ES2261067B1 - APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE FOR DETECTING THE AMOUNT OF COOLANT OF AIR CONDITIONERS. - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus and procedure for detecting the amount of refrigerant in air conditioners. Status variables are digitized and displayed to control the operation of an air conditioner through blurred inference, so that consumers can easily recognize the exact lack or excess of refrigerant, as well as whether the amount of refrigerant is adequate or no.

Description

Apparatus and procedure to detect amount of refrigerant in air conditioners.

Cross reference to related request

This request claims the benefit of the Korean Patent Application number 2004-102026, filed on December 6, 2004 at the Property Office Korean Intellectual, the description of which is incorporated into Present document for reference.

Background of the invention 1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a procedure to detect an amount of refrigerant in the air conditioners and, more specifically, to an apparatus and to a procedure to detect an amount of refrigerant in the air conditioners, designed to determine the amount of refrigerant through blurred inference based on variables of status to control the operation of conditioners air.

2. Description of the related technique

Generally, air conditioners they comprise a refrigerant tube to guide a flow of a refrigerant between an outdoor unit that includes a compressor in the same and an indoor unit installed in a room, and a heat exchanger for heat exchange, of so that the heat is exchanged in the heat exchanger while the refrigerant circulates through the refrigerant tube between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit under a cycle of cooling / heating.

In order to allow stable operation of the cooling or heating cycle of the conditioner air, it is necessary to fill with an appropriate amount of refrigerant A refrigerant circuit.

Conventionally, the amount of refrigerant was determined by technicians based on their experience at from the results of pressure detection in a valve High pressure side service and a service valve low pressure side of the refrigerant circuit, in which the pressures are usually detected by means of a pressure gauge multiple after opening high side service valve pressure and low pressure side service valve, respectively. According to such an approach, although a technician expert can determine the appropriate amount of refrigerant that placed inside the refrigerant circuit, it is difficult for consumers determine the appropriate amount of refrigerant that is You should use.

Meanwhile, it may happen that he escapes refrigerant after the installation of the air conditioner, generating a lack of refrigerant, which causes the unstable operation of the air conditioner. In this case, it is impossible even for an expert technician to determine with Precision the missing refrigerant.

In addition, under the operation of the cycle of heating, since it is not appropriate to open the service valve  High pressure side and low side service valve pressure in order to detect the pressures inside it, is difficult to detect the amount of refrigerant using the multiple gauge.

For now, conventional procedures to detect a quantity of refrigerant include a procedure  to detect the amount of refrigerant with respect to a temperature of a condenser, and a procedure to detect the amount of refrigerant with respect to a difference between the discharge temperature and the intake temperature of a compressor. However, according to these procedures conventional, although only simple information can be obtained, which simply indicates information of normality, excess and lack, no detailed information such as lack or excess can be obtained Exact refrigerant.

Summary of the Invention

The following invention has been made to the view of the above and other problems, and an aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method to detect an amount of refrigerant in conditioners of air, designed to show a quantity of refrigerant digitized so that consumers are allowed to determine easily the amount of refrigerant.

Additional aspects and / or advantages of the invention will be established in part in the following description and in part will be obvious from the same description, or they can learned through the practice of the invention.

In accordance with the present invention, these and / or other aspects are fulfilled by providing an apparatus to detect an amount of refrigerant in an air conditioner that has at least one indoor unit and one outdoor unit, comprising: a provider of status quantities information for provide information on a plurality of state quantities to control the air conditioner; a fuzzy controller to make fuzzy inference about the amount of refrigerant to use the status quantities information and to control the behavior in order to show a degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant based on blurred inference; and one unit of presentation to show the degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant according to controller control fuzzy.

The fuzzy controller can digitize a degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant.

The amounts of state to control the indoor unit operation may comprise at least the indoor temperature, the inlet temperature of an exchanger of internal heat, the outlet temperature of the exchanger internal heat and the degree of expansion valve opening inside.

The amounts of state to control the outdoor unit operation may comprise the discharge temperature of a compressor, the inlet temperature of the compressor, the tube temperature of an exchanger outside heat, the heat exchanger outlet temperature outside, outside temperature, the degree of opening of a external electronic expansion valve, the pressure measured by a high pressure detector and the pressure measured by a detector low pressure.

The quantity information provider of state can comprise an internal controller to control the indoor unit operation, and an outdoor controller for monitor the operation of the outdoor unit, and the information of the status quantities can be entered into the controller Blurred through the external controller.

