Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 13911402

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Transient characteristic of reciprocating compressors in household refrigerators

S. Porkhial a, B. Khastoo
a b

a,*

, M.R. Modarres Razavi

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University, P.O. Box 15875-4413 Tehran, Iran Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University, P.O. Box 91775-1111 Mashhad, Iran Received 10 September 2001; accepted 21 February 2002

Abstract Reduction in energy consumption associated with household appliances is a challenging subject. One of the appliances with great contribution in energy consumption is the household refrigerators [1,2]. Among the dierent components of a refrigerator, the compressor has the most eect on system energy consumption. A knowledge of the transient performance of compressors is vital for reduction of energy consumption and improving the overall performance of a refrigerator. In this paper the M7 model of 1/5 hp Nicchi compressor belonging to 12 ft3 refrigerators with refrigerant R12 is selected as a sample and dierent tests are carried out to determine its transient behavior. Based on the analysis of experimental results, the governing equations and the simulation program of transient behavior have been developed. Good agreement between theoretical and experimental results means that the simulation model could be an appropriate tool to study the transient behavior of reciprocating compressors in dierent conditions. Analysis of predicted and experimental results shows that refrigerators consume more power in the transient mode as compared to the steady mode, therefore shortening the transient period can lower the energy consumption of the system. Also an isentropic assumption for the hermetic compressor is not a correct assumption, especially for the transient mode. With appropriate design of compressor inlet which locates it near to the suction valve, the energy eciency will be improved. 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Compressor; Transient; Eciency; Household; Refrigerator

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98-21-640-5844; fax: +98-21-641-9736. E-mail addresses: porkhial@yahoo.com (S. Porkhial), khastoo@cic.aku.ac.ir (B. Khastoo), m-razavi@ kamal.um.ac.ir (M.R. Modarres Razavi). 1359-4311/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 4 6 - 7

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Nomenclature C E h k m M N P W Q t T S Qmix Qnet v t gv g specic heat, kJ/kg K electrical power input to motor, kW specic enthalpy, kJ/kg specic heat ratio mass ow rate, kg/min mass, kg rotational speed of compressor, RPM pressure, kPa rate of work done by compressor, kW rate of heat transfer, kW time, min temperature, K entropy, kJ/kg K rate of heat transfer during mixing of input cold refrigerant and hot refrigerant rate of heat transfer from all components in shell to vapor refrigerant in shell, kW volume, m3 specic volume, m3 /kg volumetric eciency eciency

Subscripts 1 refrigerant leaving shell 3 refrigerant entering 4 refrigerant leaving discharge valve 6 refrigerant entering suction valve ctwo from discharge tube to refrigerant shell cw compressor wall d discharge in input mot electromotor out output oil oil s suction sv refrigerant vapor in shell svw from refrigerant to wall of shell swa from wall of shell to ambient sw wall of shell f refrigerant fw from refrigerant to wall of tube wa from wall of tube to ambient w wall of tube

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1. Introduction According to the recent studies, in Iran 8% of the total annual electricity consumption and 28% of the residential annual electricity consumptions belong to refrigerator-freezers [3]. Considering that, the largest portion of the refrigerator energy consumption is due to the compressor, study optimization of compressors could be very important. On the other hand, compressors experience a transient process during the normal ono cycle of refrigerators. Therefore, in this study, the prime factors of transient performance of compressor (i.e., the inlet and outlet temperatures and pressures, temperature distribution of compressor shell, voltage, amperage, and electrical power of the compressor) have been experimentally measured and analyzed. Then, according to this analysis, a simulation computer program for compressor has been developed. The simulation is based on transient start up of the compressor. The refrigerant has been simulated as a lumped system and it has been assumed that the compression process of the gas in the compressor cylinder is adiabatic. In this simulation, the conservative equations of mass and energy for the refrigerant and the energy equation for all parts of the compressor have been developed and solved with the equations of state and heat transfer simultaneously. The input data for the code are geometric dimension, inlet pressure and temperature which have been used for calculating the time dependent temperature of refrigerant, the temperatures of the oil and wall, heat transfer between dierent parts, electrical power consumed, volumetric eciency and electromotor eciency. The results of the simulation program have been compared with experimental results and necessary model modication has been done in order to achieve more accurate results. Finally the results were discussed and recommendation was concluded.

