Key
1412
Conference Year
2014
Keywords
suction gas superheating, transient flow, compressor eficiency
Abstract
A considerable portion of the cooling capacity losses on a household compressor occurs due to heating of the gas entering through the suction tube, which is called as superheating. A better understanding of the flow and heat transfer phenomena involved is crucial to improve compressor efficiency. In this work, it is presented a numerical simulation study using a commercial code to analyze a transient three-dimensional, compressible and non-isothermal flow, which has been used for modeling the problem. The computational domain considered the suction tube, a portion of the compressor cavity and the suction muffler. Prescribed transient mass flow rates obtained by simpler 0D/1D models have been used as boundary conditions while the cavity gas and wall temperatures were prescribed based on experimental methods. The results showed that the mean temperature of the gas entering into the compressor was 40°C, while the mean temperature of the gas leaving the suction muffler was 63°C, presenting 23°C of superheating.