Study on the Performance of Scroll Compressor Applied for Medium Temperature Refrigeration System

Abstract

Recent research shows great interest in increasing energy efficiency of a refrigeration system and finding appropriate configurations to optimize its performance. One of the main component in the refrigeration system is compressor. Therefore, the compressor plays an important role in a refrigeration system for energy performance optimization. The study is aimed to experimentally investigate temperature and energy performance of a scroll compressor applied for medium temperature refrigeration systems. Tests were conducted in a water cooled medium temperature refrigeration system. Temperature performance evaluation of the compressor referred to the IEEE Standard 112, while energy efficiency of the compressor was calculated from the energy performance of the refrigeration system. The results clearly show that evaporating temperature together with degree of superheat at suction line of the compressor can significantly affect temperature performance of the scroll compressor. Results of the study have also shown significant improvement on the compressor energy efficiency accounted for 10.4% when the evaporating temperature increases from -8.3 °C to -2.4 °C.