A rst-principles simulation model for the start-up and

cycling transients of household refrigerators

Christian J.L. Hermes*, Cla udio Melo
POLO Research Laboratories for Emerging Technologies in Cooling and Thermophysics, Federal University of Santa Catarina,
88040-970 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 25 October 2007
Received in revised form
24 March 2008
Accepted 22 April 2008
Published online 1 May 2008
Keywords:
Domestic refrigerator
Modelling
Simulation
Steady state
Comparison
Energy consumption
a b s t r a c t
A rst-principles model for simulating the transient behavior of household refrigerators is
presented in this study. The model was employed to simulate a typical frost-free 440-l
top-mount refrigerator, in which the compressor is onoff controlled by the freezer tem-
perature, while a thermo-mechanical damper is used to set the fresh-food compartment
temperature. Innovative modeling approaches were introduced for each of the refrigerator
components: heat exchangers (condenser and evaporator), non-adiabatic capillary tube,
reciprocating compressor, and refrigerated compartments. Numerical predictions were
compared to experimental data showing a reasonable level of agreement for the whole range
of operating conditions, including the start-up and cycling regimes. The system energy con-
sumption was found to be within 10% agreement with the experimental data, while the
air temperatures of the compartments were predicted with a maximum deviation of 1

C.
2008 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Mode` le de simulation fonde sur les principes fondamentaux
utilise pour e tudier les phe nome` nes transitoires lors du
de marrage et du cyclage des re frige rateurs domestiques
Mots cles : Re frige rateur domestique ; Mode lisation ; Simulation ; Re gime transitoire ; Comparaison ; Consommation de nergie
1. Introduction
A household refrigerator is basically composed of a thermally
insulated cabinet and a vaporcompression refrigeration loop,
as illustrated in Fig. 1. The energy consumption of a typical re-
frigerator is around 1 kWh/day, which is equivalent to the en-
ergy consumption of a 40 W light-bulb continuously running.
Although the energy consumption of a unitary refrigerator is
reasonably low, commercial and household refrigeration ap-
pliances are responsible for 11% of the total energy produced
annually in Brazil (PROCEL, 1998), which amounts to
2.86 TWh/year. Such a high energy consumption may be
easily accounted for considering that there is a large amount
of household refrigerators currently in use, and their
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 55 48 3234 5691; fax: 55 48 3234 5166.
E-mail addresses: hermes@polo.ufsc.br (C.J.L. Hermes), melo@polo.ufsc.br (C. Melo).
www. i i i r . or g
avai l abl e at www. sci encedi r ect . com
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ i j r ef r i g
0140-7007/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2008.04.003
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7
thermodynamic efciency is intrinsically low, barely reaching
15%of Carnots COP. The major part of the energy is wasted by
the system components (compressor, condenser, evaporator
and capillary tube) due to irreversible losses. Studies carried
out to understand such thermodynamic losses shall lead to
the development of higher efciency products.
The performance of a household refrigerator is usually
assessed using one of the following approaches: (i) simplied
calculations based on component characteristic curves; (ii)
numerical analysis via commercial CFD packages; and (iii)
standardized experiments. Although the rst two techniques
play important roles in component design, they do not provide
enough information about component matching and system
behavior, which are only obtained by testing the refrigerator
in a controlled environment chamber. However, such tests
are time consuming and expensive. A faster and less costly al-
ternative is the use of rst-principles models to simulate the
thermal- and uid-dynamic behavior of refrigeration systems.
Steady-state and transient approaches can both be used. The
former is mainly applied for component matching, whilst the
second is essential to dene the controlling strategies and to
optimize the system performance.
Former transient models for refrigeration systems date
back to the early 80s and were mostly focused on heat pump
and air conditioning equipment (Dhar, 1978; Chi and Didion,
1982; Yasuda et al., 1983; MacArthur, 1984; Murphy and Gold-
schmidt, 1985; Sami et al., 1987; MacArthur and Grald, 1989;
Wang, 1991; He et al., 1994; Vargas and Parise, 1995; Rossi
and Braun, 1999; Browne and Bansal, 2002; Kim et al., 2004;
Lei and Zaheeruddin, 2005) (see Table 1). The development
of dynamic models for household refrigerators was stimu-
lated by the CFC-12 phase-out in the late 80s (Melo et al.,
1988; Jansen et al., 1988, 1992; Lunardi, 1991; Chen and Lin,
1991; Yuan et al., 1991; Vidmar and Gaspersic, 1991). These
models were developed based on the experience acquired
for large systems (Dhar, 1978; Chi and Didion, 1982; Yasuda
et al., 1983; MacArthur, 1984; Murphy and Goldschmidt,
1985; Sami et al., 1987; MacArthur and Grald, 1989), although
refrigerator modeling strategies may differ substantially
from those adopted for air conditioning/heat pump (AC/HP)
Nomenclature
A area, m
2
A
min
minimum ow passage, m
2
c specic heat, J kg
1
K
1
C thermal capacity, WK
1
c
p
specic heat at constant pressure, J kg
1
K
1
D diameter, m
G mass ux, kg s
1
m
2
h specic enthalpy, J kg
1
k thermal conductivity, Wm
1
K
1
L length, m
M mass, kg
N number of control volumes of the cabinet wall
n number of control volumes of the coil
NTU number of transfer units
P pitch, m
p pressure, Pa
q heat ux, Wm
2
Q heat transfer rate, W
T temperature, K
t time, s
u specic internal energy, J kg
1
UA overall conductance, WK
1
v specic volume, m
3
kg
1
V volume, m
3
w mass ow rate, kg s
1
W power, W
x normal coordinate of the cabinet walls, m
z axial coordinate of the coil, m
Greek symbols
a thermal diffusivity, m
2
/s
g void fraction, dimensionless
3 temperature effectiveness, dimensionless
h efciency, dimensionless
q crank angle, rad
l heat transfer coefcient, Wm
2
K
1
m viscosity, Pa s
r specic mass, kg m
3
s solubility, dimensionless
s shear stress, Pa
f partial derivative of the density with respect to the
specic internal energy
j partial derivative of the density with respect to the
pressure
u angular speed, rad s
1
Subscripts
a air-side
c compressor, condenser
ct capillary tube
d discharge
e entrance, external, evaporator
en entrance
es outer liner
ex exit
f n
hx heat exchanger
i inlet, internal
in inow
k k-th control volume
l saturated liquid
is inner liner
o oil, outlet
r refrigerant-side, radiation
rc refrigerated compartment
s suction
sl suction line
t tube
tp two-phase
v saturated vapor
w tube wall, cabinet walls
Superscript
_ y time-derivative (dy/dt)
i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1342
equipment. Firstly, household refrigerators require at least 10
times less refrigerant charge than AC/HP equipment, reason
