Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental analysis and simpli®ed modelling of a

hermetic scroll refrigeration compressor
Eric Winandy a,*,1,2, Claudio Saavedra O. a,2, Jean Lebrun b,1
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Concepci
on, Casilla 160, Concepcion, Chile
b
Laboratory of Thermodynamics, University of Li
ege, Campus du Sart Tilman, B^ at. B49, B-4000 Liege, Belgium
Received 7 February 2001; accepted 8 August 2001

Abstract
The ®rst part of this paper presents a detailed analysis of the results obtained in a previous experimental
study. In the frame of that study, a hermetic scroll compressor has been equipped with internal sensors by
the manufacturer.
The analysis reveals the main processes a€ecting the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate as well as the compressor
power and the discharge temperature.
Based on these experimental results, a simpli®ed model of the scroll compressor is proposed. It assumes
that the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate is a€ected by a suction temperature increase due to heat gained from a
uniform wall temperature. This ®ctitious wall is supposed to gain heat from the electromechanical losses
and from the discharged gas and to loose heat to the suction gas and to the ambient. The compression
process is considered to be isentropic up to the ``adapted'' pressure and then isochoric until the discharge
pressure.
The model is able to compute variables of primary importance, like the mass ¯ow rate, the electric power
and the discharge temperature, as well as secondary variables such as suction heating-up, discharge cooling-
down, and ambient losses. Ó 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Keywords: Scroll compressor; Internal measurements; Internal heat transfers; Power losses; Fixed built-in volume ratio
compression; Model

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +56-41-203543; fax: +56-41-251142.
E-mail addresses: eric.winandy@planetmail.com (E. Winandy), csaavedra@udec.cl (Claudio Saavedra O.),
j.lebrun@ulg.ac.be (J. Lebrun).
1
Back since April 2000 at the Laboratory of Thermodynamics, University of Liege, Campus du Sart Tilman, B^
at.
B49, B-4000 Liege, Belgium. Tel.: +32-4-3664800; fax: +32-4-3664812.
2
Tel.: +56-41-203543; fax: +56-41-251142.

1359-4311/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 8 3 - 7
108 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

Nomenclature

AU heat transfer coecient (J K 1 )

C coecient
1
cp speci®c heat at constant pressure (J kg K 1)
h speci®c enthalpy (J kg 1 )
M _ mass ¯ow rate (kg s 1 )
N revolution speed (Hz)
p pressure (bar)
Q_ heat ¯ow rate (W)
R ratio
s speci®c entropy (J kg 1 K 1 )
t temperature (°C)
v speci®c volume (m3 kg 1 )
V volume (m3 )
W_ power (W)
Subscripts
ad adapted
amb ambient
comp compressor
ex machine discharge
ex1 scroll discharge
f ®nal
in internal
loss0 constant losses
mes measured
mot motor
nom nominal
p isobaric
trap trapped
s isentropic, swept
sim simulated
su machine suction
su1 scroll suction
v volume
w wall
Greeks
a coecient
D di€erence
e eciency, ratio
 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 109

1. Introduction

Scroll compressors are currently used in residential and commercial air conditioning, refrig-
eration and heat pump application as well as in automotive air conditioning. Their capacity
ranges from 3 to 50 kW. The scroll was invented 90 years ago but due to manufacturing di-
culties, it has only become commercially available in 1981. The advantages of the scroll com-
pressor are high eciency, low torque variations, low noise, reliability and tolerance to refrigerant
droplets [1].
Compressor models are useful at di€erent levels:

1. for compressor design;

2. for plant design to minimize the energy consumption or maximize the production;
3. for plant control and management of the process, to compare di€erent strategies, for fault de-
tection, or for preventive maintenance.