2. Laboratory studies The objective of the laboratory studies is to gain better understanding of the compressor performance in the transient state by means of measuring the related parameters in this process. In this respect, an insulated test room (called hot room) with the ability to set the desired temperature (43 C in this test) has been prepared. Then a typical refrigerator equipped with the desired compressor is placed in the hot room and all parts of the system are allowed to reach the rooms xed temperature. Temperature and pressure transmitters are connected to the compressor input and output, and some thermocouples are placed in dierent parts of the compressor shell. After all parts reach the xed temperature the refrigerator will be started and pressure and temperature data are recorded and processed by a computer. Also voltage, amperage, power factor and electrical power of compressor are measured and saved all the time. Some curves that have been obtained from these data are presented in Figs. 14. Fig. 5 shows the enthalpy changes with measured pressures and temperatures in the compressor inlet and outlet. If we superimpose the data on a P h diagram (Fig. 6) for dierent time intervals, we can see that the entropy change (Ds) is negative at rst and then gradually tends toward zero (isentropic process), but never becomes isentropic. This not only helps us to better understand the operation of the compressor, but also leads us to conclude that the assumption of an isentropic process for the compressor is not valid. In addition, some tests were carried out on the electromotor of the compressor in Amir Kabir University and Iran Compressor Manufacturing Company Labs, from which the results are

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Fig. 1. Experimental results of the changes of the refrigerant temperature at the inlet and the outlet of the compressor.

Fig. 2. Experimental results of the changes of the refrigerant pressure at the inlet and the outlet of the compressor.

presented in Table 1. As it is evident, the eciency of the electromotor is between 56% and 72%, which can be used to estimate the power loss in the electromotor in the form of heat.

3. Theoretical studies Fig. 7 presents a schematic of the compressor within the hermetic shell. It shows that hermetic compressors can be divided into two parts: (1) the cylinder, piston, electromotor and other

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Fig. 3. Experimental results of the changes of electrical power consumption of the compressor.

Fig. 4. Experimental results of the changes of the surface temperature of the compressor shell.

components in the shell, (2) the compressors shell. The refrigerant vapor leaving the evaporator enters the shell (point 3), and after absorbing the heat of motor and cylinder walls enters the suction tube (sv point). Refrigerant leaving the suction tube passes a line in cylinder wall near the piston and absorbs parts of the cylinder and piston heat, so refrigerant input to suction valve (point 6) is superheated. After compression in the cylinder, refrigerant leaves the discharge valve with high temperature (point 4). This high temperature refrigerant passes another line in the cylinder wall near piston and releases parts of its heat to the cylinder. Then the refrigerant is directed to the output of the shell (point 1) and releases its heat to low temperature vapor inside

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Fig. 5. Changes of the refrigerant enthalpy in the inlet and the outlet of the compressor.

Fig. 6. Changes of refrigerant properties in the inlet and the outlet of the compressor (points 1 and 3 in Fig. 7) versus the time on the P h diagram.

the shell. As it is seen, the refrigerant while entering and leaving the shell experiences dierent paths where there are considerable heat transfers. Therefore assessment and modelling of the involved heat transfers are important in the compression transient simulation. The derived equations based on the following assumptions: 1. 2. 3. 4. Compression process in the compressor cylinder is adiabatic. The compressor shaft rotates at a constant angular speed. Pressure drops across the suction and discharge lines are negligible. The state of refrigerant in the cylinder is homogeneous.

S. Porkhial et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 13911402 Table 1 Experimental results of the compressor electromotor Torque of shaft (kg cm) 2 Motor voltage (V) 219.9 Frequency (Hz) 49.9 Speed (RPM) 2955 Line current (A) 1.235 Power input (W) 108.22 Power output (W) 60.7 Eciency 56.09 Power factor 0.398 3 219.9 49.9 2942 1.302 141.48 90.6 64.07 0.494 3.45 220.6 49.9 2938 1.344 157.12 104.1 66.24 0.53 5.2 220.6 49.9 2911 1.528 219.53 155.5 70.82 0.651 7 220.5 49.9 2879 1.775 287.82 207 71.92 0.735 8.6 220.2 49.9 2847 2.031 350.92 251.4 71.65 0.785

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10 220 49.9 2813 2.301 413.2 288.1 69.91 0.816

Fig. 7. A sketch of input, output and other parts in hermetic compressor.

