JP2007298258A - Gas-liquid separator module - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a gas-liquid separator module as a gas-liquid separator integrated with an internal heat exchanger, capable of improving gas-liquid separating performance as an original function of the gas-liquid separator while keeping heat exchanging performance as the internal heat exchanger. <P>SOLUTION: In this gas-liquid separator module in which the internal heat exchanger is integrally incorporated in the gas-liquid separator, and which is disposed in a refrigerating cycle comprising a compressor, a radiator for cooling a refrigerant discharged from the compressor, a pressure reducing device for reducing a pressure of an outlet-side refrigerant of the radiator, an evaporator for evaporating the low-pressure refrigerant of which the pressure is reduced by the pressure reducing device, the gas-liquid separator for allowing the refrigerant evaporated by the evaporator to be separated into gas and liquid, and allowing the gas-liquid separated low-pressure refrigerant to flow out to a suction side of the compressor, and the internal heat exchanger performing heat exchange between the outlet-side refrigerant of the radiator and the suction-side refrigerant of the compressor, the internal heat exchanger is disposed in the gas-liquid separator in a state of defining upper and lower chambers inside of the gas-liquid separator. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas-liquid separator module provided in a vapor compression refrigeration cycle, and more particularly, to a refrigeration cycle of a vehicle air conditioner in which an internal heat exchanger is integrated in a gas-liquid separator. And a suitable gas-liquid separator module.

  In a vapor compression refrigeration cycle, particularly in a refrigeration cycle including a supercritical region, for example, a refrigeration cycle using a natural refrigerant such as carbon dioxide, the refrigerant is compressed with the refrigerant at the outlet side of the radiator to improve the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle. A technique for providing an internal heat exchanger for exchanging heat with a refrigerant on the suction side of a machine is generally widely known. And in this kind of refrigerating cycle, the technique which unifies a gas-liquid separator and an internal heat exchanger is proposed for reduction of a number of parts, space saving, etc. (for example, patent documents 1-5). .

This integration is a technology based on the following idea. For example, a refrigeration cycle 101 shown in FIG. 6 includes a compressor 102 that compresses and discharges a refrigerant, a radiator 103 that cools the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 102, and a decompression device 104 that decompresses the refrigerant on the outlet side of the radiator 103. An evaporator 105 for evaporating the low-pressure refrigerant decompressed by the decompression device 104, and gas for liquid-gas separation of the refrigerant evaporated by the evaporator 105 and for causing the gas-liquid separated low-pressure refrigerant to flow out to the suction side of the compressor 102 A liquid separator 106 and an internal heat exchanger 107 that performs heat exchange between the outlet side refrigerant of the radiator 103 and the suction side refrigerant of the compressor 102 are provided. The module 108 is configured to be integrated in the liquid separator 106.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-19421 JP 2002-206823 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-100804 JP 2005-299949 A JP 2006-44607 A

  However, in the structures as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 5, the number of parts is reduced by the integration of the gas-liquid separator and the internal heat exchanger, but the gas-liquid which is the basic performance of the gas-liquid separator. The separation performance is not intended to be positively improved. Therefore, reduction of the number of parts of the refrigeration cycle and space saving may be achieved, but improvement in the performance of the refrigeration cycle due to improvement of gas-liquid separation performance cannot be expected.

  Therefore, the object of the present invention is to improve the gas-liquid separation performance, which is the original function of the gas-liquid separator, while maintaining the heat exchange performance as an internal heat exchanger, focusing on the problems in the prior art as described above. An object of the present invention is to provide a gas-liquid separator module as an internal heat exchanger-integrated gas-liquid separator.

  In order to solve the above problems, a gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention includes a compressor that compresses and discharges a refrigerant, a radiator that cools the refrigerant discharged from the compressor, and an outlet side of the radiator A decompression device that decompresses the refrigerant, an evaporator that evaporates the low-pressure refrigerant decompressed by the decompression device, and gas-liquid separation of the refrigerant evaporated by the evaporator and suction of the low-pressure refrigerant separated from the liquid into the compressor Provided in a refrigeration cycle comprising a gas-liquid separator that flows out to the side, and an internal heat exchanger that exchanges heat between an outlet-side refrigerant of the radiator and a suction-side refrigerant of the compressor, In the gas-liquid separator module in which an exchanger is integrally incorporated in the gas-liquid separator, the gas-liquid separator is configured so that the internal heat exchanger is partitioned into upper and lower chambers. It is characterized by being placed inside.

