The global environmental situation is concentrating the efforts of research and development engineers to evolve an automotive vehicle which has the least environmental impact, both in its manufacture and operation, and is consistent with acceptable levels of comfort. An important area of improvements is the consideration of an air-cycle method of vehicle air-conditioning which currently uses conventional vapor-compression technology to cool warm humid air, with attendant loss of fuel economy and use of refrigerants that are only now about 90 % ozon-friendly. Air-cycle refrigeration is 100 % ozone-friendly, although it may be less efficient. The paper describes the practical development and commisioning of an air-cycle refrigeration system built from an air turbine/fan assembly used in an old aircraft for internal cooling. Experimental studies conducted show a temperature drop between turbine inlet and outlet, varying between 40 and 80 deg C respectively, for inlet pressures varying between 1,5 and 6,5 bar gauge, giving sufficiently low evaporator temperatures even for a turbine inlet pressure and temperature of only 1,5 barg and about 30 deg C respectively. The paper also examines how such a larg temperature drop can be utilised in an automotive context with the highest possible coefficient of performance for the refrigeration plant used in air-conditioning consistent with the best way of obtaining slightly-higher-than-atmospheric turbine inlet pressure. Comparisons are drawn between conventional vapor compression technology and the manifold ways of using air cycle refrigeration for automotive air-conditioning.
Automotive air-conditioning using air-cycle refrigeration
Fahrzeuklimageräte mit Luftkältekreislauf
1995
9 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Automotive air-conditioning using air-cycle refrigeration
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