Assumption 1 is used only for the compressor cylinder, and it is not valid for the whole compression process in the hermetic compressor. The approach to the assessment of the mass ow rate, the temperatures in dierent parts of compressor, the rate of heat transfer and the rate of work done on the vapor in compressor is as follows. The mass ow rate in the compressor is given by [4]. m1 Vd N gv =tsv : The rate of work done on the vapor in the compression cylinder is calculated from [5]. W k =k 1Vd N gv Ps 1 Pd =Ps k 1=k : 2 1

The specic enthalpy of the vapor leaving the compressor is obtained from an energy balance on the vapor in the compressor cylinder. h4 h6 W =m1 : 3

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The temperature of the refrigerant vapor leaving the compressor cylinder (T4 ) is then calculated from property equations [6,7] knowing the specic enthalpy and pressure in the outlet of compressor cylinder. The specic enthalpy of refrigerant vapor in the shell is calculated from the equations of the mass and energy balance on the vapor in the shell dMsv =dt m3 m1 ; Msv dhsv =dt m3 h3 hsv Qnet Msv tsv dPsv =dt: 4 5

By knowing the specic enthalpy and pressure in the shell, the specic volume and temperature of the refrigerant vapor in the shell are calculated from the property equations [6,7]. The new mass in the shell can be calculated from specic volume. In the above equations Qnet is the net heat transfer to the vapor refrigerant in the shell and according to Fig. 7 is calculated as Qnet Qmot Qoil Qcw Qctwo Qsvw : 6

These heat transfers include both radiation and convection where the coecients of heat transfers for convection were calculated from experimental correlations proposed by Churchill and Usagi [8], Lioyd and Moran [9], and Clemes et al. [10]. By knowing the electromotor eciency from Table 1, the energy which is converted to heat in electromotor can be calculated as Qmot E W W =gmot W : The wall temperature of motor can be determined from the energy balance on the wall. Mmot Cmot dTmot =dt Qmot Qrad Qconv Qcond : 8 7

The temperatures of other components of the hermatic compressor, including the wall of cylinder, the refrigerant in the inlet of suction valve, the wall of suction tube, the refrigerant in the outlet of discharge valve, the wall of discharge tube, the oil in the shell, wall of shell in bottom and top and the refrigerant in the outlet of the discharge tube can be calculated from the energy balance on the refrigerant, the oil and the wall. As an example, energy balance for wall of the discharge tube is as following: mCf Tin Tout Qfw ; Mw Cw dTw =dt Qfw Qwa : 9 10

4. Results and discussion Reviewing the results of the laboratory studies (Figs. 1 and 2) show that the duration of the transient state is about 2 h while it has the highest electricity consumption as shown in Fig. 3. This becomes more signicant when we observe that the refrigerators turn o and on at least once in an hour, in another word the compressor is mostly working in the transient mode. Therefore shortening this period can lead to a lower energy consumption.

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Fig. 8. Experimental and theoretical results of the refrigerant temperature at the outlet of the compressor shell.

Fig. 9. Experimental and theoretical results ofthe electrical power consumption of the compressor.

In the hermetic compressor simulation method the process is usually considered as isentropic or polythropic [11,12] while as it is evident from Fig. 6, this assumption leads to some discrepancy compare to experimental results, because as Fig. 6 indicate the entropy changes (Ds) are negative at the beginning and although tends toward isentropic case, never reach to isentropic process. Negative signs of entropy changes at the beginning of the transient state and the point that the enthalpy dierence of actual process is less than the enthalpy dierence of the isentropic case can lead us to identication of high rate heat transfer in the process. Based on these ndings, we

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Fig. 10. Experimental and theoretical results of the surface temperature of the compressor shell.