The fuzzy controller may comprise a borrosifier to blur the state variables of the status quantities information, an identification machine based on rules to identify the variables of quantity of refrigerant of a rule base with the output of variables from state of the borrosifier, a fuzzy inference machine for make fuzzy inference using the quantity variables of refrigerant identified by the identification machine with rule base, and an overflow to digitize the quantity of refrigerant using a blurred amount obtained through the Blurred inference from the blurred inference machine.

The borrosifier can have a function of membership to blur state variables respective.

The rule-based identification machine may have at least a previously established rule base of according to a blurred rule that expresses a part of prerequisites and a conclusion part as a proposition blurred by using state variables.

When the identification machine with base rules has a plurality of rules bases, the machine of rule-based identification can output coolant quantity variables identified for each of the rules bases.

Blurred inference machine can perform Blurred inference by applying the procedure Min-Max after receiving quantity variables of refrigerant from the identification machine with rule base.

The overflower can have a function of membership to digitize the amount of refrigerant according with the blurred amount obtained through the inference blurry

The presentation unit can display a amount of refrigerant digitized as a percentage value.

According to another aspect, a procedure to detect an amount of a refrigerant that circulates through a refrigerant tube connected between a indoor unit and an outdoor unit of an air conditioner, Understanding the procedure: determine if a command to detect the amount of refrigerant; blur the status quantities information to control operation  of the air conditioner when the command is entered for detect the amount of refrigerant; identify the variables of amount of refrigerant with blurry results corresponding based on at least one rule base previously established according to a blurred rule that expresses a part of prerequisites and a part of conclusion as a blurred proposition by using the quantity information of state; make the fuzzy inference based on the amount of identified refrigerant; digitize the amount of refrigerant according to a blurred amount obtained through the blurred inference; and show the amount of refrigerant digitized

When the information of the status amounts, the status amounts information is compare with the corresponding membership elements of a fuzzy linguistic set of a membership function default, and membership items are output corresponding to the fuzzy linguistic set obtained as comparison result.

Brief description of the drawings

These and / or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more easily appreciated from of the following description of the embodiments, in conjunction with the attached drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows the construction of a apparatus for detecting a quantity of refrigerant, which is applied to an air conditioner of the type with multiple indoor units which has a plurality of indoor units connected to a outdoor unit;

Figure 2 shows the construction of a fuzzy controller of Figure 1;

Figures 3A to 3F show the functions membership for input status variables to a borrosifier of Figure 2, respectively;

Figure 4 shows a rule base established on the basis of a blurred rule in a machine rule-based identification;

Figure 5 shows the function of membership to digitize the amount of refrigerant in the Deborrosifier of Figure 2; Y

Figure 6 is a flow chart that illustrates a procedure to detect an amount of refrigerant in an air conditioner in accordance with this invention.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

Reference will now be made in detail to preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which the numerals of analog reference refers to analog elements in all drawings. The embodiments are described in the following for explain the invention with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Figure 1, an apparatus for detect a quantity of refrigerant in the conditioners of air according to the present invention can be applied to a type air conditioner with multiple indoor units, that has a plurality of indoor units 100-1 and 100-2 connected to a outdoor unit 200. However, it should be noted that the The present invention is not limited to this, and that the present invention can also be applied to an air conditioner that have a single indoor unit connected to a unit Exterior.

100-1 indoor units and 100-2 comprise 100 internal controllers and 110 to control the overall operation of the units interiors installed in several rooms, respectively. The 100 and 110 indoor controllers are electrically connected to detectors 101 and 111 to detect the inlet temperature of an indoor heat exchanger, detectors 102 and 112 for detect the heat exchanger outlet temperature indoor, indoor temperature detectors 103 and 113, valves 104 and 114 electronic interior expansion fans 105 and 115 interiors and temperature adjustment devices interiors 106 and 116, respectively.

Each of the 100 indoor controllers and 110 sends information regarding the indoor temperature of each room, at the temperature set for each room, at inlet temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, at outlet temperature of the internal heat exchanger and at opening degree of the internal electronic expansion valve towards the outdoor unit along with the quantity information of status to control the operation of an indoor unit associated.

The outdoor unit 200 comprises a controller exterior 210 to control the overall operation of the unit exterior 200. The external controller 210 communicates with each other of the indoor controllers of the indoor units, and receive information regarding the indoor temperature of each room, set temperature, inlet temperature of indoor heat exchanger, the outlet temperature of the indoor heat exchanger and the degree of opening of the internal electronic expansion valve from each controller inside.