Many models published in the literature are adapted to the ®rst use level. In general, one
particular e€ect is studied like the force balance of the mobile scroll, the leakage, the lubrication,
the vibrations, the noise, etc. A few studies present models of the complete process [2,3]. These
detailed models take into account the geometry of the scrolls (height, excentricity, etc.), the scroll
dynamics and deformations, internal leakage, etc. They require a large number of parameters
which are only known by the manufacturer.
For both the second and third use levels of compressor models, simpler and faster models are
needed. The idea is to get accurate models in which the parameters are obtained from tests on site
or from catalogue data. This approach has been widely used in the case of reciprocating com-
pressors since Hiller and Glicksmann in 1976 [4]. Since then, many models are an improvement or
an adaptation of their model.
In the case of screw compressors, Bourdhouxhe et al. in the ASHRAE Toolkit for primary
HVAC equipment [5] presented a simple model with ®ve parameters that have a physical sig-
ni®cance. This point is important since it permits one to use default information if experimental
results are not available. It assumes a suction heating-up due to electromechanical losses, isen-
tropic compression and leakage through an area to identify. More details on the ASHRAE toolkit
are given in the model description of this paper. Unfortunately, this model cannot predict the
compressor discharge temperature and of course nor the ambient losses.
Another interesting simple model has been presented by Haberschill et al. [6]. It requires 11
parameters of which two are the internal built-in volume ratio and swept volume supposed known
a priori to identify the nine others. These nine parameters are, on the other side, totally empirical.
The model does not take into account any suction heating-up, it takes into account the leakage
and a polytropic compression until the built-in volume ratio followed by an isentropic com-
pression in the discharge plenum. This model permits one to predict the discharge temperature
together with the mass ¯ow rate and the electric power.
The model presented here is based on a detailed experimental analysis that includes mea-
surements inside the compressor; it goes in the direction of the ASHRAE Toolkit in the fact that it
aims at keeping physical meaningful parameters. However it di€ers quite a lot from this model in
the processes it takes into account and by the fact that it predicts not only the mass ¯ow rate
110 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

and the electric consumption but also the ambient loss and the corresponding discharge tem-
perature.

2. Analysis of the experimental results

Twenty eight di€erent tests were carried out over the whole range of the compressor. They were
taken at a suction temperature of 25 °C except test 1 at 18 °C. The refrigerant used was R22,
pressure and temperature measurements were made at all characteristic points of the refrigerant
circuit. The refrigerant mass ¯ow rate was measured by steady state heat balance of the refrig-
erant-water cooler (error estimated: 3%).
Table 1 presents the results obtained and Fig. 1 presents the position of the sensors. The table
has been divided into two parts.

Table 1
Test results
Test Imposed Obtained
psu tsu pex tsu1 Dpsu tex tex1 Dpex N M_ W_ mot
(bar) (°C) (bar) (°C) (mbar) (°C) (°C) (mbar) (Rpm) (kg s 1 ) (W)
1 6.3 18.3 21.5 35.2 7.9 97.6 103 120.8 2893 0.194 9252
2 7.3 25 25.33 42 8.8 106.4 112 140.6 2869 0.224 10820
3 7.3 25 21.7 38.9 9.3 94.4 99 169.4 2895 0.229 9291
4 7.3 25 17.3 36.1 9.5 79.8 83 222.9 2915 0.234 7520
5 7.3 25 11.9 33.8 9.4 62.2 65 324.4 2939 0.238 5653
6 6.8 25 13.6 35.3 6.1 71.2 75 242 2933 0.217 6153
7 6.8 25 19.4 38.7 5.3 91.3 96 158.3 2903 0.212 8369
8 6.8 25 24.3 42.7 3.7 108.2 113 122.1 2877 0.206 10347
9 6.2 25 24.3 45.1 10.7 115 121 99.8 2872 0.179 10321
10 6.2 25 21.7 42.5 2.9 105.7 111 112.6 2891 0.187 9264
11 6.2 25 15.3 37.4 1.1 82.1 86 165.5 2927 0.194 6729
12 6.2 25 11.9 35.6 6.3 69.6 73.1 206 2939 0.197 5555
13 5.8 25 13.5 37.7 8.5 78.6 83 164.2 2933 0.182 6126
14 5.8 25 19.4 41.4 9.9 100.1 106 107.2 2901 0.178 8430
15 5.8 25 25.3 46.9 9.5 122.7 130 73.7 2865 0.172 10998
16 5 25 21.7 47.9 8.4 123.2 131 56.7 2884 0.144 9353
17 5 25 17.3 45 9.1 105.8 112 78.2 2909 0.148 7546
18 5 25 11.9 39.9 6.3 81.4 86 116.1 2941 0.152 5460
19 5 25 19.4 43.8 9.3 110.8 118 66.2 2905 0.148 8357
20 4.2 25 19.4 48.8 7.4 125.3 134 37.4 2897 0.121 8360
21 4.2 25 15.3 46.3 8.0 108.4 116 52.5 2923 0.123 6743
22 4.2 25 13.5 43.8 8.7 98.9 106 57.4 2933 0.125 6046
23 3.5 25 11.9 45.2 7.2 100.6 108 28 2939 0.103 5404
24 3.5 25 15.3 48.1 17 118.1 127 24.3 2921 0.102 6687
25 3.5 25 17.3 50.5 15.4 128.6 139 21.4 2909 0.101 7500
26 3 25 15.3 56.2 0.8 136.4 148 1.3 2917 0.081 6793
27 3 25 13.5 53.8 0.9 125.6 136 0.2 2927 0.082 5993
28 2.4 25 11.9 56.2 1.4 128.6 141 41.7 2935 0.067 5343
 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 111

