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Experimental investigation of the heating performance of refrigerant injection heat pump with a single-cylinder inverter-driven rotary compressor

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Abstract

Applying the refrigerant injection technology to air-source heat pump had been proved to be an effective access to acquire a better performance in the cold regions. In this paper, the test-bed of R410A single-cylinder rotary compressor vapor injection (SCRCVI) system with flash tank was built and measured by changing the compressor frequency f and injection pressure Pinj under various ambient temperatures. The experimental results indicated that the effect of refrigerant injection became stronger as the ambient temperature decreased. So the SCRCVI showed a superior heating performance at lower ambient temperature, and the conventional single-stage vapor compression (CSVC) system would exhibit higher COPh, while the ambient temperature was beyond the critical value. Compared with the CSVC system, the Qh and COPh were improved by 9.1 ~ 29.5 and 5.35 ~ 7.89%, respectively, under the ambient temperature Tod = − 10 °C. The injection pressure ratio Rp under different operating conditions was varied in the range between 0.2 and 0.22. Specifically, the trend in variation of Rp was reliably used to optimize the refrigerant injection system design and the control strategy.

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Abbreviations

COP:

Coefficient of performance

CSVC:

Conventional single-stage vapor compression

EEV:

Electronic expansion valve

FTVIC:

Flash tank vapor injection

SCRCVI:

Single-cylinder rotary compressor vapor injection

SCVIC:

Sub-cooler vapor injection

TCRCVI:

Twin-cylinder rotary compressor vapor injection

f :

Compressor frequency

h :

Specific enthalpy (J kg−1)

\(\dot m\) :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

P :

Pressure (kPa)

Q :

Capacity (W)

R m :

Injection mass flow ratio

R p :

Injection pressure ratio

T :

Temperature (K)

W :

Power consumption (W)

air:

Air side

com:

Compressor

DB:

Dry bulb temperature

dis:

Discharge

h:

Heating

inj:

Injection

in:

Air inlet

m:

Mass

od:

Outdoor

out:

Air outlet

s:

Suction

to:

Total

WB:

Wet bulb temperature

WC:

Working chamber

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the South Wisdom Valley Innovative Research Team Program (Serial Number: Shunde District of Foshan City Government Office [2014] No. 365) and the 2017 Guangzhou Collaborative Innovation Major Projects (Nos. 201604016048 and 201604016069).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jinfei Sun, Dongsheng Zhu, Yingde Yin & Xiuzhen Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jinfei Sun, Dongsheng Zhu, Yingde Yin & Xiuzhen Li

  3. Guangdong Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jinfei Sun, Dongsheng Zhu, Yingde Yin & Xiuzhen Li

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jinfei Sun & Xiuzhen Li

Authors
  1. Jinfei Sun
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  2. Dongsheng Zhu
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  3. Yingde Yin
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  4. Xiuzhen Li
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Correspondence to Dongsheng Zhu.

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Sun, J., Zhu, D., Yin, Y. et al. Experimental investigation of the heating performance of refrigerant injection heat pump with a single-cylinder inverter-driven rotary compressor. J Therm Anal Calorim 133, 1579–1588 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7199-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7199-6

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