JPH0262791B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a refrigeration cycle for a heat pump device using a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant.

Conventional technology Conventional heat pump devices using non-azeotropic mixed refrigerants are
By varying the composition of the refrigerant circulating inside the refrigeration cycle, capacity control and performance improvement can be achieved, and conventional examples such as the second one have been proposed. The second part is an example in which a heat pump device using a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant is applied as an air-conditioning device. The exchanger 5, accumulator 6, etc. are sequentially connected in a ring to form a main cycle circuit. In addition, as a bypass of the main expansion device 4, a sub cycle circuit is configured in which the sub expansion devices 7, 8, a separator 10 filled with a filler 9, a reservoir 11, etc. are connected,
A heater 12 is placed at the bottom of the separator 10, and a cooler 13 is placed at the top.

Although not shown in this embodiment, the heat source for heating the heater 12 may be, for example, the discharge gas from the compressor 1 or an electric heater, and the heat source for cooling the cooler 13 may be the suction gas of the compressor 1, The refrigeration cycle is configured to be cooled with low-temperature outside air, and a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant is sealed inside the refrigeration cycle.

The mode of operation of such a heat pump device will be explained mainly during heating operation.The main component refrigerant and the refrigerant with a lower boiling point than the main component refrigerant are sealed, and the low boiling point component increases the circulation amount and achieves high capacity. In order to obtain a refrigerant mixture, heating and cooling are stopped to stop the separation action, and a refrigerant mixture having almost the same composition as the enclosed non-azeotropic refrigerant mixture is mainly used in the compressor 1.
→Four-way valve 2→Load side heat exchanger 3→Main throttle device 4→
Heat source side exchanger 5 → four-way valve 2 → accumulator 6 →
It circulates in the order of compressor 1, and part of it circulates in load side heat exchanger 3.
Bypass from the sub-throttling device 7 → lower part of the separator 10 → piping 14 → sub-throttling device 8 → heat source side heat exchanger 5
The excess refrigerant is stored in the storage device 11 and becomes a mixed refrigerant containing a low boiling point refrigerant, allowing the load-side heat exchanger 3 to output high heating capacity.

On the other hand, when reducing the capacity, for example, the discharge gas and suction gas are transferred to the heater 12 and the cooler 13 of the separator circuit for heating and cooling.
2. By flowing the refrigerant through the cooler 13, the refrigerant that has passed through the sub-throttle device 7 is heated by the heater 12, and low boiling point components are vaporized, rising in the separator 10, and flowing into the cooler 13.
The condensed liquid is collected in the reservoir 11, and a part of the condensate is refluxed to the upper part of the separator 10, and then descends inside the separator 10. At this time, the gas rising in the separator 10 and the liquid refrigerant descending come into gas-liquid contact through the filler 9, and heat and mass exchange takes place, resulting in a so-called rectification effect. Therefore, reservoir 11
A low-boiling point rich refrigerant is stored therein, while the refrigerant cycle in the lower part of the separator 10 has a high boiling point rich refrigerant composition, so that the heating capacity of the load-side heat exchanger 3 can be reduced.

In addition, during cooling operation, by switching the four-way valve 2, the refrigerant flows in the opposite direction to that during heating, as shown by the broken line in the figure, and when the refrigerant composition is changed by rectification, heating is performed in the same way as during heating. By performing cooling, rectification is performed, and the main cycle concentration can be made rich in high boiling point components.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In a heat pump device such as the conventional example described above, it is basically possible to change the refrigerant composition, and the separation circuit is configured to maintain an intermediate pressure during both cooling and heating. As a result, the following problems have been caused in terms of the refrigeration cycle or the rectification process, for example.

For example, the separator circuit is at intermediate pressure, so gas components may be generated within the separator, but fluctuations in the main cycle conditions will cause the intermediate pressure to fluctuate, resulting in a large gas volume within the separator. It is subject to change. Therefore, the amount of refrigerant stored in the reservoir 11 fluctuates greatly, and the amount of refrigerant on the main cycle side is not maintained at an optimal state, resulting in a large decrease in capacity and EER. Furthermore, due to fluctuations in the intermediate pressure, the amount of gas generated in the heater 12 fluctuates greatly, which not only prevents reliable rectification, but also causes flattening or the like in some cases, causing the rectification itself to fail. It was hot.