  That is, in this gas-liquid separator module, the interior of the gas-liquid separator is clearly divided into an upper chamber and a lower chamber by the internal heat exchanger, so that the refrigerant flow in the gas-liquid separator inevitably occurs. It will pass through this internal heat exchanger. In particular, when the gas-phase refrigerant flow passes through the internal heat exchanger, the gas-phase refrigerant flow is superheated by the internal heat exchanger, and after being heated, flows out of the gas-liquid separator. Therefore, the refrigerant flowing out of the gas-liquid separator is more completely in the gas phase state, and the heat-exchange performance of the internal heat exchanger is maintained, and the gas-liquid separation performance, which is the original function of the gas-liquid separator, is improved. Will be.

  In the gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention, it is preferable that the refrigerant inlet of the gas-liquid separator is disposed below the internal heat exchanger. That is, since the separated liquid-phase refrigerant is stored in the lower part of the gas-liquid separator, such an arrangement allows the refrigerant to flow from the lower side than the internal heat exchanger, and the separated gas-phase refrigerant is efficiently discharged. After passing through the internal heat exchanger, the superheated gas phase refrigerant can be discharged from the gas-liquid separator.

  Moreover, it is preferable that the refrigerant | coolant outflow port of the said gas-liquid separator is arrange | positioned above the said internal heat exchanger. For the same reason as described above, the refrigerant that is superheated by passing through the internal heat exchanger and more completely in the gas phase can be efficiently discharged from the gas-liquid separator.

  In the gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention, it is preferable that gas-liquid separation is performed in the lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger in the gas-liquid separator. Since the separated liquid-phase refrigerant is stored in the lower part of the gas-liquid separator, the separated gas-phase refrigerant can be efficiently passed through the internal heat exchanger by performing gas-liquid separation in the lower chamber. It becomes like this. As described above, it is preferable that the gas-liquid separator has a structure in which a refrigerant in a gas phase flows from the lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger to the upper chamber.

  In particular, in the gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention, in the gas-liquid separator, the gas phase liquid refrigerant separated in the lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger is completely bypassed. It is preferable that the air passes through the internal heat exchanger and flows into the upper chamber. This is because the internal heat exchanger is arranged to completely traverse the gas-liquid separator, that is, the gas-liquid separator is clearly and completely partitioned into upper and lower chambers by the internal heat exchanger. Can be achieved. The refrigerant in the gas phase separated by gas and liquid in the lower chamber is passed through the internal heat exchanger, so that the passing refrigerant flow is more efficiently superheated and the refrigerant flowing into the upper chamber is more completely in the gas phase. After that, the gas is discharged and a more desirable gas-liquid separation performance is obtained.

  Furthermore, the present invention is suitable for a refrigeration cycle including a supercritical region, particularly when the refrigerant used is carbon dioxide. When the refrigerant is carbon dioxide, etc., there are many high-pressure equipment, which tends to increase in size and cost, making it difficult to reduce the size and cost of the entire refrigeration cycle. , While maintaining heat exchange performance in the internal heat exchanger, improvement in gas-liquid separation performance can be achieved. In addition, the integration of the internal heat exchanger and gas-liquid separator effectively reduces the size of the refrigeration cycle. Cost can be reduced.

  Further, the gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention is optimal for use in a refrigeration cycle of a vehicle air conditioner that is particularly demanded for downsizing and cost reduction.

  Thus, according to the gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention, the gas-phase refrigerant separated in the gas-liquid separator while substantially maintaining the heat exchange performance required for the internal heat exchanger as it is. The gas-liquid separation performance, which is the original function of the gas-liquid separator, is greatly improved by ensuring that the gas passes through the internal heat exchanger and overheats due to the passage. Can be made.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 to 5 show a gas-liquid separator module according to an embodiment of the present invention. The overall configuration of the refrigeration cycle is the same as that shown in FIG. 6, and the portion corresponding to the integrated module 108 of the internal heat exchanger and the gas-liquid separator in FIG. 6 is shown in FIGS. Has been.

