Mass Conserving Models of Vapor Compression Cycles

Abstract

Many dynamic models of vapor compression systems experience nonphysical variations in the total refrigerant mass contained in the system when common modeling approaches are used. Rather than use the traditional state variables of pressure and specific enthalpy, the use of density as a state variable can eliminate these variations. A set of test models is developed in Modelica to study the effect of the state variable selection on the overall system charge, and results indicate that this alternative approach has significant benefits for maintaining a specified mass of refrigerant in the cycle.