Development and Implementation of a Dynamic Vapor Compression Refrigeration Model into vemESRDC Ship Thermal Management Tool

A simplified dynamic vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) model was developed for the purpose of obtaining quick thermal responses of complex refrigeration systems, and it was implemented into vemESRDC ship thermal management tool. In this work, the VCR model was implemented as an air-conditioning unit used to cool ship compartments. The implementation was verified by solving a simple problem composed of nine volume elements representing a ship compartment. The VCR system was modeled with control volumes (CVs) and appropriate mass and energy balances were applied to each CV based on the laws of heat transfer and thermodynamics. Resulting system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations were solved using a pertinent numerical method and subsequently, temperature variations in the compartment, condenser, and evaporator were computed along with heat transfer rate through the compartment wall and the air-conditioning unit. Simulation results demonstrated the updated simulation tool's ability to capture rapid dynamic thermal responses of both compartment and VCR at a low computational cost.