No abstract

Summary For a heat pump, three injection styles including liquid, two‐phase, and vapor injection are used to improve its performance. But there is no quantitative index to define the injection styles. They are distinguished from the injection configurations. The subcooler refrigerant injection (SCRI) is generally considered as the vapor injection. In this study, the injection super‐heating degree (ΔTinj) is introduced as a technical parameter to define the injection style. The ΔTinj is affected by the subcooling degree (ΔTsc). These two parameters are used to study their effects on the heat pump performance. Experimental and theoretical analysis reveals that three injection styles can be selectively achieved in the SCRI configuration by the suitable control of the main and subcooling electronic expansion valves. Additionally, for liquid and two‐phase injection, it can improve heating capacity (Qh) by heightening the ΔTsc to increase the heat exchange amount in the evaporator. For vapor injection, in addition to increase of the ΔTsc, the Qh can be enhanced by raising the ΔTinj to lift the compression power of the compressor. The two‐phase injection is more beneficial to enhance the heat pump performance than the liquid injection and two‐phase injection. The largest Qh and corresponding increase amplitude (δQh) were, respectively, obtained with two‐phase injection to be 13 577 W and 13.5%, and the corresponding COP and increase amplitude (δCOP) were, respectively, 2.36 and 16.8%.

No abstract

No abstract

As one of the most promising and convenient heating service to replace coal-fired boilers and electric heaters due to its high energy efficiency, a heat pump has received more and more attention for the economical application and extensive research. The injection technology can be used to improve the heat pump performance. Currently, the injection ratio and pressure ratio are usually used to characterize the effects of injection styles on its performance. This is not conducive to its practical operation control because of additional cost increase. In this work, the effects of two injection cycles due to two injection paths were characterized with openings of a sub-cooling electronic expansion valve, comparatively tested and analyzed. Test results demonstrate that the heating capacities (Qh), electricity power (EP) and coefficient of performance with the refrigerant injection into compressor (CRI) are more than those with the injection into accumulator (ARI), and the overall effect with the CRI is positive because the Qh improvement outperforms EP increase. For example, the maximum Qh with the CRI at 55, 60 and 85 rps were 8.1%, 7.7% and 18.3% higher than those without the CRI, and 7.3%, 6.7% and 19.0% higher than those with the ARI. The thermodynamic model was used to analyze the experimental results and expound the mechanism of the influence of injection path on the performance of heat pump. This work provides guidance for improving energy efficiency in common areas and enhancing Qh in cold areas.