THERMAL MODELING AND ENERGY-CONSERVATION STUDIES ON FREON RANKINE-CYCLE COOLING SYSTEM WITH REGENERATIVE HEAT-EXCHANGER

This communication presents a thermodynamic analysis and assessment of a Freon fluid Rankine cycle cooling system. The system consists of two subsystems-Rankine engine (RE) power cycle and a vapour compression (V-C) refrigeration cycle. The heat engine subsystem consists of a boiler, turbine, condenser and a feed pump while the cooling subsystem consists of a mechanical compressor, condenser, evaporator and an expansion valve. A number of working fluid combinations for the RE cycle and V-C cycle subsystems have been chosen on the basis of their thermodynamic properties and their suitability judged in terms of the performance parameters, namely, the thermal efficiency of the power cycle and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the refrigeration cycle. A regenerative heat exchanger (RHE) is incorporated in the RE cycle to improve the cycle efficiency and achieve energy conservation. The effects of various operation parameters, namely, component temperatures, adiabatic expansion/compression efficiencies and effectiveness of the RHE on the overall COP have been assessed. It is found that R114 + R22 give the best overall system performance and the presence of the RHE improves the system COP significantly. The effect of V-C cycle condenser temperature is more pronounced as compared to that of the RE cycle condenser and similarly the effect of evaporator temperature in the V-C cycle is more pronounced as compared to that of the boiler in the Rankine cycle subsystem.