CFD Analysis of Refrigeration Cycle Ejector

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz X. Forster ◽  
Alexander E. Deravanessian ◽  
Matthew J. Nazarian ◽  
Mariano Rubio ◽  
Kevin R. Anderson

Abstract The use of ejector cycles for increased performance and efficiency is becoming more prevalent in industry. The goal of this study is to evaluate an ejector using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to evaluate flow patterns, perform trade studies varying the type of refrigerant, and determine the entrainment ratio for each working fluid, over a range of boundary condition pressures, set at points along the ejector’s flow path. The 2012 Toyota Prius V is one of the first automobiles using an ejector cycle in their internal cabin refrigeration system. The DENSO Corporation ejector hardware was used as the basis for the creation of geometry for the CFD mode of the ejector. Three working fluids were simulated, R-134a, R-245fa, and R-1235yf. The primary findings of this study were as follows. The CFD study here indicates that R-245fa performs the best out of the three working fluids, when examining their entrainment ratios (ratio of secondary to primary flow rates in the ejector). For all three working fluids, the entrainment ratio was seen to peak performance at an ejector inlet pressure of 1.75 × 105 Pa. The ejector mixing chamber pressure and ejector outlet pressure boundary conditions also witnessed a rise in entrainment ratios, during an increase of their respective pressure values.

Author(s):  
Stefan Mardikus ◽  

The shock wave phenomenon is a phenomenon in a steam ejector that caused when the working fluid has high pressure, and suddenly it turns into low pressure and high speed. The shock wave effect will be investigated to the different convergent length in the mixing chamber to find the highest entrainment ratio as the performance of steam ejector. Operating pressure in the primary flow was in the range 0.68 MPa - 1.39 MPa, and the secondary flow was set 0.38 MPa to 0.65 MPa. The result of this study demonstrated that the highest entrainment ratio occurred in the convergent length of 69 mm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-635
Author(s):  
B. Saleh ◽  
Ayman A. Aly ◽  
M. Alsehli ◽  
M.M. Bassuoni ◽  
A. Elfasakhany

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the performance and working fluids screening for an ejector refrigeration cycle (ERC) activated by solar energy. Several common and new hydrofluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, hydrofluoroolefins and hydrofluoroethers are proposed as refrigerants for the ERC to determine the most appropriate one. Design/methodology/approach The ejector performance is characterized by the ejector area ratio (EAR) and entrainment ratio (ω), while the cycle performance is described by the coefficient of performance (COP). The influences of many working parameters like the evaporator, condenser and generator temperatures on the ejector and cycle performances are investigated for all candidates as well. Findings The results indicate that the best ejector and cycle performances are attained with the highest critical temperature dry refrigerant, i.e. R601 under all studied working conditions. From the perspective of energy efficiency and environmental issues, R601 can be considered the most appropriate working fluid amongst all candidates. However, extra attention should be considered against its flammability. The maximum COP, the corresponding ω and the necessary EAR using R601 are 0.743, 1.02 and 15.5, respectively, with 25 ºC condenser temperature and the typical values for the rest operating conditions. Originality/value Many common and new hydrofluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, hydrofluoroolefins and hydrofluoroethers are suggested as working fluids for the ERC to determine the most appropriate one. The mixing process inside the ejector constant-area section is assumed constant-pressure process.


Author(s):  
L Cai ◽  
H T Zheng ◽  
Y J Li ◽  
Z M Li

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of computational fluid dynamics in predicting the performance and optimal design of the geometry of a steam ejector used in a steam turbine. In the current part, the real gas model was considered using IAPWS IF97 model, and the influences of working fluid pressure and backpressure were investigated. The results illustrate that working critical pressure and backflow critical pressure exist in the flow. Moreover, the entrainment ratio reaches its peak at the working critical pressure. The performance of the ejector was nearly the same when the outlet pressure was lower than the critical backpressure. Effects of ejector geometries were also investigated. The distance between the primary nozzle and the mixing chamber was at optimum, the length of the mixing chamber and the diameter of the throat had an optimal value according to the entrainment ratio. When the length of the diffuser or throat was decreased within a range, the entrainment ratio did not change significantly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 6111
Author(s):  
He Li ◽  
Xiaodong Wang ◽  
Jiuxin Ning ◽  
Pengfei Zhang ◽  
Hailong Huang

This paper investigated the effect of air leaking into the working fluid on the performance of a steam ejector. A simulation of the mixing of air into the primary and secondary fluids was performed using CFD. The effects of air with a 0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 mass fraction on the entrainment ratio and internal flow structure of the steam ejector were studied, and the coefficient distortion rates for the entrainment ratios under these air mass fractions were calculated. The results demonstrated that the air modified the physical parameters of the working fluid, which is the main reason for changes in the entrainment ratio and internal flow structure. The calculation of the coefficient distortion rate of the entrainment ratio illustrated that the air in the primary fluid has a more significant impact on the change in the entrainment ratio than that in the secondary fluid under the same air mass fraction. Therefore, the air mass fraction in the working fluid must be minimized to acquire a precise entrainment ratio. Furthermore, this paper provided a method of inspecting air leakage in the experimental steam ejector refrigeration system.


