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Abstract

This project is evaluating a heat pump cycle with midstage injection at scroll compressors. The injected refrigerant is evaporated partially by an internal heat exchanger (fig. 2.1). A glycol-water heat pump with 12 kW heat capacity at B-5/W50 was built and tested in the laboratory at several conditions (B- 5/0/5 at W35/50 and B-10/W60). The refrigerant is R407C. For the theoretical analysis the exact geometry of the injection wholes is determined. The results are discussed in the hypothesis of a monovalent heating implementation in the market of retrofitting fuel based heating systems. Measurements at stationary test conditions with injection show an increase of the heat output by 15% compared to the values without injection (fig 4.2 and 4.5). The heat output is not affected by the position of the manually regulated injection valve. The end of compression temperature can be controlled by the amount of injected refrigerant. The application range for this heat pump is enlarged and at the point B-10/W60 the maximum system temperature has been reduced from 110°C to 75°C. The coefficient of performance (COP) with and without injection is comparable at the major part of the tested points (fig. 4.1 and 4.4). The only available compressor type with the possibility of injection has a geometry which is not adapted for saturated vapor. The resulting reduction in performance is equivalent to the gain by the better thermodynamic concept. The optimum COP is reached with an injection rate issued by a thermostatic valve control. With higher injection rate, the COP is decreasing linearly and a reduction up to 15% is achieved at B-10/W60. Two injection configurations (the injected refrigerant is separated before and after the economizer exchanger) have been compared and show equivalent results. The simulation model has been developed considering the test results. For the compression phase during injection a correction factor has been introduced. The simulation can be used to analyse of the qualitative behavior. A high potential of performance improvement can be achieved by reducing the injection pressure level (table 5.2). Shifting the position of the injection wholes in higher pressure regions does not affect the performances but can keep the compression curve away from the saturation limit.

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