Theoretical and experimental simulation of roof-top bus multiple-circuit air-conditioning system performance

Author(s):  
M Khamis Mansour ◽  
M N Musa ◽  
M N W Hassan ◽  
H Abdullah

Many air-conditioning (AC) systems are designed to operate at maximum cooling capacity regardless of the variation in the daily cooling load. At low loads, the conditions can be uncomfortably cold and the overcooling is an unnecessary waste of energy. To address these two issues, a multiple refrigeration circuit concept is proposed and applied to a roof-top bus AC system. A two-circuit model is proposed for a standard bus size in which each circuit has two evaporators of equal sizes arranged in parallel and installed on each passenger row, respectively. This means that each passenger row is served by two different evaporators sharing a common heat exchanger box. Depending on the cooling load, this concept allows one or both circuits (compressor motors) to be switched on and during either modes, it also allows one or more sets of evaporator blowers to be switched on. A steady-state computer model has been developed to simulate the performance of the proposed two-circuit AC system. A two-circuit air conditioner is also designed to form a roof-top bus AC system, fabricated, and installed on to an experimental rig. The experimental data are used to validate the computer model. The validation is on the system thermal performance and on the evaporator air outlet conditions (dry bulb temperature and relative humidity) at different modes of system operation, either at full or partial cooling loads. The simulated results gave satisfactory agreement with those obtained from the experimental work. Maximum absolute deviations are within the range of 19.3 per cent, although most of the simulated results are less than a 10 per cent range from the experimental ones, which validates the computer program. The paper describes the modelling work carried out and the results obtained are presented in comparison with the experimental data.

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Євген Іванович Трушляков ◽  
Андрій Миколайович Радченко ◽  
Микола Іванович Радченко ◽  
Сергій Анатолійович Кантор ◽  
Веніамін Сергійович Ткаченко

One of the most attractive reserves of enhancing the energetic efficiency of air conditioning systems is to provide the operation of refrigeration compressors in nominal or close to nominal modes by choosing rational design cooling loads (cooling capacities) and their distribution according to a cooling load behaviour within the overall design (installed) cooling load band to match current changeable climatic conditions and provide close to maximum annual cooling capacity generation according to cooling duties. The direction of increasing the efficiency of outdoor air conditioning in combined central-local type systems by rationally distributing the heat load - cooling capacity of the central air conditioner into zones of variable heat load in accordance with current climatic conditions and its relatively stable value, i.e. cooling capacity required for further air cooling at the entrance to the indoor recirculation air conditioning system is justified. By comparing the values of the excessive production of cold and its deficit within every 3 days for a rational design heat load of the air conditioning system (cooling capacity of the installed refrigeration machine), which provides close to maximum annual production of cold, and the corresponding values of the excess and deficit of cooling capacity in accordance with current climatic conditions during July substantiated the feasibility of accumulating the excess of cooling capacity of a central air conditioner at low current loads and its use for covering cooling deficit at elevated heat loads through pre-cooling the outdoor air. It is developed a scheme of a combined central-local air conditioning system, which includes the subsystems for the outdoor air conditioning in a central air conditioner and the local indoor recirculated air conditioning.


Author(s):  
Yilin Du ◽  
Jan Muehlbauer ◽  
Jiazhen Ling ◽  
Vikrant Aute ◽  
Yunho Hwang ◽  
...  

A rechargeable personal air-conditioning (RPAC) device was developed to provide an improved thermal comfort level for individuals in inadequately cooled environments. This device is a battery powered air-conditioning system with the phase change material (PCM) for heat storage. The condenser heat is stored in the PCM during the cooling operation and is discharged while the battery is charged by using the vapor compression cycle as a thermosiphon loop. The conditioned air is discharged towards a single person through adjustable nozzle. The main focus of the current research was on the development of the cooling system. A 100 W cooling capacity prototype was designed, built, and tested. The cooling capacity of the vapor compression cycle measured was 165.6 W. The PCM was recharged in nearly 8 hours under thermosiphon mode. When this device is used in the controlled built environment, the thermostat setting can be increased so that building air conditioning energy can be saved by about 5–10%.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dandong Wang ◽  
Binbin Yu ◽  
Junye Shi ◽  
Jiangping Chen