Fig. 11. Theoretical results of the changes of the mass ow rate from the compressor.

started to study the behavior of the hermetic compressor and its components very carefully in order to simulate its performance in the transient period. Predicted results from simulation program and experimental results are shown in Figs. 813. The refrigerant temperature at the outlet of the compressor shell in Fig. 8, the electrical power consumption of the compressor in Fig. 9 and the temperature on the surface of the compressor shell in Fig. 10, experimentally and theoretically, are presented and compared. The good agreement between the theoretical results from the simulation program and experimental results especially for the transient response behavior are evident. Fig. 11 shows the changes of the mass ow rate leaving the compressor;

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Fig. 12. Theoretical results of the refrigerant temperatures at the cylinder valve inlet and outlet.

Fig. 13. Theoretical temperatures of the electromotor wall, the cylinder wall, the oil sump, and the refrigerant in the compressor shell.

changing rapidly from a relatively high rate for transient case to a low rate related to steady state condition. Fig. 12 shows the temperatures of the refrigerant entering the suction valve and leaving the discharge valve. A signicant dierence can be seen between the inlet and the outlet, and also the inlet temperature of suction valve is relatively high. A comparison between the inlet temperature of suction valve (T6 ) with the temperature of refrigerant vapor in shell (Tsv ) shows that both temperatures are nearly the same while there is a signicant dierence between compressor inlet temperature (T3 ) and the refrigerant vapor temperature in shell. This temperature dierence is due to the shell space as it receives heat from the electromotor and compressor wall and hence

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leading to a temperature increase as such that the mixing stream of refrigerant inlet with the vapor refrigerant in shell has no important eect on the temperature of vapor in the shell. That is to say; in spite of cool refrigerant entering the cylinder of the compressor through return tube, hot refrigerant enters the suction valve due to receiving heat from the compressor and electromotor. Therefore it is noted that the distance between the refrigerant inlet of the compressor and the suction valve inlet increases the temperature and hence reduces the overall eciency of the system. So, with appropriate design of compressor inlet adjacent to the suction valve, reducing this to a ne gap, the energy eciency will be improved.

5. Conclusion The conclusion reached in this research are listed below. The refrigerators consume more power in the transient mode than in the steady state condition. The isentropic assumption for the compression process, in the hermetic compressors, is not valid, especially for the transient mode. The developed simulation model can predict well the transient characteristic of the reciprocating hermetic compressor.

References
[1] E. Granryd, Energy saving in vapor compression refrigerating systems, in: Proceedings International Symposium of Refrigeration, Energy and Environment, Norway, June 1992, pp. 4360. [2] R. Radermacher, K. Kim, Domestic refrigerators: recent development, Int. J. Refriger. 19 (1) (1996) 6169. [3] A. Haydari, Standard label for energy consumption of household refrigerators, Research report in Iranian ministry of electrical board, Energy division, 1999. [4] W.F. Stoecker, J.W. Jones, Refrigeration and Airconditioning, second ed., Mc GrawHill Book Co, New York, 1982. [5] J.B. Jones, G.A. Howkins, Engineering Thermodynamics, second ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1986. [6] R.C. Dowing, Refrigerant equations, ASHRAE Transactions 88 (2) (1974) 291306. [7] G.W. Catecli, E.R. Lady, Mathematical representation of thermodynamic properties of refrigerant 12 and 22 in the superheat region, in: 8th International Congress of Refrigeration,Washington DC, 1971. [8] S.W. Churchill, R. Usagi, A general expression for the correlation of rates of heat transfer and other phenomena, AICHE J. 18 (1972) 11211128. [9] S.B. Clemes, K.G.T. Hollands, A.P. Brunger, Natural convection heat transfer from horizontal isothermal cylinders, J. Heat Trans. 116 (1994) 96104. [10] J.R. Lioyd,W.R. Moran, Natural convection adjacent to horizontal surface of various planforms, ASME paper, 74-wa/ht-66, 1994. [11] A. Jakobsen, Dynamic modelling and simulation of a domestic refrigerator, in: 19th International Congress of Refrigeration, vol. IIIa, 1995, pp. 345352. [12] X.D. He, S. Liu, Modelling of vapor compression cycles for multivariable feedback control of HVAC systems, J. Dyn. Syst.Measur. Control 119 (1997) 183191.