Fig. 1. Sketch of the scroll compressor and position of the sensors.

In the ®rst part are the conditions imposed: the suction temperature and pressure tsu and psu
respectively, and the discharge pressure pex .
In the second part are the results obtained: the compressor discharge temperature tex , the
temperatures tsu1 and tex1 at inlet and outlet of the scrolls (of the compression chamber), the
pressure di€erence between the compressor suction and scroll inlet Dpsu and the pressure di€erence
between the scroll outlet and the compressor discharge Dpex , the speed of rotation measured by a
proximity sensor placed on the mobile scroll, the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate M _ and the motor
electric power consumption W_ mot . The tests have been equally distributed over the range of 3±7 bar
for psu and 12±25 bar for pex .

2.1. Suction heating-up and discharge cooling-down

With the information given by the temperature sensors at the compressor scroll inlet and outlet,
it is possible to measure the heating-up during the suction and the cooling-down of the refrigerant
during the discharge, both in the compressor shell. Fig. 2 presents the results obtained. The
temperature increase at the suction is much higher than the decrease at the discharge. It reaches
almost 35 K at the suction, while 13 K at the discharge.
The main variable a€ecting the temperature changes of the refrigerant is the pressure ratio.

2.2. Throttling

Fig. 3 shows the pressure di€erence between the suction pipe and the inlet to the scroll and the
pressure di€erence between the outlet chamber (upper part of the casing) and the discharge pipe.
It can be seen that the pressure di€erence is close to 0 at the suction and quite small at the
discharge: maximum 0.35 bar. This di€erence is due in part to pressure drop and in the other part
112 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

Fig. 2. Suction heating-up and discharge cooling-down.

Fig. 3. Pressure drop during the suction and the discharge.

to dynamic pressure. Indeed, the sensor in the upper part of the casing is measuring the total
pressure (the gas velocity is quite small due to the big area) and the pressure sensor in the pipe is
measuring the static pressure. Estimation of the dynamic pressure gives that 40% of the pressure
di€erence can be attributed to the dynamic e€ect.

2.3. Actually trapped volume

Fig. 4 presents the actual trapped volume de®ned by:

_ su
Mv
Vtrap ˆ …1†
N
First it has been calculated with the compressor suction conditions (conditions ``su''), then with
the scroll inlet conditions (conditions ``su1''). As it can be seen, taking into account the suction gas
heating-up gives a quite constant calculated trapped volume, while taking into account suction
conditions no. The e€ect of suction heating varies from 5% to 13% with the pressure ratio.
The e€ect of motor sliding was evaluated by computing the trapped volume with a constant
revolution speed of 2900 rpm and with the measured revolution speed: a di€erence of 1.5% was
observed. Thus we conclude that the motor sliding is not important.
 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 113

Fig. 4. Trapped volume computed with the suction conditions (``su'') and with the scroll inlet conditions (``su1'').

A swept volume of 175  5 cm3 has been identi®ed while the swept volume given by the
manufacturer is of 165.5 cm3 . This gives a di€erence of 6%.
This di€erence may be attributed to a systematic error on the measurement of the refrigerant
mass ¯ow rate. This would mean that the relative error would be the same at low as at high mass
¯ow rate, which would be strange. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that, due to the
geometry of the scrolls, a small overpressure is generated at the closing of the scroll [7]. In this
case, it would be of 6%.