  1 to 4, reference numeral 1 denotes an entire gas-liquid separator module, and the gas-liquid separator module 1 is configured such that an internal heat exchanger 3 is integrally incorporated in the gas-liquid separator 2. Has been. The gas-liquid separator 2 gas-liquid separates the refrigerant evaporated by the evaporator 105 as shown in FIG. 6 and causes the low-pressure refrigerant separated from the gas and liquid to flow out to the suction side of the compressor 102. The heat exchanger 3 performs heat exchange between the outlet side refrigerant of the radiator 103 and the suction side refrigerant of the compressor 102. The internal heat exchanger 3 is arranged so as to cross the inside of the gas-liquid separator 2 in order to partition the inside of the gas-liquid separator 2 into an upper chamber 4 and a lower chamber 5. In this embodiment, between the internal heat exchanger 3 and the body 6 of the gas-liquid separator 2 and inside so that the inside of the gas-liquid separator 2 is completely partitioned into the upper chamber 4 and the lower chamber 5. A partition material 7 is filled in each gap generated in the center of the heat exchanger 3.

  The internal heat exchanger 3 has an inflow pipe 9 that extends to the outside of the upper portion of the gas-liquid separator 2 and into which the outlet refrigerant 8 from the radiator 103 side flows, and an outflow pipe 11 that flows the refrigerant 10 out to the decompression device 104 side. Is connected. The gas-liquid separator 2 is provided with an inflow pipe 13 through which the gas-liquid mixed refrigerant 12 from the evaporator 105 flows into the gas-liquid separator 2 from the upper outer side. An outflow pipe 15 through which the separated gas-phase refrigerant 14 flows out to the compressor 102 side is connected. The inflow pipe 13 of the gas-liquid separator 2 passes through the internal heat exchanger 3 and extends to the lower chamber 5 of the gas-liquid separator 2 partitioned by the internal heat exchanger 3. Opened (open end 16). The outflow pipe 15 of the gas-liquid separator 2 passes through the internal heat exchanger 3 and extends to the lower chamber 5 of the gas-liquid separator 2 defined by the internal heat exchanger 3, where it is bent in a U-shape and upwards. To the upper chamber 4 of the gas-liquid separator 2 partitioned by the internal heat exchanger 3 and opened in the upper chamber 4 (open end 17). .

  In the gas-liquid separator module 1 configured in this way, the outlet refrigerant 8 from the radiator 103 side flows into the inflow pipe 9 into the internal heat exchanger 3, and the inside of the internal heat exchanger 3 in FIG. After flowing as a refrigerant flow 18 indicated by an arrow, the refrigerant flows out to the decompression device 104 side through the outflow pipe 11 as the outflow refrigerant 10. On the other hand, in the gas-liquid separator 2, as shown in FIG. 5, the refrigerant 12 evaporated in the evaporator 105 and in a gas-liquid mixed state is passed through the inflow pipe 13 to the lower chamber 5 of the gas-liquid separator 2. And flowed in. The refrigerant flow 19 flowing into the lower chamber 5 is separated into a gas-phase refrigerant and a liquid-phase refrigerant, and the liquid-phase refrigerant 20 is accumulated on the lower side in the lower chamber 5. The separated gas-phase refrigerant passes through the internal heat exchanger 3 and flows into the upper chamber 4 as in the gas-phase refrigerant flow 21 shown in FIG. When this gas-phase refrigerant passes through the internal heat exchanger 3, it is superheated by heat exchange with the internal heat exchanger 3 to be in a more complete gas-phase state, and then enters the outflow pipe 15 from the open end 17. The refrigerant flows in and flows out through the U-shaped outflow pipe 15 (passing refrigerant flow 22 in the outflow pipe 15) to the suction side of the compressor 102 as the suction refrigerant 14.