The external controller 210 is connected electrically to an input part 220, to a detector 221 for detect the discharge temperature of a compressor 240, at a detector 222 to detect the compressor inlet temperature 240, to a detector 223 to detect the temperature of the tube of a external heat exchanger, to a temperature detector outside 224, to a detector 225 to detect the temperature of output of the external heat exchanger, to a detector 226 for detect the degree of expansion valve opening outdoor electronics 250, a high pressure detector 227 and a low pressure detector 228.

The external controller 210 outputs an excitation part 230 a control signal to control the air conditioner, and then excites the compressor 240, the external electronic expansion valve 250, and a fan exterior 260, in which the control signal is based on the discharge and compressor inlet temperatures, the temperature tube heat exchanger outside, temperature outside, the opening degree of the expansion valve external electronics, the pressure measured by the high detector pressure and the pressure measured by the low pressure detector while what information of state quantities to control the overall operation of the outdoor unit, as well as information on quantities of status received from controllers interiors

In addition to several operating keys of the air conditioner, the input part 220 comprises a key 220-1 refrigerant detection to detect the amount of refrigerant

If you need to detect the amount of refrigerant circulating through a refrigerant circuit, it  Operate the refrigerant detection key manually 220-1 When the refrigerant detection key 220-1 is operated manually, the controller outside 210 receives a signal from the detection key of refrigerant from inlet part 220, and supplies the status quantity information to a fuzzy controller 300. Here, the status quantities information is needed to detect the amount of refrigerant flowing through the tube refrigerant connected between indoor units and unit outside, and understands the information obtained by the unit outside itself as well as the information supplied from the unit inside. That is, the state quantity information comprises the interior temperature of each room, the temperatures of Inlet and outlet the indoor heat exchanger, the degree of opening of the internal electronic expansion valve, the compressor inlet and discharge temperatures, temperature of the tube and the heat exchanger outlet temperature outside, outside temperature, the degree of opening of the external electronic expansion valve, the temperature measured by the high pressure detector and the pressure measured by the detector low pressure, as mentioned above.

Regarding Figure 2, the fuzzy controller It comprises a degasser 310, an identification machine with rule base 320, a fuzzy inference machine 330 and a Overflow 340.

The degasser 310 prepares the functions of membership for the respective state variables, and performs the borrosification of the state variables, which are given as tickets, through membership functions predetermined

Here, membership functions occur using linguistic fuzzy sets, such as "slightly under "," appropriate "," slightly high ", and the like, to linguistically express the meaning of the variables of state.

Figure 3A shows a membership function for the temperature of the outer heat exchanger tube while operating in cooling, which consists of three sets linguistic fuzzies L, M and H. Figure 3B shows a function of membership for the pressure measured by the high pressure detector, consisting of six linguistic fuzzy sets NNL, NL, L, M, H and PH. Figure 3C shows a membership function for the compressor discharge temperature, which consists of five linguistic fuzzy sets NL, L, M, H and PH. The 3D Figure shows a membership function for the pressure measured by the low pressure detector, consisting of two fuzzy sets Linguistic L and H. Figure 3E shows a membership function for the compressor inlet temperature, which consists of five linguistic fuzzy sets NL, L, M, H and PH.

The degasser 310 compares the information of status amounts with the associated membership elements of the fuzzy linguistic set of membership function default, and deliver the associated membership items of the fuzzy linguistic set obtained as a result of the comparison to the identification machine based on rules 320. That is, the degasser 310 outputs the elements of membership of the fuzzy linguistic set corresponding to the respective status variables of the identification machine based on rules.

After receiving the membership items of the fuzzy linguistic set corresponding to the variables respective status, rule based identifier 320 identifies the fuzzy linguistic set of the variables of status with the coolant quantity variables of at least one rule base previously established, and applies the variables of amount of refrigerant identified to the inference machine blurred 330. The variables of refrigerant quantity are classify in a plurality of terms, for example, "normal", "20% missing", "20% excess", "40% missing", "40% excess" and the like.

The rule base is previously established from according to a fuzzy rule, which produces sentences yes-then to express a part of prerequisite and a conclusion part as a proposition blurry The number of rule bases is increased or decreased according to be necessary. When the identification machine with base rules has a plurality of rule bases, they apply different fuzzy rules to the respective rule bases.