2.4. Internal and compressor eciencies

Fig. 5 presents the internal isentropic eciency (if the compression is considered adiabatic) and
the compressor isentropic eciency versus the internal volume ratio. These magnitudes are de-
®ned as follows:

Fig. 5. Internal and compressor eciencies.

114 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

hex1;s hsu1
ein;s ˆ …2†
hex1 hsu1
hex;s hsu
ecomp;s ˆ …3†
W_ mot
vex1
Rv;in ˆ …4†
vsu1
where hex1 is the enthalpy computed at the conditions ex1 (outlet of the scrolls) and hex1;s is the
enthalpy computed at the pressure pex1 , considering an isentropic process from su1.
Concerning the internal isentropic eciency, two observations can be made:

· Firstly the trend is typical of the e€ect of a no-adapted external pressure ratio to the ®xed built-
in volume ratio (see Section 4, paragraph 3): the eciency increases as the volume ratio in-
creases, passes through a maximum and then decreases slightly at higher volume ratios [8].
· Secondly, the maximal eciency reaches 100%, which means that it is as if the e€ects of leakage
and internal heat transfer were not detected.

The compressor eciency shows the same trend as the internal one. This means that it is
possible to identify the internal built-in volume ratio from external measurements. Indeed, the
maximum of the curve occurs for an adapted volume ratio.

3. Compressor modelling

The conceptual schema of the compressor is presented in Fig. 6. It is based on a similar ap-
proach established for reciprocating compressors [9]. The evolution of the refrigerant state
through the compressor is decomposed into four steps. It is presented in Fig. 7:

(i) Heating-up (su ! su1).

(ii) Isentropic compression (su1 ! ad).
(iii) Compression at a ®xed volume (ad ! ex1).
(iv) Cooling down (ex1! ex).

Fig. 6. Conceptual schema of the compressor model.

 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 115

Fig. 7. Thermodynamic cycle.

3.1. Prediction of the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate

The refrigerant mass ¯ow rate is given by:

M_ ˆ NVs …5†
vsu1
Vs is the constant swept volume, not known a priori (or taken in ®ctitious value as a parameter of
the model), and the speci®c volume at the compressor inlet vsu1 has to be computed taking into
account the heating-up. We do not consider throttling.

3.1.1. Heat transfer

In general, the di€erent heat transfers in a compressor include the one to the suction gas, the
heating-up due to the electromechanical losses, the heat given by the high temperature discharge
gas and the heat transfer to the ambient.
We assume that a ®ctitious wall of uniform temperature tw is able to represent all the heat
transfer modes mentioned above as shown in the conceptual schema of Fig. 6. Steady state
balance for this wall gives:
W_ loss ‡ Q_ ex Q_ su Q_ amb ˆ 0 …6†
Equations for the ®ctitious suction heat exchanger of constant wall temperature are:
Q_ su ˆ M
_ cp …tsu1 tsu † …7†
and
Q_ su ˆ esu M
_ cp …tw tsu † …8†
where
AUsu =M_ cp †
esu ˆ 1 e… …9†
The same set of equations is used for the discharge heat transfer. The ambient losses are given by:
Q_ amb ˆ AUamb …tw tamb † …10†
116 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

3.2. Prediction of the discharge temperature

The compression step is considered adiabatic from su1 to ex1, so the discharge temperature is
computed by:
hex1 hsu1 ˆ win …11†

where win is the adiabatic internal work developed in the next section. The discharge temperature
tex is then computed by the same set of equations as Eq. (7) to Eq. (9).
The mass ¯ow rate and temperature characteristics are thus de®ned by means of the following
parameters: Vs , AUsu , AUex and AUamb .

3.3. Prediction of the compressor shaft power

3.3.1. Over- and under-compression

The scroll compressor is a ®xed geometry machine. Its internal built-in volume ratio e is ®xed
by the design of the compressor:
Vs
eˆ …12†
Vf
where Vs is the initial volume and Vf the ®nal one. For a given refrigerant at given conditions, it
will give a ®xed internal pressure ratio. Now if the external pressure ratio is di€erent to the in-
ternal pressure ratio, the compressor is not adapted (Fig. 8b and c) and power losses R2ad220 are
generated regarded to the adapted process (Fig. 8a).
The e€ect of the no-adaptation of the internal volume ratio is more severe at lower pressure
ratio: ®rst the pressure±volume isentropic slope is inferior at lower pressure ratio and secondly the
total work is lower so the relative e€ect of the no-adaptation is stronger.
We assume that the compression is adiabatic. We divide the compression in two parts, the ®rst
one is adiabatic-reversible (and so isentropic) up to the adapted pressure, and the second one

Fig. 8. (a) Adapted P2 ˆ Pad , (b) over pressure P2 > Pad , (c) under pressure P2 < Pad .
 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 117

adiabatic at constant volume. This second part corresponds to the opening of the compression
chamber to the discharge plenum.
We have then:
W_ in
ˆ Win ˆ Ws …su1 ! ad† ‡ …Pex1 Pad †Vad …13†
N
The conditions ``ad'' (adapted) are given by the built-in volume ratio:
Vs
Vad ˆ …14†
e
and by
sad ˆ ssu1 …15†

The built-in volume ratio parameter e, not known a priori, has to be identi®ed.
Following the ASHRAE Toolkit [5] approach for the calculation of compressor shaft power,
we split it into several terms:

· the internal compression power W_ in ,

· constant electro-mechanical losses term W_ loss0 ,
· electromechanical losses proportional to the internal compression power: aW_ in .

The shaft power model is obtained by combining all these terms:

W_ ˆ W_ in ‡ W_ loss0 ‡ aW_ in …16†

where e, W_ loss0 , a are positive parameters to be identi®ed.

4. Results

The experimental results presented in the ®rst part of this paper are used to identify the pa-
rameters de®ned before. EES software was used [10]. The minimization of the error on the mass
¯ow rate, shaft power and discharge temperature gives the following results:

3
· Vs ˆ 174 cm
 , 0:8
_
· AUsu ˆ 50 M_M W K 1,
ref

· AUex ˆ 50 W K 1 ,
· AUamb ˆ 10 W K 1 ,
· e ˆ 2:78,
· W_ loss0 ˆ 200 W,
· a ˆ 0:3,

_ ref was taken as the maximal mass ¯ow rate (ˆ0.25 kg s 1 )

where M
118 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

Constant AU for the discharge and ambient heat transfers gives satisfactory results. On the
other hand, a dependence of the suction AU on the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate is necessary to
minimize the error on the mass ¯ow rate. The Reynolds analogy in turbulent heat transfer with
a power trend of coecient 0.8 was tested and gives good results.
Parameters AUsu and AUex should depend on the refrigerant type since the heat transfer
coecient included in these parameters depends on the ¯uid thermo-physical characteris-
tics.
Maximum deviations of 3 and 2 K between the simulated and experimental results are obtained
for the suction heating-up and the discharge cooling-down respectively (Fig. 9).
The relative error on the mass ¯ow rate varies between 3.5% and 2.5% (Fig. 10). The relative
error on the shaft power varies between 2.5% and 3% (Fig. 11) and the absolute error on the
discharge temperature varies between 2.5 and ‡5 K (Fig. 12).

Fig. 9. Prediction of the suction heating-up and discharge cooling-down.

Fig. 10. Prediction of the refrigerant mass ¯ow rate.

 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120 119

Fig. 11. Prediction of the shaft power.

Fig. 12. Prediction of the discharge temperature.

5. Conclusions

The detailed experimental analysis carried out permits one to conclude that the main process
a€ecting the mass ¯ow rate passing through the compressor is the heating-up (5±13%). The motor
sliding and the pressure drops detected were not important. Leakage, taken into account in the
other models was not observed here. It can have been mixed up with the heat transfer in these
other models.
A model based on these observations has been developed. It needs four parameters to compute
the mass ¯ow rate and the discharge temperature: the swept volume Vs , the di€erent heat transfer
coecients AUsu , AUex and AUamb and three parameters to calculate the electric power: the built-in
volume ratio e, the constant power losses term W_ loss0 , and a power coecient a.
The model is able to compute variables of ®rst importance like the mass ¯ow rate, the electric
power and the discharge temperature as well as secondary variables such as the suction heating-
up, the discharge cooling-down, and the ambient losses. This model is easy to integrate into a
global simulation of the compression cycle.
120 E. Winandy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 107±120

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by COPELAND Europe S.A. The experimental study was made
by Luc Gauthy in the frame of his ®nishing school at the Thermodynamics Laboratory, Uni-
versity of Liege.

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