Furthermore, in this conventional example, the presence or absence of rectification is controlled by turning on and off the heater and cooler, but if the pressure inside the separator is intermediate pressure, the gas components contained in the refrigerant is generated even without heating and rises inside the separator 10. At this time, even if the cooling in the cooler is stopped, for example, under low outside temperature conditions during heating, the cooler 13, reservoir 11, separator 10, etc. are being cooled, and the rectifying action is naturally activated. Moreover, there was also the problem that the refrigerant composition in the main cycle circuit was unstable due to fluctuations in outside temperature.

Therefore, the present invention solves such conventional problems and maintains the amount of refrigerant in the main circuit at an optimum level in a heat pump device using a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant.
By increasing the reliability of the rectifying action and reliably varying the composition of the refrigerant circulating in the main circuit, the cycle capacity and
The aim is to provide a refrigeration cycle that improves EER.

Means for Solving the Problems The heat pump device according to the present invention uses a separator that performs a rectifying action as a means for varying the composition of a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant, and the refrigerant entering the separator is always at high pressure during cooling. As a liquid refrigerant, it is constructed so that it passes through a parallel circuit of a check valve and a throttle from the condenser outlet and enters the separator.

Effect By adopting such a configuration on the refrigeration cycle, the separator and reservoir are filled with liquid refrigerant, so the amount of refrigerant on the main circuit side is maintained at an appropriate state, and the amount of heating and refrigerant is reduced. If controlled, optimal rectification will always be achieved, the composition of the main circuit will be reliably varied, and the rectification action will be stopped reliably.

Embodiment An embodiment of the heat pump device according to the present invention will be explained using the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, which is applied to an air-conditioning device. In Figure 1, 1 to 6, 9, 10, 11, 1
Reference numerals 2 and 13 are the same components as in the conventional example shown in FIG. The characteristic feature of FIG. 1 is that the high-pressure liquid refrigerant flows from the high-pressure piping, which becomes the high-pressure liquid refrigerant line during cooling and heating, to the separator 10 side through the check valve 15 or 16, and flows into the heater 12. The refrigerant entering the main circuit from 10 passes through a sub-throttling device 17 or 18, and furthermore, in this embodiment, the refrigerant enters the main circuit from the reservoir 11.
and the solenoid valve 20 through the third sub-throttle device 19.
21 to form a circuit that leads to the low pressure side during both cooling and heating. Although the heat sources of the heater 12 and cooler 13 are not shown in this embodiment, they are configured so that the discharge gas and suction gas of the compressor 1 are guided, and the refrigerant always flows regardless of the presence or absence of rectification. It is.

In a heat pump device having such a configuration,
A description will be given of when rectification is applied and when there is no rectification during heating.