Regarding Figure 4, the rules bases 321-1, 321-2, 321-3 and 321-4 are established corresponding to the blurred rules 320-1, 320-2, 320-3 and 320-4. Between the rules blurred, the blurred rule 320-1 assumes the blurred proposition of a simple relation R i and expresses the blurred proposition of "If a first state variable U_ {1i} is A_ {1i}, a second state variable U_ {2i} is A_ {2i} and a third state variable U_ {3i} is A_ {3i}, a refrigerant quantity variable O_ {i} is W_ {i} ". This sentence expresses the fuzzy proposition, for example, "if the outside temperature is high, indoor temperature is slightly high and the compressor discharge temperature is high, lack of refrigerant. "

Under the condition that the rule base 321-1 corresponds to the fuzzy rule previously established 320-1, if the sets linguistic fuzziness of the first, second and second state variables third U1, U2 and U3 input from the borosifier 310 are "large", "medium" and "large", respectively, Linguistic fuzzy sets are identified with "bug 1", and the identification "fault 1" applies to the machine Blurred inference 330.

As such, the different rules bases 321-2, 321-2, 321-3 and 321-4 the quantity variables also apply of refrigerant to the fuzzy inference machine 330, in which Coolant quantity variables are identified on the basis of linguistic fuzzy sets of variables been applied on the associated fuzzy rules.

Blurred inference machine 330 performs the Blurred inference for the amount of refrigerant according to the quantity of refrigerant variables supplied from the rule-based identifier 320. That is, if the amount of refrigerant is inappropriate, the inference machine blurred 330 infers a blurred amount corresponding to excess or lack of refrigerant, and apply the amount of blurry inferred to the overflower 340. When the fuzzy inference is made, it apply a Min-Max procedure.

The overflower 340 compares the quantity blurred with the fuzzy linguistic set of the function of membership in order to digitize the amount of refrigerant, and determines the corresponding fuzzy linguistic set with the blurry amount Figure 5 shows a membership function, in which a fuzzy linguistic set of the membership function determined according to the blurred amount is `` einte ("20% of an appropriate amount of refrigerant) ". The overflow 340 delivers information on the amount of refrigerant digitized to a presentation unit 400. The unit of presentation 400 analyzes the fuzzy linguistic set of the membership function supplied from overflower 340 and  shows the amount of refrigerant analyzed as a number, by example, "-80%". According to this, consumers can easily determine the exact excess or lack of refrigerant as well as if the amount of refrigerant is appropriate or not.

A procedure will now be described for detect a quantity of refrigerant in the conditioners of air constructed as described above in accordance with the present invention

When a key is operated manually 220-1 refrigerant detection in order to detect the amount of refrigerant circulating through a refrigerant tube connected between a plurality of units indoor and an outdoor unit, a signal from the refrigerant detection to an external controller 210 (501 in the Figure 6).

When the signal from the key is received refrigerant detection, the external controller 210 supplies status quantity information indicating a status of air conditioner operation to a fuzzy controller 300. Here, the state quantity information includes the information obtained by the outdoor unit itself, as well as the information supplied from the indoor unit, in which the status quantities information achieved by the unit inside itself includes the inlet and discharge temperatures of a compressor, the tube temperature and the outlet temperature of an external heat exchanger, the outside temperature, the opening degree of an external electronic expansion valve, the pressure measured by a high pressure detector, the pressure measured by a low pressure detector, and in which the information of Status quantities supplied from the indoor unit includes the interior temperature of each room, the temperatures of inlet and outlet of an indoor heat exchanger, and the opening degree of an electronic expansion valve inside.

The degasser 310 outputs an assembly fuzzy linguistic of a corresponding membership function with the information of input status quantities (503 in the Figure 6). The 320 based rule identification machine gives as output some coolant quantity variables identified with a fuzzy linguistic set of quantity information associated status in each previously established rule base in it (505 in Figure 6).

After receiving the quantity variables of refrigerant for the respective rule bases, the machine fuzzy inference 330 performs the fuzzy inference by the application of the Min-Max procedure, and delivers a blurred amount obtained through blurred inference to Overflow 340 (507 in Figure 6).

Overflower 340 delivers the set linguistic fuzzy of the membership function to digitize the amount of refrigerant according to the amount blurred to a presentation unit 400 (509 in Figure 6).

The presentation unit 400 analyzes the fuzzy linguistic set of membership function for digitize the amount of refrigerant and show the amount of refrigerant analyzed as a percentage value (511 in Figure 6).