why the refrigerators models are more sensitive to the refrig-
erant charge predictions than those developed for heat pumps
and air conditioners. For the same reason, the amount of re-
frigerant dissolved in the compressor oil must be accounted
for in refrigerator models in order to predict the equalizing
pressure during the cycling transients accurately. Moreover,
the simulation of household refrigerators requires an addi-
tional model for the refrigerated compartments, which adds
another time-scale to the set of differential equations a refrig-
erator requires hours to reach its periodic steady-state operat-
ing condition, whereas AC/HP equipment achieves it in just
a few minutes. From the numerical stand-point, the solution
of such a stiff set of equations produces numerical instabilities
and convergence issues, which require tailored numerical
schemes. Finally, it is not usual for heat pumps and air condi-
tioners to employ non-adiabatic capillary tubes, whose numer-
ical simulation is time consuming and may lead to undesired
convergence problems. Table 2 summarizes the models avail-
able in the open literature for the transient simulation of
household refrigerators (Melo et al., 1988; Jansen et al., 1988,
1992; Lunardi, 1991; Chen and Lin, 1991; Yuan et al., 1991;
Vidmar and Gaspersic, 1991; Yuan and ONeil, 1994; Jakobsen,
1995; Yu et al., 1995; Chen et al., 1995; Xu, 1996; Ploug-Srensen
et al., 1997; Radermacher et al., 2005). Very few approaches are
able to simulate the refrigerator cycling behavior, and none of
them were validated against experimental data on energy con-
sumption. This is therefore the mainfocus of the present study.
2. Mathematical model
The overall system modeling requires the development of
sub-models for each of the cycle components. Basically, the
uid and heat ows in these components are modeled based
on mass, momentum and energy conservation laws. These
equations, however, are quite complex to be solved in their
complete form. To keep the complexity at a reasonable level,
several assumptions are usually invoked according to the
characteristics of each component, as described below. More
detailed information can be found in Hermes (2006).
2.1. Heat exchangers: condenser and evaporator
A heat exchanger sub-model provides the overall heat trans-
fer rate, the refrigerant pressure, the enthalpy of the refriger-
ant at the coil outlet, and the temperature of the air exiting the
nned-region. Several approaches for heat exchanger model-
ing are available in the open literature. Most of themare based
onthe applicationof the conservation principles to each of the
three heat exchanger sub-domains, namely refrigerant ow,
nned-walls, and air ow. According to the modeling strategy
adopted, the heat exchanger models may be classied as
global, nodal, moving boundaries, and distributed. Global
models consider the whole heat exchanger as an even lump
(Melo et al., 1988; Jakobsen, 1995). The nodal approach treats
each ow region as a single node in which the properties are
regarded as uniform (Lunardi, 1991), whilst the moving
boundary formulation assumes a linear property variation
along the superheating and subcooling regions (He et al.,
1994; Jansen et al., 1988). The distributed approach, on the
one hand, divides the domain into non-overlapping one-
dimensional control volumes (Yu et al., 1995; Chen et al.,
1995; Xu, 1996; Ploug-Srensen et al., 1997), providing accurate
predictions of the evaporator superheating and condenser
subcooling degrees. On the other hand, such a method has
presented the following numerical issues: (i) there is not an
evolving equation for pressure computation, so it must be
solved iteratively, requiring a large computational effort; and
(ii) some ow properties are not continuous from one ow re-
gionto another (for instance, the refrigerant-side heat transfer
evaporator
condenser
compressor
freezer
fresh-food
discharge line
suction line
CT-SL HX
refrigeration
system
dryer
refrigerated
cabinet
accumulator
1 2
3
4
5
Fig. 1 Schematic of a top-mount refrigerator.
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1343
Table 1 Summary of transient simulation models for refrigeration systems
Author (year) Origin Refrigeration
equipment
Cooling
capacity, TR
Refrigerant Heat
exchangers
Expansion
device
Compression
process
Compressor
shell
Refrigerated
room
Void fraction
model
Time
integration
Transient
regime
Validation
Dhar (1978) USA Unitary air
conditioner
Not available HCFC-22 Lumped Empirical Isentropic With oil Do not have Homogeneous Explicit, Euler Start-up No
Chi and Didion
(1982)
USA Air-source heat
pump
4 HCFC-22 Lumped Linear quality Polytropic Do not have Do not have Not available Explicit, Euler Start-up Yes
Yasuda et al.
(1983)
Holland Breadboard 0.31.4 CFC-12 Moving
boundaries
Orice
formulation
Polytropic Do not have Do not have Hughmark Not available Start-up Yes
MacArthur
(1984)
USA Air-to-water
heat pump
3 HCFC-22 Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Orice
formulation
Isentropic Without oil Do not have 2-Fluid model Implicit,
Crank
Nicolson
Cycling Steady-state
Murphy and
Goldschmidt
(1985)
USA Unitary air
conditioner
3 Not available Quasi-steady Adiabatic
capillary tube
Empirical Do not have Do not have Not available Semi-
analytical
Start-up shut-
down
Cycling
Sami et al.
(1987)
Canada Water-source
heat pump
3 HCFC-22 Distributed Empirical Polytropic Do not have Do not have Homogeneous Implicit, Euler Start-up Yes
MacArthur and
Grald (1989)
USA Air-to-water
heat pump
2.56 Not available Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Orice
formulation
Isentropic Without oil Do not have Zivi Implicit, Euler Cycling Yes
Wang (1991) Holland Frigoric
chamber
2.5 CFC-12 Distributed Empirical Isentropic Quasi-steady Distributed, 3-D 2-Fluid model Explicit Cycling Yes
He et al. (1994) USA Unitary air
conditioner
1 HCFC-22 Moving
boundaries
Orice
formulation
Polytropic Do not have Do not have Fixed, 0.98 Linearized
reduced
model
Transients
next to
equilibrium
No
Vargas and
Parise (1995)
Brazil Air-source heat
pump
0.25 CFC-12 Lumped Orice
formulation
Polytropic Do not have Lumped Not available Explicit,
RungeKutta-
Fehlberg
Cycling No
Rossi and Braun
(1999)
USA Unitary air
conditioner
3 HCFC-22 Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Orice
formulation
Isentropic Without oil Do not have Zivi explicit,
Runge-Kutta
Start-up Yes
Browne and
Bansal (2002)
New Zealand Water-source
chiller
85 HFC-134a Quasi-steady Orice
formulation
Isentropic Do not have Do not have Fixed mass
distribution
Not available Start-up Yes
Kim et al. (2004) South Korea Water-source
chiller
200 HCFC-22 Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Orice
formulation
Polytropic Do not have Do not have Baroczy Implicit, Euler Start-up Yes
Lei and
Zaheeruddin
(2005)
China/Canada Water-source
chiller
Not available HCFC-22 Moving
boundaries
Orice
formulation
Polytropic Do not have Do not have Not available Not available Start-up No
i
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
j
o
u
r
n
a
l
o
f
r
e
f
r
i
g
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
3
1
(
2
0
0
8
)
1
3
4
1

