Numerical Investigation of Flow Losses through Discharge Line of Household Type Refrigerator Compressors

Abstract

The technological developments, competition and energy policies are forcing the refrigeration market to increase the efficiency of their products as never before. The component that determines the performance and efficiency of the refrigeration system is the compressor, which is the major energy consumer in a compression refrigeration system. One of the essential elements of the total compressor efficiency is the discharge line flow efficiency that is subjected to this study. In this paper, the effects of design parameters on flow loses at discharge line of a hermetic reciprocating compressor were investigated with numerical flow analysis. At this study, three conceptual designs were modelled based on the discharge line design parameters such as line diameter, resonator volumes and line length. The pressure drop regions are determined by CFD analyses and they compared against the base model. Analyses are carried out by using commercial CFD software. Furthermore, the obtained numerical results were compared to experimental data and presented a good agreement in terms of pressure drop and discharge line flow efficiency.