CO2 (GWP = 1) is considered as a promising natural alternative refrigerant to HFC-134a in mobile air conditioning (MAC) applications. The objective of this study is to investigate the cooling performance characteristics of a CO2 MAC system. A prototype CO2 MAC system, consisting of a CO2 electrical compressor, CO2 parallel flow microchannel heat exchangers, and an electrical expansion valve, was developed and tested. Factor analysis experiments were conducted to reveal the effect of outdoor temperature on the cooling performance of this CO2 MAC system. Compared with a conventional R134a MAC system, the prototype CO2 MAC system achieved comparable cooling capacity, but had COP reductions of 26% and 10% at 27 °C and 45 °C outdoor conditions, respectively. In addition, based on refrigerant properties, theoretical cycle analysis was done to reveal the impact of evaporator, gas cooler and compressor, on the system cooling performance. It is concluded that the increase of overall compressor efficiency or the decrease of gas cooler approaching temperature could greatly improve the COP of this CO2 MAC system.


Author(s):  
A. Anthony Adeyanju ◽  
K. Manohar

Thermoelectric devices use the Peltier effect which creates a heat flux between the junctions of two different types of materials. The thermoelectric module also referred to as a heat pump transfers heat from one side to the other when a DC current is applied. This study carried out the theoretical and experimental analysis of a thermoelectric air conditioning system. A prototype thermoelectric air conditioner of 286 W cooling capacity was built and a testing enclosure made from plywood and Styrofoam was also constructed in order to validate the theoretical result with an experimentation. It was discovered that thermoelectric air conditioning took 4 minutes to reach its desired temperature of 22℃ whereas the standard air conditioning system (Refrigeration Cycle) took 20 minutes to cool to a room temperature. Economically it was also discovered that thermoelectric air conditioning system is 50% cheaper than the refrigeration cycle air conditioning systems. The thermoelectric air conditioner has cheaper maintenance and greater estimated life span of 7 years more than the refrigeration air conditioner. This is because the air conditioner that operates on the refrigeration cycle uses a rotating compressor while the thermoelectric air conditioner uses thermometric module.


The objective of the study is to investigate the performance improvement in a split air conditioning system using evaporative cooling pads at ODU (outdoor unit) and to determine optimum thickness and material of the cooling pad. For this purpose experiments were conducted on 0.8 TR capacity split air conditioner charged with refrigerant R-22. For comparison experiments were performed with and without evaporative cooling pad. The effect of the different cooling pad material and thickness on the overall performance of split air conditioner is experimentally found by measuring cooling capacity and the power consumption of the system including water circulation pump. From the experimental work it is found that the cellulose cooling pad gives the best results among the selected materials. Split air conditioner coupled with cellulose cooling pad of 100 mm thickness at ODU results in to 13.8% increase in overall COP, 9.5 % reduction in power consumption and 5.1 % increase in cooling capacity at 35°C DBT and 32% relative humidity outdoor air condition.


2016 ◽  
Vol 819 ◽  
pp. 189-201
Author(s):  
M.F. Sukri ◽  
Md Nor Musa ◽  
M.Y. Senawi ◽  
H. Nasution

This paper presents a steady-state modeling and parametric study on the characteristics of cooling loads for an automotive air-conditioning system. The model enables the hourly prediction of vehicular cabin cooling load profile at various operating conditions and types of vehicle. The model utilizes correlations and equations proposed by ASHRAE and previous researchers available in the open literature. A validation exercise indicates that the simulation results are within 5% of published results. In the parametric study, the effects of five parameters: vehicle surface color, number of passenger, cabin temperature, vehicle speed and angle of front wind screen on the hourly cooling load profile on a daily basis are investigated. It was found that an increase in number of passenger and vehicle speed, darker vehicle surface color and lower cabin temperature will increase the cooling load. Meanwhile, the angle of front wind screen does not significantly influence the cooling load profile. In conclusion, the cooling loads profile can be used for air-conditioning system improvement/optimization exercise. The generic model can be used for complete vehicle air-conditioning simulation program towards energy-efficient air-conditioning system for better overall performance, especially in the early stage of vehicle development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 1350013 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHIH-CHIU SHEN ◽  
JAU-HUAI LU