  As described above, the interior of the gas-liquid separator 2 is partitioned into the upper chamber 4 and the lower chamber 5 by the internal heat exchanger 3, and the refrigerant flowing into the gas-liquid separator 2 from the evaporator 105 flows into the lower chamber 5. When the gas-phase refrigerant that has been flowed in and separated into gas and liquid and is transferred from the lower chamber 5 to the upper chamber 4 is surely passed through the internal heat exchanger 3, the total amount thereof, particularly as in the present embodiment. Is surely passed through the internal heat exchanger 3 so that the gas-phase refrigerant is heated to a more complete gas-phase state, and then flows out to the suction side of the compressor 102 via the outflow pipe 15. Therefore, the gas-liquid separation performance of the gas-liquid separator 2 is greatly improved while the heat exchange performance of the internal heat exchanger 3 is substantially maintained as it is.

  The gas-liquid separator module according to the present invention can be applied to any refrigeration cycle in which an internal heat exchanger is integrally incorporated in the gas-liquid separator, and in particular, a refrigeration cycle using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, particularly a vehicle air conditioner. It is suitable for use in the refrigeration cycle.

It is a side view of the gas-liquid separator module which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the gas-liquid separator module of FIG. It is the cross-sectional view of the gas-liquid separator module seen along the AA line of FIG. It is the cross-sectional view of the gas-liquid separator module seen along the BB line of FIG. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional display side view of the refrigerant flow state of the gas-liquid separator module of FIG. 1 viewed from the direction C of FIG. 2. It is a general | schematic apparatus system diagram which shows an example of a structure of the conventional refrigerating cycle which can apply the gas-liquid separator module of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gas-liquid separator module 2 Gas-liquid separator 3 Internal heat exchanger 4 Upper chamber 5 Lower chamber 6 Body of gas-liquid separator 7 Partition material 8 Outlet refrigerant 9 from the radiator side Inlet pipe 10 Refrigerant 11 Outflow pipe 12 Gas-liquid mixed refrigerant 13 from the evaporator 13 Inflow pipe 14 Gas phase refrigerant 15 flowing out to the compressor side Outflow pipes 16 and 17 Open end 18 Refrigerant flow 19 in the internal heat exchanger Inflow into the lower chamber Refrigerant Flow 20 Liquid Phase Refrigerant 21 Gas Phase Refrigerant Flow 22 Passing Refrigerant Flow 101 in Outflow Pipe Refrigeration Cycle 102 Compressor 103 Radiator 104 Depressurizer 105 Evaporator 106 Gas-Liquid Separator 107 Internal Heat Exchanger 108 Integrated Module

Claims (8)

  A compressor that compresses and discharges the refrigerant; a radiator that cools the refrigerant discharged from the compressor; a decompressor that decompresses the outlet-side refrigerant of the radiator; and a low-pressure refrigerant decompressed by the decompressor An evaporator, a gas-liquid separator that gas-liquid separates the refrigerant evaporated in the evaporator and causes the low-pressure refrigerant that has been gas-liquid separated to flow out to the suction side of the compressor, an outlet-side refrigerant of the radiator, and the Gas-liquid separation provided in a refrigeration cycle having an internal heat exchanger that exchanges heat with a refrigerant on the suction side of the compressor, wherein the internal heat exchanger is integrated into the gas-liquid separator The gas-liquid separator module according to claim 1, wherein the internal heat exchanger is disposed in the gas-liquid separator so as to partition the interior of the gas-liquid separator into upper and lower chambers.   The gas-liquid separator module according to claim 1, wherein a refrigerant inlet of the gas-liquid separator is disposed below the internal heat exchanger.   The gas-liquid separator module of Claim 1 or 2 with which the refrigerant | coolant outflow port of the said gas-liquid separator is arrange | positioned above the said internal heat exchanger.   The gas-liquid separator module according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein gas-liquid separation is performed in a lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger in the gas-liquid separator.   5. The gas-liquid separator module according to claim 1, wherein in the gas-liquid separator, a refrigerant in a gas phase flows from a lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger to an upper chamber.   In the gas-liquid separator, the entire amount of the gas-phase refrigerant that has been gas-liquid separated in the lower chamber partitioned by the internal heat exchanger is passed through the internal heat exchanger without being bypassed to the upper chamber. The gas-liquid separator module according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which is introduced.   The gas-liquid separator module according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the refrigerant used is made of carbon dioxide.   The gas-liquid separator module in any one of Claims 1-7 provided in the refrigerating cycle of a vehicle air conditioner.

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