Capacity Control for Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Systems: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The capacity control of a vapor-compression refrigeration system is investigated for three different capacity control schemes. In a hot-gas by-pass control scheme, the refrigerant is by-passed from the compressor and injected back into the suction line to decrease the cooling capacity, whereas in cylinder-unloading scheme, one or more cylinders are unloaded to decrease the refrigerant mass flow rate in the system, which decreases the cooling capacity. However, in suction gas throttling, the suction gas throttled at the inlet of the compressor, decreases the refrigerant mass flow rate, and hence a corresponding decrease in the system capacity. These schemes are investigated for HFC-134a by considering finite size of the components that are used in the refrigeration systems. The models consider the finite-temperature difference in the heat exchangers, thus allowing the variations in the condenser and evaporator temperatures with respect to capacity and external fluid inlet temperatures. A comparative study is performed among these schemes in terms of the system coefficient of performance (COP), the operating temperatures, and percentage of refrigerant mass fraction as a function of the percentage of full-load system capacity.