Presented by,

Ashish Ranjan
Gautam Kumar
Md. Mahfooj Ali
Shashank Shekhar



THE ANALYSES OF VARIABLE REFRIGERANT
FLOW AND EXERGY IN AN AIR CONDITIONING
UNIT
ABSTRACT
The aim is to model and simulate a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air conditioning
system.
The modeling of the system components for a VRF cycle under different cooling
conditions using R-134a and R-22 as refrigerants was carried out .
The coefficient of performance (COP) for the refrigeration system is evaluated for varying
situations
In the second problem, the objective is to develop a mathematical model that covers the
mass, energy, entropy, and exergy balances of a typical air conditioning system.
The model examines how the exergy efficiency of an air conditioning system can be used
to measure its performance




MOTIVATION FOR RESEARCH

AC market in India is dominated by room ACs, which make up nearly 99% of the annual
sales. The room AC market in India
Since 2004 room AC sales have grown at an average annual growth rate of 17%.
Room AC penetration in China has increased from nearly 0% in 1992 to almost 100% in
2007
The same trend is anticipated in India which today has a mere 3% penetration in urban
households but it is projected to have 22% penetration by 2020 and almost 47% by 2030.
This increase in AC penetration will amount to huge jump in energy consumption
MOTIVATION CONTD.

The energy consumption is expected to rise from 8TWHr in 2010 to 239 TWHr in 2030
By 2030, enhancing the AC efficiency can save nearly 60 GW of peak demand
This is equivalent to saving nearly 120 power plants of 500 MW each

The mass, energy, entropy, and exergy
balances and exergy efficiency
relations for some key air conditioning
system processes are included as a
part of the mathematical modeling of
the system. Two dead state conditions
were selected and analyzed

This study attempted to carry out a
comprehensive investigation of the
coefficient of performance (COP) for a
variable refrigerant flow air
conditioning system under different
conditions
Results are presented for both R-134a
and R-22

OBJECTIVE
Variable Refrigerant Flow Exergy Analysis
APPLICATION
The application areas of research are:
Cooling chambers
Refrigeration Plants
Multi storey buildings
Hospitals, Hotels etc
Cold storages
Room Air conditioning Units

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The steps followed in the Variable Refrigerant Flow systems analysis
were:
Breaking up of the complete system into individual distinct system
Development of a mathematical model which explains the processes happening
inside the system
Calculation of masses of refrigerant at each stage of cycle
Use of Refrigeration table to find out the Enthalpies, Entropies and other values at
different temperatures
Calculation of Enthalpy and COP for the refrigeration cycle
Plot of graph of COP at varying parameters.




RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CONTD.

The steps followed in the Exergy analysis were:
Distinction of AC into three different systems
For all three systems:
Dry air mass and water mass balance
Energy and Entropy balance
Exergy balance
Exergy Destruction Calculation
Exergy efficiency
Plot of Exergy Efficiency and Destruction for different sensible and latent heat

















ANALYSIS OF A VARIABLE REFRIGERANT FLOW AIR
CONDITIONING SYSTEM

ANALYSIS OF A VARIABLE REFRIGERANT FLOW
AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM CONTD.
A refrigerant flow control is used after the condenser to separate the mass flow rate for
each evaporator based on each evaporators temperature and cooling load.
This is done to provide different level of cooling to different areas as per requirement.
The masses flowing out of evaporators 1 and 2 enter thermal expansion valves to bring
them to the same pressure as evaporator 3 before mixing and reconnecting them to the
compressor.
PRESSURE VS ENTHALPY CHART FOR THE
REFRIGERATION PROCESS
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The mass flow rate for each evaporator can be obtained by an energy balance for each
evaporator as follows
m
1
=
1
/ (
5

