Cooling performance of air-cooled evaporator based on phase-change cold storage

doi:10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2024.0814

Abstract

Abstract:

Frequent opening and closing of the refrigerator results in energy consumption problems owing to the large temperature difference within and outside a refrigerator during cold-chain transportation. Latent heat characteristics of phase-change materials for cold energy storage are a reliable and effective solution for the aforementioned challenge. In this study, we describe the construction of a new type of evaporator with half of the coil tube filled with cold-storage phase-change material. The evaporator stores part of the cooling capacity of the phase-change material as the refrigeration unit actively cools and continues to release this part of the cooling capacity after shutdown. By changing the position of the cold-storage coil, we studied the cooling times, heat-transfer change, and entransy dissipation of the built-in and new external evaporators. The results show that the cold storage capacity of the two phase-change coils is 285 kJ, and the cooling release time of the built-in and external storage evaporators are 6.2 min and 7.3 min, respectively, compared to the non-cold-storage evaporator. Based on the actual transportation time and the demand for transporting goods, during long-distance operations with durations of approximately 10 h and a refrigeration temperature range of 10-15 ℃, the conventional evaporator needs to undergo 12 start-stop cycles. In contrast,the built-in and external new evaporators undergo 9.79 and 9.87 start-stop cycles, respectively, with an approximate reduction by 2.2 start-stop cycles, effectively reducing the number of start-stop energy consumption of the system. The total energy consumption under the built-in cold storage form is reduced by about 0.25 kWh, accounting for 1.6% of the total energy consumption. The entransy dissipation increases for the external and built-in evaporators are over 400 J·K and approximately 100 J·K, respectively, compared to the evaporator without cold storage. Overall, the built-in cold storage evaporator exhibits a better energy-saving effect.

Key words: evaporator, phase change materials, cold chain transportation, refrigeration, entransy dissipation

CLC Number:

TB 657.5

Yixuan LIU, Xiaofen REN, Shanhu TONG, Zhiguo SHI, Xiaohui SHE. Cooling performance of air-cooled evaporator based on phase-change cold storage[J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2025, 14(2): 505-514.

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位置	长/m	宽/m	高/m
车厢	4.000	2.268	2.500
箱体厚度	0.090	0.100	0.125
蒸发器	0.860	0.400	0.350
外置蓄冷盘管	0.860	0.060	0.350

参数名称	数值
制冷量/kW	5.0
通风量/(m³/h)	750
主回路	三相AC 380V 50 Hz
控制回路	DC 110 V
冷媒	R134a
质量流量/(g/s)	59.0

项目	无蓄冷	内置蓄冷	外置蓄冷
一周期时长/min	50.0	61.3	60.8
开启制冷时长/min	14.9	18.2	19.6
释冷时长/min	21.9	30.0	28.0
风机停机时长/min	13.2	13.1	13.2
制冷时长占比/%	29.80	29.69	32.24

项目	N	E_huo/kWh	E_c/kWh	E_f/kWh	E_start/kWh	E_{10 h}/kWh
无蓄冷	12	0.708	0.422	0.080	0.069	15.350
内置蓄冷	9.79	0.868	0.488	0.104	0.069	15.103
外置蓄冷	9.87	0.861	0.526	0.103	0.069	15.391

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