1
3
5
7
1
3
4
4
Table 2 Summary of transient simulation models for household refrigerators
Author (year) Origin Refrigerator
type
Refrigerant Evaporator Condenser Cabinet Heat
exchangers
Capillary tube Compression
process
Compressor
shell
Void fraction
model
Time
integration
Model
validation
Melo et al.
(1988)
Brazil 2-Door
refrigerator
CFC-12 Forced
convection
Forced
convection
Lumped Lumped Adiabatic Polytropic With oil Not available Explicit, Euler Start-up
Jansen et al.
(1988)
Holland Upright freezer CFC-12 Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Lumped Moving
boundaries
Adiabatic,
empirical
Empirical With oil Premoli Implicit, Euler Start-up
Lunardi (1991) Brazil 2-Door
refrigerator
CFC-12 Forced
convection
Forced
convection
Lumped Lumped Adiabatic Polytropic With oil Not available Explicit,
RungeKutta
Start-up
Chen and Lin
(1991)
China 2-Door
refrigerator
CFC-12 Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Not available Distributed Non-
adiabatic
Energy
balance
Without oil Not available Implicit, Euler Start-up
Yuan et al.
(1991)
China 2-Door
refrigerator
CFC-12 Forced
convection
Natural
convection
Lumped Lumped Adiabatic Isentropic Without oil Not available Explicit, Euler Start-up
Vidmar and
Gaspersic
(1991)
Yugoslavia 2-Door
refrigerator
CFC-12 HFC-
134a
Not available Not available Not available Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Adiabatic Energy
balance
Not available Not available Implicit, Euler First 10 min
Jansen et al.
(1992)
Holland Upright freezer CFC-12 Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Lumped Moving
boundaries
Adiabatic Empirical With oil Premoli
modied
Implicit, Euler Cycling
Yuan and
ONeil (1994)
USA Upright freezer Not available Not available Not available Not available Distributed,
uniform
pressure
Adiabatic Polytropic Without oil Not available Implicit, Euler Start-up
Jakobsen (1995) Denmark All-refrigerator HC-600a Natural
convection
Forced
convection
Lumped Lumped Adiabatic,
correction
multiplier
Isentropic Without oil Fixed, 0.8 DALI Cycling
Yu et al. (1995) China 2-Door
refrigerator
Not available Not available Not available Lumped Distributed Non-
adiabatic
Not available Not available Not available Implicit, Euler Cycling
Chen et al.
(1995)
China 2-Door
refrigerator
HFC-134a HFC-
152a
Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Not available Distributed Non-
adiabatic
Energy
balance
Without oil Not available Implicit, Euler Cycling
Xu (1996) France 2-Door
refrigerator
HFC-134a Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Lumped Distributed Non-
adiabatic
Polytropic With oil Zivi Implicit, Euler First 3 min
Ploug-Srensen
et al. (1997)
Denmark 2-Door
refrigerator
HC-600a Natural
convection
Natural
convection
Lumped Distributed Non-
adiabatic
Isentropic Not available Not available Implicit, Euler Cycling
Radermacher
et al. (2005)
USA 2-Door
refrigerator
HC-134a Forced
convection
Forced
convection
Lumped Lumped Non-
adiabatic,
empirical
Isentropic Without oil Not available Implicit, Euler Start-up,
cycling
i
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
j
o
u
r
n
a
l
o
f
r
e
f
r
i
g
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
3
1
(
2
0
0
8
)
1
3
4
1