First, during rectification, a part of the high-pressure liquid refrigerant discharged from the load-side heat exchanger 3 passes through the check valve 15 and is heated by the heater 12, as shown by the solid line in the figure, and some gas is generated. and flows into the lower part of the separator 10. The gas component generated in the heater 12 rises in the separator 10, is condensed and liquefied in the cooler 13, flows back from the reservoir 11 to the upper part of the separator 10, and descends in the separator 10, at which time the rising gas and substances are , performs a rectifying action by exchanging heat, and a low boiling point rich refrigerant is stored in the reservoir 11, and a high boiling point rich refrigerant flows from the lower part of the separator 10 through the sub-throttle device 18 and joins with the main circuit side refrigerant. However, it flows into the heat source side heat exchanger 5. On the other hand, when there is no rectification, part of the heated refrigerant that enters the separator 10 flows to the sub-throttling device 18, and part rises inside the separator 10 and flows from the lower part of the reservoir 11 to the third refrigerant. It passes through the sub-diaphragm device 19, passes through the electromagnetic valve 20, and is divided into two parts: one that passes through the sub-diaphragm device 19, and one that passes through the electromagnetic valve 20 and merges with the main circuit side. At this time, the sub-throttle device 18 and the third sub-throttle device 1
9, if the resistance of the third sub-throttle device 19 is reduced, the rectification action can be stopped more reliably. At this time, the pressure in the separation circuit is maintained at the high pressure of the main circuit or at a value slightly lower than that, and therefore, except for the gas generated in the heater 12, everything is filled with liquid refrigerant, and the pressure is reduced to an intermediate pressure. There are no large fluctuations in the amount of refrigerant as there would be when the main circuit is used, and the amount of refrigerant on the main circuit side can be maintained at an appropriate value. In addition, when the main circuit is made high boiling point rich by rectification, the optimum amount of refrigerant required for the main circuit is reduced compared to when the main circuit side is low boiling point rich, but the adjustment for this amount is made in the reservoir 11. Adjustment is possible by storing low boiling point components in the refrigerant and increasing the amount of refrigerant stored in proportion to the density difference. In addition, in the case of intermediate pressure, the amount of gas generated changes greatly with a small change in pressure, and the amount of gas itself entering the separator 10 also changes greatly, resulting in unstable rectification and fluctuations in the concentration on the main circuit side. Although there were some problems,
According to the present invention, if the amount of heating is fixed, fluctuations in the amount of gas generated by the heater 12 are small and stable rectification can be performed.

Furthermore, when stopping the rectification action and returning the main circuit concentration to the state when the refrigerant was charged, the refrigerant that has entered the separator 10 can be Part is separator 1
0, and prevents the liquid from falling from the upper part to the lower part of the separator 10 during the rectifying action, thereby reliably stopping the rectifying action. However, in the present invention, the high-pressure liquid refrigerant is heated. Because it is flowing into the vessel 12,
By simply stopping the heating when the rectifying action is stopped, the rectification within the separator 10 can be stopped because there are no gas components that would have been generated at intermediate pressures entering the separator 10. In such a case, the third throttle device 19 and the solenoid valve 2 configured in this embodiment
Components constituted by 0, 21, etc. can be excluded.

During cooling, the refrigerant flow is as shown by the broken line in the diagram, which is the opposite of that during heating, and the operation with and without rectification is the same as during heating, so a description will be omitted.

Furthermore, although this embodiment describes the case where a low-boiling point refrigerant is stored through rectification, it may also be applied to a refrigeration cycle (not shown) in which a high-boiling point refrigerant is stored in a reservoir placed at the bottom of a separator. It has similar effects.

Effects of the Invention The heat pump device of the present invention uses a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant, and in order to maintain the internal pressure of the separator at high pressure during cooling and heating, the The refrigerant passes through the stop valve and enters the heater, and the refrigerant from the separator is separated by passing through the throttle in the parallel circuit of the check valve and throttle, which joins the low-pressure side of the main circuit. The amount of refrigerant in the container and main circuit can be maintained stably, and stable rectification can be ensured. In addition, stopping the rectification has the great effect of making it possible to form a stable refrigeration cycle while ensuring capacity and EER, such as being able to stop the rectification simply by stopping heating.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a principle diagram showing an embodiment of a heat pump device using a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a principle diagram showing an embodiment of a heat pump device using a conventional non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant. It is. 1...Compressor, 3...Load side heat exchanger, 4...
Main throttling device, 5... Heat source side heat exchanger, 10... Separator, 11... Reservoir, 12... Heater, 13...
...Cooler, 15, 16...Check valve, 17, 18...
...Sub-diaphragm device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 At least a compressor, a four-way valve, a load-side heat exchanger,
A main circuit in which a main throttling device, a heat source side heat exchanger, and an accumulator are connected in a ring, and a separator circuit equipped with a packed column, a tower top cooler, a tower top reservoir, and a tower bottom heater,
A check valve that branches off the high-pressure liquid refrigerant at the outlet of the load-side heat exchanger that serves as the condenser for heating, and the high-pressure liquid refrigerant of the heat source-side heat exchanger that serves as the condenser for cooling, and flows only to the separator side. A heat pump device characterized in that the heat pump device is connected to a parallel circuit of a sub-throttling device and is sealed with a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant.