his study introduces an improved methodology to evaluate with

accuracy the performance of a conventional system with R404A and

a Booster system with R744. Reciprocating and scroll compressors
are modeled with improved semi-empirical approaches, and their
operation is ideally controlled to maintain the required refrigerant
mass flow rate with an On/Off and variable speed control system.
The R744 gas cooler is modeled with a four-zones model and the
R404A condenser with a three-zones model. The R744 condenser is
modeled with the superheated zone discretized into eight zones to
avoid unrealistic results due to the variation of its thermophysical
properties and the two-phase and subcooled zones with one zone
respectively. In line with the design, the Booster condenser enters
into the pseudo-critical zone at an ambient temperature of 23°C,
while the gas cooler is activated after 31°C. The compressor models
present errors lower than 10%, while the Booster model presents
mean deviations lower than 2.3%. The Booster system presents
better COPs than the conventional at ambient temperatures lower
than 15ºC. At higher ambient temperatures, the COPs of both
systems are similar: the conventional system overperforms the
Booster up to 6%, being in disagree with the literature results where
these differences increase up to 30%. The proposed methodology
allows to reduce the overall model error by 3% with respect to a
thermodynamic cycle-based model; allowing to improve the
comparison between the Booster system with R744 and the
conventional one with R404A, which leads to more transparent
results than the reported common comparisons.

Introduction
Nowadays, the supermarket refrigeration industry has promoted
using CO  or R744 as the most suitable refrigerant for cold climates
2

(SKM Enviros, 2012). The use of R744 solves the limitations of

other refrigerants, such as zeotropic mixtures: as the change in
composition (Xu et al., 2021) and the temperature glide under
leakage conditions, and a high GWP (Uddin and Saha, 2022).
However, due to the poor performance of R744 systems in warm
climates, a comprehensive evaluation is needed.
In the literature, most of the supermarket refrigeration studies are
developed through thermodynamic and simplified models (Fu et al.,
2019; Yilmaz et al., 2019), with ideal expressions to model the high-
pressure control and the compressors (Huang et al., 2018). Few
researchers have introduced detailed modeling methods in this field
(Sacasas et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2021). Hence, the primary goal of
this study is to introduce a detailed approach to model the
refrigeration system in subcritical, transitional and transcritical
conditions based on physical principles.
Some authors model compressors with empirical relationships
between their isentropic efficiency and their pressure ratio (Amaris
et al., 2019). However, few authors have used detailed models (Song
et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2021), which use four-parameter models
(Sacasas et al., 2022), compressor internal leakages (Yang et al.,
2013), and neural networks (Yang and Zhang, 2009). On the other
hand, the condenser is usually modeled with energy balances
(Purohit et al., 2017), dividing the heat transfer process into three-
zones (Belman-Flores et al., 2021; Cuevas et al., 2009), into four-
zones (Ge and Cropper, 2005), and into several zones (Ge and
Cropper, 2009). In the case of the gas cooler, it has been modeled
with energy balances (Sooben et al., 2019), by discretizing the heat
transfer process into one-zone (Ge et al., 2014), and into several
zones (Lata and Gupta, 2021; Martínez-Ballester et al., 2013). The
compressors and condenser/gas cooler modeling are the primary
targets of this study in order to obtain more realistic and reliable
results. A more detailed modeling of the compressors will allow to
obtain a more realistic control and performance of the system at
part load.
In the condenser/gas cooler modeling, a significant issue is to
propose a model able to determine the working pressure. Most
researchers imposed the condensing pressure or temperature and
the gas cooler pressure as a function of the ambient temperature
(Gullo et al., 2018). Thus, the refrigerant and air exhaust
temperatures are not accurately determined, making the heat
transfer process less precise. Furthermore, this method predefines
the system's performance by fixing the air mass flow rate and the
refrigerant conditions at the condenser/gas cooler exhaust. In
contrast, the authors that use a three-zones model have improved
the modeling without paying attention to the geometrical
constraints (Wu et al., 2021).
The primary objective of this study is to develop and to use
improved semi-empirical models to compare two refrigeration
systems for supermarket applications: a Direct eXpansion System
(DXS) working with R404A and a Basic Booster (BB) system
working with R744. The modeling is developed in a modular
approach, by integrating every sub-model in the overall
refrigeration model. It considers detailed approaches for the
condenser/gas cooler (discretized in several zones), compressors
(semi-empirical model), and condenser/gas cooler and compressors
control system. These models are based on physical principles and
validated with catalogue data, reducing the uncertainty of the
obtained results compared to the energy-balance-based models.
These models aim to fill the gap between very-complex and
thermodynamic models.

Section snippets

Methods
This section includes the description, selection of components,
modeling and integration strategy. All the study is developed in
Engineering Equation Solver (F-Chart Software, 2019).

Systems Performance
The system performance is evaluated by using the conditions
presented in Table 1 and at ambient temperatures varying between -
5ºC and 35°C. Fig. 9 presents the results for the modulation of the
step and variable speed compressors: Fig. 9a for the DXS system
and Fig. 9b for the Booster system.
In both LT and MT stages of the DXS system (Fig. 9a