1
3
5
7
1
3
4
5
coefcient is risen by at least two orders of magnitude from
the single- to the two-phase ow region), which aggravates
the pressure iterative calculation.
The approach adopted in the present study was developed
based on the work of Rossi and Braun (1999), which introduced
a time-explicit distributed formulationthat providedanevolv-
ing equationfor the pressure, avoiding all the numerical issues
mentioned above. Additionally, the refrigerant ow was
modeled based on the following simplifying assumptions:
(i) one-dimensional ow; (ii) straight, horizontal and constant
cross-sectional tubes; (ii) negligible diffusion effects; and
(iv) negligible pressure drop. The governing equations, derived
from the mass and energy conservation principles, were
applied to each of the control volumes illustrated in Fig. 2a,
yielding
V
k
_ r
k
w
k
w
k1
0 (1)
V
k
_
u
k
_ r
k
r
k
_ u
k
_
w
k
h
k
w
k1
h
k1
Q
k
(2)
whereQl(T
r
T
w
). Anupwindschemewasusedtointerpolate
the owproperties, andthe averagedheat transfer termwas in-
tegratedusing a second-order approximation(trapezoidal rule).
As the refrigerant pressure throughthe coil was regardedas
uniform, the set of 2n dynamic ordinary differential equations
(ODEs) may be re-organized into a set of n 1 linear equations,
with n equations for _ u
k
and one equation for _ p, as follows:
Z
e 1 2 n-1 n n-2 k-1 k
zk
flow
acumul at or
or
drye r
accumulator
or
dryer
a
airflow outlet
airflow inlet
outlet
intlet
inlet outlet
b
c
refrigerant inlet
refrigerant outlet
wires
tubes
Fig. 2 Schematic of heat exchangers sub-models: (a) nite-volume discretization of the heat exchanger coil; (b) tuben
evaporator; and (c) wire-and-tube condenser.
_

_
V
1
r
1
pf
1
=r
1
0 0 0 V
1
pj
1
=r
1
Dh
1
V
1
f
1
V
2
r
2
pf
2
=r
2
0 0 V
2
pj
2
=r
2
Dh
2
V
1
j
1
1 0
Dh
1
V
1
f
1
Dh
2
V
2
f
2
/ V
n
r
n
pf
n
=r
n
V
n
pj
n
=r
n
Dh
n

n1
j1
V
j
j
j
V
1
f
1
V
2
f
2
/ V
n
f
n

n
j1
V
j
j
j
_

_
_

_
_ u
1
_ u
2

_ u
n
_ p
_

_
Q
1
w
e
Dh
1
Q
2
w
e
Dh
2

Q
n
w
e
Dh
n
w
e
w
n
_

_
(3)
i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1346
The peculiar shape of the coefcient matrix, with nonzero
terms located in the lower band and in the last row(n 1), per-
mitted its analytical inversion by LU-decomposition (Press
et al., 1995). Such an approach not only reduced the number
of ODEs, but also provided an explicit and evolving equation
for the pressure calculation. The solution of the linear set of
equations gave _ p and _ u
k
for each control volume, k 1, n,
whereas _ r
k
was obtained from the following thermodynamic
relation:
_ r
k
f
k
_ u
k
j
k
_ p (4)
where f
k
(vr/vu)
p
and j
k
(vr/vp)
u
. The unknowns p, u
k
and r
k
were calculated by the time integration of _ p, _ u
k
and _ r
k
, while
the local mass ow rates, w
k
, were computed afterwards by
the following mass balance:
w
k
w
i

k
j1
_
V
j
f
j
_ u
j
_

_
_

k
j1
V
j
j
j
_
_
_ p (5)
where w
i
is the refrigerant mass ow rate at the coil inlet.
The refrigerant properties were calculated in advance using
the REFPROP software (Lemmon et al., 1998) and stored in
the computer memory in the form of cubic splines (Press
et al., 1995).
As the model was regarded as one-dimensional, the phe-
nomena related to the refrigerant-to-wall interface were in-
corporated into the model by empirical correlations.
Gnielinskis (1976) correlation was used to estimate the sin-
gle-phase owheat transfer coefcients. The correlations pro-
posed by Jung et al. (2003) and Wongwises et al. (2000) were
adopted for the condensing and evaporating heat transfer
coefcients, respectively.
The two-phase density was computed based on a local void
fraction model, g
k
,
r
tp;k
g
k
r
v
r
l
1 g
k
(6)
The void fraction models proposed by Baroczy (1965) and
Yashar et al. (2001) wereusedtoestimatetherefrigerant masses
in the condensing and evaporating regions, respectively.
The heat exchanger sub-model also accounted for the heat
transfer between the nned-walls and the internal and exter-
nal uid streams. The following simplifying assumptions
were considered: (i) negligible heat conduction in the tube;
(ii) tube-by-tube discretization (Domanski, 1991), i.e., one con-
trol volume per tube; and (iii) n efciency calculated by
Schmidts (1945) procedure. The wall temperature of the k-th
control volume (Fig. 2a) is then given by
_
T
w;k

A
i
l
r
T
r;k
T
w;k

_
A
t
h
f
A
f
_
l
a
T
a;k
T
w;k

c
w
_
M
t
h
f
M
f
_ (7)
The air ow through the evaporator was modeled as quasi-
steady, neglecting the presence of moisture. The evaporator
air temperature was obtained froman energy balance, consid-
ering the tube-by-tube approach, which was integrated
according to the following second-order scheme:
T
a;k

_
w
a
c
pa

1
2
l
a
_
A
t
h
f
A
f
__
T
a;k1
l
a
_
A
t
h
f
A
f
_
T
w;k
w
a
c
pa

1
2
l
a
_
A
t
h
f
A
f
_ (8)
The evaporator is a continuous at nned-coil heat ex-
changer, where the refrigerant circuit is arranged according
to a 10-row, 2-column staggered array. In the rst column,
the refrigerant ow is top-down oriented while the air ows
in the opposite direction. In the second column, both air and
refrigerant ows are in the bottom-up direction (see Fig. 2b).
The air-side heat transfer coefcient was computed using
a correlation derived using the wind-tunnel calorimeter facil-
ity described in Barbosa et al. (2008):
l
a
D
t
k
a
0:125
_
w
a
A
min
D
t
m
a
_
0:654
_
m
a
c
pa
k
a
_
1=3
(9)
where l
a
is the convective heat transfer coefcient
[Wm
2
K
1
], A
min
is the minimum ow area [m
2
], and D
t
is
the tube diameter [m]. Eq. (9) tted the experimental data
within 5% error bands (Hermes, 2006).
The condenser is a natural draft wire-and-tube heat ex-
changer, where the air-side temperature was assumed to be
uniform(see Fig. 2c). The combined radiation and natural con-
vection heat transfer of the wire-and-tube condenser was
computed using the correlation due to Hermes and Melo
(2007),
l
a
l
r
5:68
_
A
f
A
t
A
f
_
0:60
_
P
t
D
t
D
t
_
0:28
_
P
f
D
f
D
t
_
0:49
_
T
w
T
a
T
film
_
0:08
(10)
where l
a
is the combined heat transfer coefcient (l
c
l
r
)
[Wm
2
K
1
]; l
r
is the linearized radiation heat transfer coef-
cient [Wm
2
K
1
]; A
t
and A
f
are the tube and n surface areas
[m
2
], respectively; p
t
and p
f
are the tube and n pitches [m], re-
spectively; D
t
and D
f
are the tube and n diameter [m], respec-
tively. Eq. (10) tted the experimental data within 10% error
bands (Hermes and Melo, 2007).
2.2. Capillary tube/suction line heat exchanger
In household refrigerators, the capillary tube forms a counter-
ow heat exchanger with the suction line, in order to increase
refrigerating capacity and to prevent slugging of the compres-
sor. Two types of the so-called capillary tube to suction line
heat exchanger (CT/SL HX) are usually found: lateral and
from condenser to evaporator
suction line
capillary tube
L
hx
L
ex
L
en
from evaporator to compressor
Fig. 3 Schematic of a concentric capillary tubesuction line heat exchanger.
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1347
concentric. In the lateral conguration the capillary tube is
brazed to the suction line whereas it passes inside the suction
line in the concentric arrangement. Fig. 3 shows a schematic
diagram of a concentric CT/SL HX, where three distinct ow
regions can be observed: entrance region (L
en
), heat exchanger
region (L
hx
), and exit region (L
ex
). Both L
en
and L
ex
are usually
assumed to be adiabatic.
The CT/SL HXsub-model was based on the work of Hermes
et al. (2007), where the following simplifying assumptions
were adopted: (i) one-dimensional, viscous, compressible, ho-
mogeneous, and quasi-steady ow; (ii) negligible diffusion ef-
fects; (iii) negligible heat conduction in the tube walls; (iv)
straight, horizontal and constant cross-sectional area tube;
(v) negligible pressure drops at the tube inlet and outlet; and
(vi) negligible metastable ow effects. The refrigerant ow
through the capillary tube is governed by the mass, energy
and momentum principles, which provided the following set
of differential equations, written here in the pressure domain:
dz
dp

D
i
4
G
2
_
vvv=vh
p
vv=vp
h
_
1
s
_
1 G
2
vvv=vh
p
_
qGvv=vh
p
(11)
dh
dp

s
_
G
2
vvv=vp
h

qG
1
_
1 G
2
vv=vp
h

s
_
1 G
2
vvv=vh
p
_
qGvv=vh
p
(12)
where D
i
is the capillary inner diameter [m], G is the mass ux
[kg s
1
m
2
], s is the shear stress on tube walls [Pa], and q is the
heat ux [Wm
2
]. The friction factor for both single and two-
phase ow regions was calculated from Churchills (1977) cor-
relation. The two-phase owReynolds number was calculated
using an empirical equivalent viscosity proposed by Cicchitti
et al. (1960), m
tp
xm
v
(1 x)m
l
, that offered the best agree-
ment with experimental data.
From these equations the tube length and refrigerant en-
thalpy were calculated as a function of the pressure drop in
any ow region. As there is no explicit equation for the mass
ow rate, its calculation followed an iterative procedure gov-
erned by the calculated and actual tube lengths (Hermes
et al., 2007). The boundary conditions are the pressure and en-
thalpy at the inlet of the capillary tube and the exit pressure.
The choked owat the capillary exit was identied by aninn-
ite pressure gradient criterion, i.e., dp/dz /N(Fauske, 1962).
Eqs. (11) and (12) were solved numerically by a second-order
Heun scheme (Press et al., 1995). Satisfactory results were
shell, T
c
Oil-refrigerant mixture
heat transfer rate,Q
c
compressor power,W
e
w
s
suction
connecting rod, L
crank angle, = t
piston
cylinder
discharge chamber
discharge valve
suction valve
dead volume, z
o
piston displacement, z
axis
radius, R
w
d
discharge
w
o
Fig. 5 Schematic of the compressor sub-model.
0 2 6 4 8 10 12 14 16 18
Measured mass flow rate [kg/h]
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

m
a
s
s
f
l
o
w

r
a
t
e

[
k
g
/
h
]
HC-600a / adiabatic
HC-600a / non-adiabatic
HFC-134a / adiabatic
HFC-134a / non-adiabatic
+10%
-10%
Fig. 4 Validation of the capillary tube sub-model.
i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1348
obtained using only 50 integration points, a gure dramati-
cally smaller than that reported in the literature (w10
4
) (Meza-
vila and Melo, 1996).
The suction line sub-model was based on the following
simplifying assumptions (Hermes et al., 2007): (i) ow of only
superheated vapor along the suction line; (ii) no heat transfer
to the surroundings; and (iii) negligible pressure drop. Since
the heat ux was assumed to be uniform, the suction line
exit temperature was calculated by means of a temperature
effectiveness, i.e., T
o,sl
T
i,sl
3
ct-sl
(T
i,ct
T
i,sl
). The effective-
ness was obtained from the theoretical 3NTU relationship
for double-pipe counter-ow heat exchangers with parallel
temperature proles, 3
ct-sl
NTU/(NTU1), where
NTU(4l
sl
D
o
L
hx
)/(c
p,sl
GD
i
2
) is the number of transfer units,
and l
sl
is the convective heat transfer coefcient between
the refrigerant in the tube annulus and the capillary tube ex-
ternal walls. The convective heat transfer coefcient between
the refrigerant and the suction line wall was estimated by the
correlation proposed by Gnielinski (1976) using an equivalent
diameter for laminar ows in tube annulus.
The CT/SL HX sub-model predictions were compared with
more than 1000 experimental data points for adiabatic and
non-adiabatic ows of HFC-134a and HC-600a. It was found
that the experimental data are reasonably predicted by the
model, with 85% of all data points falling within an error
band of 10%, as shown in Fig. 4.
2.3. Reciprocating compressor
The compressor sub-model was divided into two domains,
namely compressor shell and compression process, as illus-
trated in Fig. 5. The compression process sub-model provides
the compression power and the discharged refrigerant mass
ow rate and temperature, whilst the shell sub-model
Measured heat transfer rate [W]
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