Due to the concern in energy shortage and environmental protection, electric vehicle is considered to be a substitute for the conventional gasoline-powered vehicles due to its characteristics of high efficiency and no emission. However, the load of air conditioning causes a serious problem for electric vehicles, especially in tropical and subtropical areas. The compressor of conventional air conditioning system is driven by engine and its speed is thus coupled to vehicle speed. In electric vehicles, the compressor is driven by electric motors and compressor speed could be decoupled to vehicle speed. This mechanism provides an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of electric vehicle since the operation of air conditioning system may be independent of vehicle speed. The purpose of this paper is to find out the electric fan operation model as vehicle speed is varied. This paper was to establish a theoretical model for the condenser of automotive air conditioner and to conduct simulation to evaluate the effect of vehicle speed on the cooling capacity and sub-cooling of condenser. Results of simulation demonstrated that vehicle with 6 km h-1 speed has the 5°C of sub-cooling at 0.0266 kg s-1 of refrigerant flow rate and the cooling capacity was 4.93 kW. In this study, an increase of 16.6% in cooling capacity can be reached as the speed of vehicle was raised from 6 to 110 km h-1 and can promote the sub-cooling to 19.5°C. It was also found that the cooling capacity of air conditioner is extremely sensitive to vehicle speed while the vehicle is running at low speed. Furthermore, increases in the vehicle speed resulted in reduction of the length of superheat region from 17.5 to 8.5 cm. Finally, a correlation among these variables and the simulated cooling capacity was obtained in this study, enabling the relevant researchers to evaluate automotive air conditioner performance under different vehicle speeds more easily.


2012 ◽  
Vol 433-440 ◽  
pp. 4490-4495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Zhang Liu ◽  
An Hong Gong ◽  
Li Xia Yao

A real-time experimental method for room cooling load calculations is developed in this paper. Experimental based study was also performed during summer months of 2010 in a reference office room in Shanghai. Hourly indoor temperature curves were drawn and the cooling capacity of air conditioner was measured. One energy simulation tool, Designer’s Simulation Toolkits (DeST), was used to calculate the basic dynamic temperature and hourly cooling loads. Comparison of results from real-time experimental method and DeST simulation shows that the proposal model can be used in cooling load calculations, with an average 2.5% relative error to DeST results.


Author(s):  
Azridjal Aziz ◽  
Muhammad Rif’at Syahnan ◽  
Afdhal Kurniawan Mainil ◽  
Rahmat Iman Mainil

Split air conditioning systems produce reasonable amount of condensate which is usually not utilized and thrown away to the environment. On the other hand, it consumes a lot of energy during operation. The aim of this study is to investigate the improvement of air conditioning systems performance utilizing condensate. A direct evaporative cooling using condensate is incorporated on a 0.74 ton-cooling capacity of split air conditioning to decrease the air temperature before entering the condenser. Performances of the split air conditioning with and without direct evaporative cooling are compared and presented in this paper. The results show that the use of direct evaporative cooling using condensate into the air before passing through the condenser reduces the compressor discharge pressure. The decrease of the condenser pressure led to 4.7% and 7% reduction of power consumption for air conditioner without cooling load and air conditioner with 2000 W cooling load, respectively. The cooling effect and coefficient of performance (COP) increase with the decrease of compressor power. The use of direct evaporative cooling with condensate into the air before entering the condensing system can enhance the system performance and protect the environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andriyanto Setyawan

Obstructions of air flow in the outdoor unit could block the condenser air flow and reduce its heat rejection As a result, it could decrease the performance of a room air conditioning system. The paper presents the effects of the air flow obstruction of a condensing unit on the performance of a split-type air conditioner with refrigerant R410A. The study was conducted experimentally by employing front and side obstructions with varied distance from the condensing unit. The front obstruction of 100 cm height was applied at varied distance from 10 cm to 100 cm, while the side obstruction of the same height was applied at distance of 5, 10, and 15 cm. The presence of air flow obstructions results in the decrease of cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP). On the other hand, it increases the input power of the AC unit. From the experiment, it is obvious that the distance of front obstruction of 10 cm results in the reduction of cooling capacity by 46% and COP by 56%. It is also revealed that the distance of the front obstruction of 50 cm or more has no significant effect for the performance of the air conditioning unit. In addition, the side obstructions have the less significant effect than that of the front obstruction.


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