Author(s):  
Jiaxi Xia ◽  
Jiangfeng Wang ◽  
Pan Zhao ◽  
Dai Yiping

CO2 in a transcritical CO2 cycle can not easily be condensed due to its low critical temperature (304.15K). In order to increase the critical temperature of working fluid, an effective method is to blend CO2 with other refrigerants to achieve a higher critical temperature. In this study, a transcritical power cycle using CO2-based mixtures which blend CO2 with other refrigerants as working fluids is investigated under heat source. Mathematical models are established to simulate the transcritical power cycle using different CO2-based mixtures under MATLAB® software environment. A parametric analysis is conducted under steady-state conditions for different CO2-based mixtures. In addition, a parametric optimization is carried out to obtain the optimal design parameters, and the comparisons of the transcritical power cycle using different CO2-based mixtures and pure CO2 are conducted. The results show that a raise in critical temperature can be achieved by using CO2-based mixtures, and CO2-based mixtures with R32 and R22 can also obtain better thermodynamic performance than pure CO2 in transcritical power cycle. What’s more, the condenser area needed by CO2-based mixture is smaller than pure CO2.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel O. Osigwe ◽  
Arnold Gad-Briggs ◽  
Theoklis Nikolaidis ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Suresh Sampath

One major challenge to the accurate development of performance simulation tool for component-based nuclear power plant engine models is the difficulty in accessing component performance maps; hence, researchers or engineers often rely on estimation approach using various scaling techniques. This paper describes a multi-fluid scaling approach used to determine the component characteristics of a closed-cycle gas turbine plant from an existing component map with their design data, which can be applied for different working fluids as may be required in closed-cycle gas turbine operations to adapt data from one component map into a new component map. Each component operation is defined by an appropriate change of state equations which describes its thermodynamic behavior, thus, a consideration of the working fluid properties is of high relevance to the scaling approach. The multi-fluid scaling technique described in this paper was used to develop a computer simulation tool called GT-ACYSS, which can be valuable for analyzing the performance of closed-cycle gas turbine operations with different working fluids. This approach makes it easy to theoretically scale existing map using similar or different working fluids without carrying out a full experimental test or repeating the whole design and development process. The results of selected case studies show a reasonable agreement with available data.


1983 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-135
Author(s):  
S. E. Ogbeide ◽  
S. A. K. El-Meniawy ◽  
S. Devotta ◽  
F. A. Watson ◽  
F. A. Holland

2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Gwiasda ◽  
Matthias Mohr ◽  
Martin Böhle

Suction performance, pressure rise, and efficiency for four different inducers are examined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experiments performed with 18,000 rpm and 24,000 rpm. The studies originate from a research project that includes the construction of a new test bench in order to judge the design of the different inducers. This test bench allows to conduct experiments with a rotational speed of up to 40,000 rpm and high pressure ranges from 0.1 bar to 40 bar with water as working fluid. Experimental results are used to evaluate the accuracy of the simulations and to gain a better understanding of the design parameter. The influence of increasing the rotating speed from 18,000 rpm to 24,000 rpm on the performance is also shown.


Author(s):  
Ms. K. P. Bhangle

Abstract: The capillary tube is commonly employed in refrigerant flow control systems. As a result, the capillary tube's performance is optimal for good refrigerant flow. Many scholars concluded performance utilising experimental, theoretical, and analysis-based methods. This paper examines the flow analysis of a refrigerant within a capillary tube under adiabatic flow circumstances. For a given mass flow rate, the suggested model can predict flow characteristics in adiabatic capillary tubes. In the current work, R-134a refrigerant has been replaced by R600a refrigerant as a working fluid inside the capillary tube, and the capillary tube design has been modified by altering length and diameter, which were obtained from reputable literature. The analysis is carried out using the ANSYS CFX 16.2 software. The results show thatutilising a small diameter and a long length (R600a refrigerant flow) is superior to the present helical capillary tube. The most appropriate helical coiled design with a diameter of 0.8 mm and a length of 3 m is proposed. Keywords: Capillary Tube, Condenser, Refrigeration effect, CFD.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7029
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Blauciak ◽  
Pawel Szymanski ◽  
Dariusz Mikielewicz

This paper presents the results of experiments carried out on a specially designed experimental rig designed for the study of capillary pressure generated in the Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) evaporator. The commercially available porous structure made of sintered stainless steel constitutes the wick. Three different geometries of the porous wicks were tested, featuring the pore radius of 1, 3 and 7 µm. Ethanol and water as two different working fluids were tested at three different evaporator temperatures and three different installation charges. The paper firstly presents distributions of generated pressure in the LHP, indicating that the capillary pressure difference is generated in the porous structure. When installing with a wick that has a pore size of 1 μm and water as a working fluid, the pressure difference can reach up to 2.5 kPa at the installation charge of 65 mL. When installing with a wick that has a pore size of 1 μm and ethanol as a working fluid, the pressure difference can reach up to 2.1 kPa at the installation charge of 65 mL. The integral characteristics of the LHP were developed, namely, the mass flow rate vs. applied heat flux for both fluids. The results show that water offers larger pressure differences for developing the capillary pressure effect in the installation in comparison to ethanol. Additionally, this research presents the feasibility of manufacturing inexpensive LHPs with filter medium as a wick material and its influence on the LHP’s thermal performance.


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