Transient state modelling and experimental investigation of the thermal behavior of a vapor compression system

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to establish a detailed modelling technique to predict the refrigerant conditions such as pressure and enthalpy of a VC system. The transient state modelling techniques suggested in many research works are usually not easy to reproduce due to lack of detailed methodology and the multitude of analytical or computational schemes that could not be assessed objectively. This work has addressed this issue by introducing a modelling method developed from conservation equations of mass and energy represented with Navier–Stokes equations. A finite volume scheme has been used to discretize the governing equations along the heat exchanger models. Transient state modelling matrices have been established after dividing the condenser as well as the evaporator into 3 and n control volumes. The model validation with experiments was satisfactory. The model outputs such as the refrigerant pressure across the condenser and evaporator are in agreement with experiments. The proposed modelling technique could be adopted to predict optimal parameters during start-up. The modelling results could be used to design VC systems with optimal performance.