Numerical approach to solar ejector-compression refrigeration system

Abstract

With rise of environmental pollution and cost of conventional energy, the utilization of renewable energy such as sol ar energy and geothermal energy has been caught more and more attention. The solar-assisted ejector refrigeration system has been used popularly for its simple structure, few moving parts and low cost [1]. So, ejector refrigeration system has become a major topic in recent years. Alexis et al. [2] studied the performance of an ejector cooling system driven by solar energy and R134a as working fluid. Ersoy et al. [3] studied the performance of solar powered ejector cooling system with an evacuated tube collector for some cities located in the southern region of Turkey. Pollerberg et al. [4] investigated the performance of sol ar driven steam jet ejector chiller that had a cooling capacity of1 kW. However, some newly developing trends currently observed are directed toward reducing the use of absorption chillers. As previously described, the performance of ejector refrigeration system driven by solar energy is directly dependent on solar radiation and ambient temperature in the daytime. Thus, Hernandez et al. [5] proposed a hybrid compressor and ejector refrigeration system, which uses a mechanical compression subsystem to increase the coefficient of performance of ejector refrigeration system. Zheng et al. [6, 7], and Tian et al. [8] studied the dynamic thermal behavior of solar ejector-compression refrigeration system. However, in the literature related, such a simulation model about solar ejector-compression combined refrigeration system has just a few, and the scanty study on the optimization of the generator temperature and middle-temper- ature was found. So, in this paper, a steady-state simulation model was established, and the influence of the generator temperature and middle-temperature on solar ejector-compression combined refrigeration system has been studied.