h
e
a
t

t
r
a
n
s
f
e
r

r
a
t
e

[
W
]
Measured mass flow rate [kg/h]
0
5
10
15
20
25
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

m
a
s
s

f
l
o
w

r
a
t
e

[
k
g
/
h
]
+10
d
c
a
b
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 5 10 15 20 25
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Measured compression power [W]
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

c
o
m
p
r
e
s
s
i
o
n

p
o
w
e
r

[
W
]
70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Measured discharge temperature [C]
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

d
i
s
c
h
a
r
g
e

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

[

C
]
+2C
-2C
-10
-10
+10
-10
+10
Fig. 6 Validation of the compressor sub-model: (a) heat transfer rate; (b) mass ow rate; (c) compression power; and
(d) discharge temperature.
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1349
provides the refrigerant mass ow rate aspired from the evap-
orator, the amount of refrigerant that is migrating to/from the
oil, and the rate of heat rejected to the surroundings. Com-
pressor models available in the literature span a wide range
of sophistication, from standardized polynomial ts (ASHRAE
Standard S23, 1993) to rst-principles models (Prata et al.,
1994).
The compressor shell sub-model adopted the following
simplifying assumptions: (i) uniform shell temperature; (ii)
no oil circulation outside the compressor; (iii) shell pressure
is equal to the evaporating pressure; and (iv) the refrigerant
is aspired directly from the suction line to the compression
chamber. The refrigerant mass owrate at the compressor in-
let was calculated through a mass balance within the com-
pressor shell,
w
s
w
d
w
o
V
c
_ s (13)
The amount of refrigerant absorbed/released fromthe lubri-
cating oil, w
o
, was given by
w
o
M
o
1 s
2
_ s (14)
where s corresponds to the mass fraction of refrigerant HFC-
134a dissolved in the ISO10 oil. Since s is a function of the
evaporating pressure and the compressor shell temperature,
s s( p
e
,T
c
), its time-derivative can be calculated from
_ s vr=vT
p
_
T
c
vr=vp
T
_ p
e
(15)
where _ p
e
was calculated by the evaporator sub-model,
whereas
_
T
c
was obtained through an energy balance in the
compressor shell,
_
T
c
w
s
h
s
w
d
h
d
W
c
UA
c
T
c
T
a
$C
1
c
(16)
The compressor overall thermal conductance, UA
c
, was
obtained from experimental data supplied by a hot-gas calo-
rimeter test facility (Hermes and Melo, 2006). A linear relation-
ship, expressed as UA
c
3.0614.61 10
3
p
e
, with UA
c
given in
W/K and p
e
in kPa, was found between the overall thermal
conductanceandtheevaporationpressure. This equationtted
theexperimental datawithinanerror bandof 10%(seeFig. 6a).
The compression process was modeled following the work
of Hermes and Melo (2006), where the following simplifying
assumptions were adopted: (i) homogeneous properties and
an adiabatic process within the cylinder; (ii) suction and dis-
charge valves modeled as two-position elements (fully open
and fully closed); (iii) valve dynamics were neglected; and
(iv) effective ow areas were approximated by the orice
cross-sectional areas. The discharged mass ow rate, w
d
,
and the compression power, W
c
, were calculated based on
an energy balance in the cylinder,
Mc
v
dT
dq
h

h
dM
dq
Tvp=vT
v
_
dV
dq
v
dM
dq
_
(17)
where dV/dq was obtained from the piston kinematics, and
dM/dq was calculated by
_
_
_
dM
dq
w
s
=u; h

h
s
suction
dM
dq
w
d
=u; h

h discharge
dM
dq
0 compression and expansion
(18)
The compression power and the refrigerant ow rate were
computed through the following integral equations:
w
d
0:942
_
_
_
1
2p
_
qo
q
i
dM=dqu dq
_
_
_ 0:469 (19)
W
c
1:315
_
_
1
2p
_
2p
0
_
p p
e
_
dV=dqu dq
_
_
11:2 (20)
where q
i
and q
o
are the discharge valve opening and closing
points, and w
d
is expressed in kg/h and W
c
in W. The theoret-
ical values for w
d
and W
c
were corrected using empirical data
(Hermes and Melo, 2006).
In addition, the compressor discharge temperature T
d
was
calculated by
T
d

1 3
q
o
q
i
_
qo
q
i
Tqdq 3T
c
(21)
l
Environment
Refrigerated
Compartment
T
is
T
i
R
k-1
A
es
A
is
T
a
T
es
z
k-th layer
T
k
C
k
T
k+1
T
k-1
R
k
k-1 k+1 k k=1 k=N
z
Fig. 7 Schematic of the nite-volume discretization of the cabinet walls.
i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1350
where 3
c
1 exp(5.24/w
d
) is a semi-empirical temperature
effectiveness.
Eqs. (19)(21) were integrated using the semi-analytical
method proposed in Hermes and Melo (2006). As can be seen
in Fig. 6, the compressor semi-empirical model predicted ex-
perimental data within 10% error bands for both mass ow
rate (Fig. 6b) and power consumption (Fig. 6c), and the com-
pressor discharge temperature was predicted within 2