4
)
m
2
=
2
/ (
8

7
)
m
3
=
3
/ (h
11

10
)
The total mass flow rate can be written as:
m
tot
= m
1
+ m
2
+ m
3
MATHEMATICAL MODEL CONTD
The enthalpy of the compressors inlet
h
1
m
tot
= h
6
m
1
+ h
9
m
2
+ h
11
m
3
The actual enthalpy of the compressors outlet can be determined by using its efficiency

c
= (
2

1
)/ (
2

1
)
The rate of work of the compressor
W
c
= m
tot
(h
2
h
1
)
Therefore, the coefficient of performance of the VRF system
COP =
1
+
2
+
3
/
RESULTS
Effects of the temperature of the condenser on COP for R-134a (T
evap1
= 4C,
T
evap2
= 0C, T
evap3
= -4C)
RESULT CONTD.
Effects of the temperature of the condenser on COP for R-134a (T
evap1
= 8C,
T
evap2
= 0C, T
evap3
= -8C)
RESULTS CONTD.
Effects of the temperature of the condenser on COP for R-22 and R-134a
(T
evap1
= 4C, T
evap2
= 0C, T
evap3
= -4C)

EXERGY

In thermodynamics, the exergy of a system is the maximum useful work possible during a
process that brings the system into equilibrium with a heat reservoir
Exergy is the energy that is available to be used
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor
destroyed during a process, it changes from one form to another. In contrast, exergy
accounts for the irreversibility of a process due to increase in entropy, stated by Second
Law of Thermodynamics
Exergy is always destroyed when a process involves a temperature change
The destroyed exergy has been called anergy
For an isothermal process, exergy and energy are interchangeable terms, and there is no
anergy
SECOND-LAW EFFICIENCY
The second-law efficiency is a measure of the performance of a device relative to the
performance under reversible conditions for the same end states

II
=

/
,
= /

(For heat engines and work producing devices )
And,

II
= /

(For refrigerators, ACs and work consuming device)
In general, the second-law efficiency is expressed as:

II
= /
=1( / )
A TYPICAL AIR CONDITIONING UNIT
BASE MODEL CONFIGURATION
Outside air temp, T
o
= 35
o
c
Relative Humidity, Rh
o
= 70%
Q
sensible
= 12.30 kW
Q
latent
= 3.51kW
Room air temp, T
r
= 20
o
c
Room relative humidity, RH
r =

40%
Outside air flow rate, q
0
= 0.38 m
3
/ sec
Bypass air flow rate, q
b =
0.61 m
3
/sec

EQUATIONS INVOLVED
EQUATIONS CONTD.
EQUATIONS COND.
FINAL EQUATION
Therefore the total destruction of the system can be expressed as :
Ex
d,sys
= Ex
d,am
+ Ex
d,u


+ Ex
d,r
The exergy efficiency of the system can be expressed as:

ex,sys
=
out
/
in
= 1
xd,sys
/
in

The sensible heat ratio (SHR) of the air conditioning system can be written as:
=
sen
/ (
sen
+
lat
)





RESULT
Effect of Room Latent Heat Load on Exergy Efficiency and Destruction
RESULTS CONTD.
Effect of Room Sensible Heat Load on Exergy Efficiency and Destruction

RESULTS CONTD.
Effect of room air temp on Exergy Destruction and Exergy Efficiency
CONCLUSION
Variable Refrigerant Flow
The increment of the evaporators temperatures increased the COP of the VRF cycle.
The COP of the VRF system decreases as the condenser temperature of the system
increases.
The COP of the VRF system decreased more under different evaporators temperature
conditions.
The COP of the VRF system decreased further for R-22 when evaporators are running at
different temperatures.
CONCLUSION CONTD.
Exergy
Maximum exergy efficiency can be reached by increasing exergy input and decreasing
exergy destruction of the A/C system.
Exergy efficiency also can be increased by increasing exergy input by a higher rate than
exergy destruction or by decreasing exergy destruction in a higher rate than exergy input.
Large systems with multiple indoor units can be analyzed by using the same system of
equations presented to calculate their exergy efficiency.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Future work can be conducted for the VRF system by analyzing the effects of pressure
drops in condenser and evaporators by taking into account the effects of heat transfer and
friction in refrigerant pipes.
Also, studying similar systems under heating or simultaneous cooling/heating conditions
is substantial to improve the VRF system.
Moreover, future work can be done by analyzing exergy efficiency of A/C systems under
heating condition.


Thank You