As apparent from the description above, in accordance with the present invention, the information of status quantities to control the operation of the air conditioner can be digitized and displayed through Blurred inference, so that consumers can determine easily the exact lack or excess of refrigerant as well as if The amount of refrigerant is appropriate or not.

In addition, if necessary to detect the amount of refrigerant, can be easily detected by means of the refrigerant detection, so that the operation of heating of air conditioners can be performed actively.

Although some have been shown and described embodiments of the present invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes can be made to this realization without departing from the principles and spirit of invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalences

Claims (13)

1. An apparatus for detecting an amount of refrigerant in an air conditioner having at least one indoor unit and one outdoor unit, characterized in that it comprises: a quantity information provider of  state to supply information of a plurality of state amounts to control the air conditioner; a fuzzy controller to make inference blurred for the amount of refrigerant using the information from the state amounts and to control the behavior with the in order to show a degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant based on blurry inference; Y a presentation unit to show the degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant according to the fuzzy controller control; in which the information provider of the amount of state comprises an internal controller to control the operation of the internal unit and an external controller to control the operation of the external unit and in which status amount information is fed to diffuse controller through external controller. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the fuzzy controller digitizes a degree of suitability of the amount of refrigerant. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the status quantities information to control the operation of the indoor unit comprises at least one between the inside temperature, the inlet temperature of a indoor heat exchanger, the outlet temperature of the indoor heat exchanger and the degree of opening of a internal electronic expansion valve. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the status quantities information to control the operation of the outdoor unit includes the temperature of discharge of a compressor, the compressor inlet temperature, the temperature of the tube of an external heat exchanger, the outlet temperature of the external heat exchanger, the outside temperature, the degree of opening of a valve external electronic expansion, the pressure measured by a detector high pressure and pressure measured by a low detector Pressure. 5. The apparatus according to claim 2, in which the fuzzy controller comprises a blurr to blur the state variables of information from state quantities, an identification machine based on rules to identify the variables of refrigerant quantity of a rule base with the output status variables of the borrosifier, a fuzzy inference machine to perform Blurred inference using coolant quantity variables identified by the rule-based identification machine and an overflow to digitize the amount of refrigerant using a blurred amount obtained through the inference Blurred inference machine blurred. 6. The apparatus according to claim 5, in which the borrosifier has a membership function to blur the respective state variables. 7. The apparatus according to claim 5, in which the rule-based identification machine has at least one rule base previously established in accordance with a blurred rule that expresses a prerequisite part and a conclusion part as a fuzzy proposition through use of the state variables. 8. The apparatus according to claim 7, in which the rule-based identification machine has a plurality of rule bases, and in which the machine of rule-based identification outputs the variables of amount of refrigerant identified for each of the bases of rules. 9. The apparatus according to claim 5, in which the fuzzy inference machine makes the inference  blurred by applying a procedure Min-Max after receiving the variables of amount of refrigerant delivered by the machine rule based identification. 10. The apparatus according to claim 5, in which the overflower has a membership function to digitize the amount of refrigerant according to the blurry amount obtained through blurry inference. 11. The apparatus according to claim 2, in which the presentation unit shows a quantity of digitized refrigerant as a percentage value. 12. A method for detecting an amount of refrigerant circulating through a refrigerant tube connected between an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of an air conditioner, characterized in that it comprises: determine if a command has been issued for detect the amount of refrigerant; blur the quantity information of status to control the operation of the air conditioner when the command to detect the amount of refrigerant has been issued; identify variables of quantity of refrigerant with corresponding borrosified results in the minus a previously established rule base according to a blurred rule that expresses a prerequisite part and a part of conclusion as a blurred proposition by using the status quantities information; make fuzzy inference based on the amount of refrigerant identified; digitize the amount of refrigerant according to a blurred amount obtained through of blurry inference; Y show the amount of refrigerant digitized; in which the information of the amount of status is supplied by an information provider of quantity of status and the quantity information provider of state comprises an internal controller to control the operation of the internal unit and an external controller for control the operation of the external unit and in which the status amount information is fed to the controller diffuse through the external controller. 13. The apparatus according to claim 12, in which, when quantity information is cleared status, status quantity information is compared to corresponding membership elements of a set fuzzy linguistic of a default membership function, and the corresponding membership elements are given as output of the fuzzy linguistic set obtained as a result of the comparison.