C er-
ror bands (Fig. 6d). It should be emphasized that the
compressor semi-empirical model required only two experi-
mental data points to be calibrated, instead of the 10-data
points required by the standardized polynomial ts (ASHRAE
Standard S23, 1993).
2.4. Refrigerated compartments
The refrigerated compartments sub-model provides the in-
stantaneous thermal load required to estimate the variation
of the internal air temperatures with time. The thermal load
was dividedinto four components: (i) heat conductionthrough
the insulated walls; (ii) heat transmission through the gasket
region; (iii) internal energy generation, and (iv) air inltration.
The cabinet walls are composed of three layers: inner liner,
insulating foam and outer liner. A scale analysis showed that
the thermal resistance of the insulation is 10, 10
2
and 10
5
times higher than the thermal resistances due to the air con-
vection, the plastic, and the steel liners, respectively. Asimilar
analysis focused on the thermal capacities showed that all
three layers have similar scales. Based on these observations,
the following assumptions were adopted (Hermes, 2006): (i)
the heat conduction through the cabinet walls was regarded
as one-dimensional; (ii) the thermal resistances due to the in-
ner and outer liners and to the internal and external air con-
vection were neglected; and (iii) the wall thicknesses were
considered uniform for both fresh-food and freezer compart-
ments. Thus, equivalent thicknesses were determined from
a reverse heat leakage test (Hermes, 2006), taking into account
not only the heat transmission through the walls, but also the
heat gain in the gasket region. The insulation density was cor-
rected to conserve the overall mass of the wall.
The cabinet walls were modeled following a one-dimen-
sional nite-volume scheme (see Fig. 7), according to which
the temperature at each k-th wall layer was given by
_
T
k
a
w
T
k1
T
k1
2T
k
=Dx
2
(22)
The air-side thermal resistances were neglected, and there-
fore the internal air and the inner liner temperatures were
considered to be the same, yielding
_
T
rc

_
w
rc
c
p
T
in
T
rc
2k
w
A
is
_
T
kN
w
T
rc
__
Dx W
gen
_

_
C
is
Mc
p
T
a
=T
rc

1
23
where T
rc
may be either fresh-food or freezer compartment
temperature [K], Mc
p
T
a
/T
rc
represents the thermal inertia aug-
mentation due to air inltration from the surroundings [J K
1
],
C
is
is the thermal inertia of the plastic liner [J K
1
], and
W
gen
W
fan
7 W for the freezer compartment and W
gen
0
for the fresh-food compartment.
The air temperature at the evaporator inlet was averaged
based on the temperatures and the air owrates in the freezer
and fresh-food compartments. The air ow rates supplied to
each compartment were measured in a wind-tunnel test facil-
ity (Hermes, 2006), as a function of the damper position (see
Fig. 8a). Since the damper position is a linear function of
the temperature of the fresh-food compartment (see Fig. 8b),
the dynamic response of the damper was also accounted for
by the model.
3. Numerical scheme
The set of dynamic equations was composed of 239 ordinary
differential equations (ODEs): 65 of the evaporator sub-model,
77 of the condenser sub-model, 12 of the compressor sub-
model, and 85 of the refrigerated compartments sub-model.
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
A
i
r

f
l
o
w

r
a
t
e

[
l
i
l
t
r
e
/
s
]
total
freezer
fresh-food
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Temperature [C]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Opening [ ]
O
p
e
n
i
n
g

[
]
Max
Min
a
b
Fig. 8 Damper model: (a) air ow vs. damper position and
(b) damper position vs. bulb temperature.
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1351
The numerical solution was carried out considering two dif-
ferent time-scales. The fastest was related to the refrigerant
mass migration from one component to another, taking just
a few minutes to reach the steady-state condition. The slow-
est concerned the cabinet thermal inertia and consequently
the rate of heat transfer to the evaporator, taking hours to sta-
bilize. It can be noted that the former is inherent to the refrig-
eration system ODEs, whilst the latter is linked to the cabinet
ODEs. Such a behavior encouraged a solution scheme involv-
ing the segregation of the cabinet and system ODEs, solving
the air-side ODEs by an explicit Euler method (rst-order)
with a time-step. The refrigerant-side ODEs were also inte-
grated explicitly, following an Adams predictorcorrector
method (DE/STEP), with both order and step-size controllers
(Shampine and Gordon, 1975).
The cycle components were coupled to each other by the
mass ow rate/enthalpy pair, which is transported from one
component to another according to the refrigerant ow
direction. The model requires only two initial conditions: am-
bient temperature (32

C) and refrigerant charge (85 g of
Fig. 9 Information ow diagram of the solution algorithm.
i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1352
HFC-134a), since the equalizing pressure is internally calcu-
lated by the model. Fig. 9 illustrates the solution algorithm
in an information ow diagram.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Experimental work
The refrigerator was tested in an environmental chamber, in
which both air temperature (32 0.5

C) and relative humidity
(50 5%) were controlled (Hermes, 2006). Absolute pressure
transducers (200 Pa uncertainty) were installed at the com-
pressor suction and discharge ports. The outside air tempera-
ture was measured by ve T-type thermocouples (0.2

C
uncertainty) placed around the refrigerator. Twelve T-type
thermocouples were used to measure the internal air temper-
ature at several locations within the freezer and the fresh-
food compartments. Air-side temperatures at the condenser
and evaporator inlet and outlet ports were also measured.
Thirteen T-type thermocouples were distributed along the re-
frigeration loop to monitor the refrigerant temperatures at the
inlet and outlet ports of each of the cycle components. The
compressor and evaporator fan power consumption were
also monitored (0.1% uncertainty).
4.2. Start-up transients
Fig. 10a shows the time variation of the air temperatures
during the refrigerator start-up, with the damper at the max-
imum cooling position. A reasonable agreement between cal-
culated and measured values was observed for the whole
start-up period. During the rst 2.5 h, before the damper was
fully closed, the model tended to overestimate the freezer
cooling rate, providing a temperature 5

C lower than that ob-
served in the experiments. An inexionwas also observed just
after the damper was completely closed, which was followed
by a decrease in the freezer temperature due to an increase in
the air ow rate supplied to this compartment. The cause this
small discrepancy is the abrupt variation in the air ow rate
near the closing point (see Fig. 9a), which was not observed
in the experimental prole since the damper was not com-
pletely closed due to air leakage.
Fig. 10b shows the time variationof the compression power
during the start-up, with the damper at the maximum cooling
position. It can be noted that the model predicted the power
consumption satisfactorily, within 5% error bands for the
whole start-up period. A tenacious observation also reveals
that the model predicted quite well the primary power peak
which took place just after the compressor start.
In all cases, the model predictions tended toward the ex-
perimental curves as the simulation approached the steady-
state regime. Table 3 compares the experimental data with
model predictions under the steady-state condition, showing
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time [h]
-10
-20
-30
0
10
20
30
40
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

