.6 ton of refrigeration, a
capillary tube, filter/drier, sight glass and a helical copper
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Table 1
Experimental conditions
Parameters
Heat sink
Temperature (8C)
Volumetric flow rate (LPM)
Heat source
Temperature (8C)
Volumetric flow rate (LPM)
Compressor
Speed (rpm)
Refrigerant
Heat transfer fluid
Table 3
Range of uncertainties of calculated parameters
Range
Parameters
Pressure ratio
Circulation ratio
Cooling capacity
COP
^1.16
^4.47
^3.21
^9.16
^ 1.32
^ 4.75
^ 3.88
^ 10.65
Table 2
Uncertainties of measured quantities
Parameters
Uncertainty
Unit
Temperature
Pressure (low-side)
Pressure (high-side)
Flow rate (refrigerant)
Flow rate (water)
Compressor speed
^0.1
^0.5(^3.45)
^1.0 (^6.90)
^0.02
^0.2
^5
8C
Psi (kPa)
Psi (kPa)
LPM
LPM
rpm
Fig. 4. Comparison of the mass flow rate of the TPERC and the CRC
as a function of heat sink temperature for various heat source
temperatures.
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m
_s
m
_e
592
where m
_ hw is the mass flow rate of the hot water (kg s21).
cp;hw is the specific heat at constant pressure of hot water
Fig. 7. Comparison of the pressure ratio between the TPERC and the
CRC as a function of heat source temperature for various heat sink
temperatures.
(kJ kg21 K21). Thw;in is the hot water temperature at the inlet
of the evaporator (8C). Thw;out is the hot water temperature at
the outlet of the evaporator (8C).
Fig. 9 shows the variation of the cooling capacity with
the heat source temperature for superheating at the
compressor inlet ranging between 4 and 8 8C for the
different heat sink temperatures of 27, 32, and 37 8C.
It can be seen from the figure that as the heat source
temperature increases, the cooling capacity for both modes
of operation also increases. This is because the temperature
difference between the refrigerant and the water used as the
heat transfer fluid, increases with increasing evaporator
pressure.
For the CRC, increasing of the heat source temperature
causes the cooling capacity to increase. This results from the
increasing evaporator temperature which also affects
the refrigerating effect. Furthermore, the increase of the
refrigerant density at the evaporator outlet leads to an
increase of the mass flow rate drawn by the compressor
which results in the increase of the cooling capacity. For the
TPERC, although the temperature difference between the
refrigerant and the water in the evaporator is lower,
the cooling capacity is higher than that of the CRC. This
behavior can be explained in that the overall heat transfer
coefficient of the evaporator in the TPERC is higher than
that of the CRC under the same area of the heat exchanger.
This is because of increases of the wetted area and mass flow
rate in the evaporator and the fact that the evaporator of the
CRC loses some area at the outlet for superheating, while
the evaporator outlet in the TPERC is in a liquid vapor
mixture condition.
The system COP is defined as the ratio between the
cooling capacity and the electrical power supplied to the
Fig. 10. Comparison of the COP between the TPERC and the CRC
as a function of heat sink temperature for various heat source
temperatures.
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Qevap
Pcomp
4. Conclusions
This paper provides new data on the performance of the
refrigeration system using a two-phase ejector as an
expansion device. The two-phase ejector refrigeration
cycle (TPERC) enables the evaporator to operate as in a
liquid recirculation system. However, in the present work,
the effect of geometric parameters on the data is not studied
and the results are valid only with the ejector used in the
present study. Application range of the test results is shown
in Table 1. The performance of the TPERC is then compared
with that of the conventional refrigeration cycle (CRC)
using a thermostatic expansion valve as an expansion device
at the same external conditions. The following conclusions
from this study are:
1. The motive mass flow rate of the ejector is highly
dependent on the heat sink temperature and independent
of the heat source temperature. This is due to the fact that
choked flow occurs at the motive nozzle, and the
upstream condition has a significant effect on the mass
flow rate.
2. The heat source and heat sink temperatures have a
significant effect on the cooling capacity. The use of the
two-phase ejector as an expansion device enables the
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[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to
the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment
(JGSEE) and the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) for
providing financial support in this study. The authors also
wish to acknowledge Mr. Atikom Plertplaipan, Mr.
Kanongsak Clusintragul and Mr. Nipon Poorpromyod for
their assistance in some of the experimental work.
[8]
[9]
[10]
References
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expander. Proceedings of the 1990 USNC/IIR-Purdue
Refrigeration Conference; 1990, p. 10 19.
[2] Harrell GS, Kornhauser AA. Performance tests of a two-phase
ejector. Proceedings of the 30th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference. Orlando, FL; 1995, p. 49 53.
[3] Menegay P, Kornhauser AA. Improvements to the ejector
expansion refrigeration cycle. Proceedings of the 31th
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