[

C
]
Damper MAX
experimental
predicted
freezer
fresh-food
damper action
Time [h]
50
100
150
200
250
C
o
m
p
r
e
s
s
o
r

p
o
w
e
r
[
W
]
Damper MAX
experimental
predicted
a
b
Fig. 10 Model validation in the start-up transients: (a)
compartments temperatures and (b) compression power.
Table 3 Steady-state model validation
Damper Fresh-food compartment
temperature (

C)
Freezer compartment
temperature (

C)
Compressor power (W)
Measured Calculated Difference Measured Calculated Difference Measured Calculated Difference
MAX 1.6 1.7 0.1 28.0 27.7 0.3 106.4 108.7 2.2%
MIN 9.8 10.8 1.0 29.7 28.7 1.0 101.2 105.7 4.4%
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1353
maximum deviations of 1

C and 5% for the air tempera-
ture and compressor power, respectively. It can be noted
that the model is able to estimate the pull-down time (i.e.,
the time needed to reach 5

C in the fresh-food compartment)
with deviations within 5%.
4.3. Cycling transients
Cycling simulations were carried out with the controlling
devices positioned at their extremes and, thus, four tests
were actually carried out (thermostatdamper): MAXMAX,
MAXMIN, MINMAX, MINMIN. Table 4 compares the model
predictions with experimental data in terms of energy con-
sumption, runtime ratio, and air temperatures. It can be
observed that the model was able to predict the overall energy
consumption and the average air temperatures with maxi-
mum deviations of 10% and 1

C, respectively. The effect
of the control limits on the predicted average air temperatures
is better illustrated by the control-chart of Fig. 11, where it can
be noted a good agreement between predicted and measured
cycle-averaged compartment temperatures.
Fig. 12 illustrates the suction and discharge pressure pro-
les through a typical cycle with the controls at the MAX
MAX position. It can be noted that the numerical results
were in close agreement with the experiment data for the
whole period, including the pressure equalization, the equal-
ized period, and the period after compressor restart. During
the pressure equalization period, the model underestimated
the condensing pressure because the heat rejection rate was
overestimated by the condenser sub-model. The plateau ob-
served in the equalizing period relates to the boiling of the re-
sidual liquid in the condenser. After this point on, a good
match between the experimental and calculated pressures
was observed until the compressor restart. At the beginning
of the on-cycle, the model slightly underpredicted both evap-
orating and condensing pressures, although they tended to-
ward the experimental values as the simulation evolved.
4.4. Model potentials
A great potential of the model is the analysis of the refrigerant
migration during the cycling operation, which is complex to
be carried out experimentally. Just after the compressor is
switched off, the condenser holds most of the refrigerant
(w55 g), as illustrated in Fig. 13. During the pressure equaliza-
tion process, refrigerant migrates from the condenser to the
evaporator. The amount of refrigerant within the evaporator
rapidly increases to 55 g, decreasing slightly thereafter due
to its migration to the compressor shell. The amount of free
refrigerant in the compressor shell or dissolved in the oil in-
creases continuously with the evaporating pressure until the
compressor is on again. Just before compressor restarts, there
is approximately 10 g of refrigerant in the condenser, 50 g in
the evaporator, and 25 g in the compressor. After compressor
restarts, the refrigerant rapidly moves from the evaporator
and from the compressor shell to the condenser. Over time,
the refrigerant returns to the evaporator through the capillary
tube. The amount in the compressor decreases continuously
with decreasing evaporating pressure and increasing shell
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i nt e r na t i o na l j our na l of r e f r i g e r a t i on 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1354
temperature, as both tend to reduce the amount of refrigerant
dissolved in the lubricant oil.
5. Final remarks
A rst-principles methodology for modeling and simulating
the dynamic behavior of domestic refrigerators was intro-
duced. Innovative features were incorporated into all
component sub-models in order to guarantee both physical
reliability and numerical robustness. Numerical predictions
were compared to experimental data showing a satisfactory
level of agreement for the whole range of operating condi-
tions, including start-up and cycling regimes. The energy con-
sumption and the air temperature maximum deviations from
the experimental data were found to be 10% and 1

C, re-
spectively. The code predicts 12 h of testing using only
30 min of CPU time (Pentium M 2.13 GHz; 1024 Mb RAM). Fur-
thermore, the model can be easily adjusted to any kind of cab-
inet model, and it can be applied to assess the refrigerator
energy performance in several real-life engineering situa-
tions, which will be explored in a further publication.
Acknowledgments
Financial support from Whirlpool S.A. and the Brazilian fund-
ing agencies, CAPES and CNPq, is duly acknowledged. The rst
author is grateful to the National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology, particularly to Dr Piotr A. Domanski for hosting him
during his sabbatical stay at NIST, during which this work
was partially carried out.
r e f e r e n c e s
ASHRAE Standard S23, 1993. Methods of Testing Rating Positive
Displacement Refrigerant Compressor and Condensing Units.
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air
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2 4 6 8 10 12
Fresh-food temperature [C]
-24
-22
-20
-18
-16
-14
F
r
e
e
z
e
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

[

C
]
experimental
predicted
Fig. 11 Model validation in the cycling transients:
averaged temperatures for various control settings.
0 20 40 60 80 100
Normalized period [ ]
0
4
8
12
16
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
b
a
r
]
suction
discharge
- on - - off -
start-up
Fig. 12 Model validation in the cycling transients: suction
and discharge pressures.
0 20 40 60 80 100
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
M
a
s
s

o
f

r
e
f
r
i
g
e
r
a
n
t


[
g
]
Normalized period [ ]
- off -
-on-
restart
evaporator
condenser
compressor
Fig. 13 Refrigerant migration in the cycling operation.
i nt e r na t i o na l j o ur na l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 1 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 1 3 4 1 1 3 5 7 1355
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