JPH0364783B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention uses a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant in a heat pump device, particularly in a heating and cooling device, to constantly adapt to the load by varying the concentration of the refrigerant flowing through the main circuit. The present invention relates to a heat pump device that generates heating and cooling capacity.

Conventional technology Conventionally, as a method of varying the capacity of a heat pump device, a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant is used as the refrigerant, and a separator separates the refrigerant into a high boiling point refrigerant and a low boiling point refrigerant, thereby reducing the refrigerant in the main circuit. A system has been proposed in which the capacity can be varied by changing the composition, and at this time, the refrigerant composition is changed to change its suction specific volume and the circulation amount.
It is also being considered to add such a separation method to the method of changing the compressor rotation speed, and a method using a rectification method has been proposed as a separation method.

Our prior invention is as shown in FIG. 2. In Fig. 2, 1 is a compressor, 2 is a four-way valve,
3 is a load side heat exchanger, 4 is a main throttling device, 6 is a heat source side heat exchanger, 7 is a separator, 8 is a top cooling heat exchanger, and 9 is a bottom heating heat exchanger, which condenses during heating. The refrigerant is supplied from the load-side heat exchanger 3, which acts as a heat exchanger, to the separator 7 in parallel with the main circuit, and in the separator 7, the non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant sealed in the cycle is separated into high-boiling point components and low-boiling point components by a rectification method. Capacity control is performed by changing the refrigerant composition of the main cycle by separating the refrigerant into components and injecting high-boiling point component refrigerant or low-boiling point component refrigerant into the main cycle from reservoirs 10 and 11 at the bottom or top of the tower. At this time, in order to carry out rectification separation during both heating and cooling, the bottom heating heat exchanger 9 uses the discharge gas between the compressor 1 and the four-way valve 2 as a heating source, and the tower In the top cooling heat exchanger 8, the suction gas between the four-way valve 2 and the accumulator 12 is used as a cooling source. With this configuration, even if the flow direction of the refrigerant in the main cycle is reversed during cooling or heating, the heating required for rectification and separation can be maintained.
Cooling is performed.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the heat pump device of the prior invention described above, it is basically possible to control the composition of the refrigerant, and it is suitable when this is necessary for both cooling and heating.

However, when actually controlling the capacity during cooling and heating using such a compositional separation cycle, during heating the low-boiling point components are generally increased in the main cycle to gain capacity, while during cooling the low-boiling point components are not rich. As the high pressure increases, it may be desirable to operate the main cycle rich in high boiling point components to increase efficiency. During heating, it is desirable to operate with the same composition as the enclosed refrigerant, which is rich in low boiling points, and to not perform rectification separation.

In addition, according to the configuration of the prior invention, heating and cooling for rectification separation are active during both cooling and heating, regardless of whether or not the concentration is varied in the main cycle. When cooled, the temperature at the condenser inlet decreased, resulting in loss of capacity, especially at the start of heating. Furthermore, since the overhead cooling heat exchanger uses suction gas, the heat transfer coefficient is low and the heat exchanger becomes large. Therefore, in the present invention, there is no rectification separation during heating,
The aim is to obtain a heat pump device that operates with high efficiency through rectification separation during cooling and also increases efficiency during heating, and furthermore aims to downsize the tower top heat exchanger.

Measures to solve the problem Separation is performed using an introduction section that connects the bottom of the separator and the condenser outlet for heating/cooling, and an outlet that connects the bottom of the separator and the inlet of the evaporator for heating/cooling. The refrigerant piping between the four-way valve and the heat exchanger on the heat source side is located at the bottom of the separator column as a heating source, and the refrigerant piping between the expansion device and the load side heat exchanger is placed at the top of the separator tower. It is configured to be positioned as a cooling source.

Effects According to the present invention having the above configuration, the separator is connected to the main cycle in a low boiling point storage method, and during cooling, high temperature refrigerant flows between the four-way valve and the heat source side heat exchanger, which heats the bottom of the separator column. Between the throttle device and the load-side heat exchanger, the refrigerant becomes a low-temperature refrigerant and can cool the top of the separator tower. As a result, rectification separation is performed during cooling, and since it is a low boiling point storage method, the main cycle can have a refrigerant composition rich in high boiling points. On the other hand, during heating, there is no heating or cooling effect that activates rectification in the separator, so no rectification separation is performed, and operation can be performed with a refrigerant composition rich in low boiling points of the enclosed refrigerant composition, and there is no heating or cooling for rectification separation. It is possible to operate without heat loss.

Embodiment A heat pump device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1, in which the heat pump device is applied to an air-conditioning device.

In the figure, 1 to 4 and 6 are the same components as in the previous invention, including a pipe 14 connecting to the separator 13 from between the load side heat exchanger 3 and the expansion device 4, and a connection between the expansion device 4 and the heat source side heat exchanger. A pipe 15 is provided which connects to the separator 13 between 6 and 6. During main cycle operation, the refrigerant mainly passes through the throttling device 4 and the separator 13 via the pipes 14 and 15. It is divided into a main cycle and a parallel cycle. At this time, a pipe 16 is provided above the separator 13, and the gas generated from the separator 13 is cooled and liquefied at the top heat exchanger 17, stored in the reservoir 18, and the liquid is sent from the reservoir 18 to the tower. A pipe 19 for reflux is provided at the top.

At this time, the refrigerant led to the tower top cooler 17 is the refrigerant from the load-side heat exchanger 3 to the expansion device 4, and the refrigerant led to the tower bottom heat exchanger 20, which heats the refrigerant passing through the pipe 15, is It is configured to be a refrigerant between the heat source side heat exchanger 6 and the four-way valve 2.
Furthermore, check valves 23 and 24 are provided in the pipes 14 and 15 in parallel with the throttles 21 and 22. In the heat pump device having such a configuration, the operation during cooling and heating will be explained.

First, during heating, the refrigerant flows as shown by the solid line in the figure, and the refrigerant enters the separator 13 from the piping 14 as a liquid refrigerant, and since no gas is generated in the separator 13, no rectifying action is performed. The refrigerant composition of the main cycle remains the same as the refrigerant composition rich in low boiling points at the time of sealing, allowing operation to maintain high heating capacity. At this time, the top heat exchanger 17 has almost the same temperature as the refrigerant in the separator 13, so it does not act as a heat exchanger, but in the bottom heat exchanger 20,
The liquid refrigerant flowing out from the separator 13 through the pipe 15 is cooled. In this way, the rectifying action can be completely stopped during heating, and the separator 13
There is no heat loss caused by heating the refrigerant on the side, allowing for highly efficient operation. Furthermore, the liquid refrigerant flowing out from the separator 13 is further supercooled by the low temperature refrigerant exiting the heat source side heat exchanger 6, increasing the refrigerating capacity and enabling highly efficient operation.

Next, the operation during cooling operation will be explained.
During cooling, the refrigerant flows as shown by the broken line in the figure, and the liquid refrigerant that enters the separator 13 from the pipe 15 is heated by the high-temperature gas refrigerant in the tower bottom heat exchanger 20 to generate gas components, which are then transferred to the separator. 13. The gas components that flowed into the separator 13 are
The liquid rises through the pipe 16 and is cooled by a low-temperature refrigerant in the tower top heat exchanger 17, where it is liquefied and transferred to the reservoir 18.
The refrigerant is stored in the refrigerant and refluxed to the top of the tower via piping 19, and this liquid and the rising gas come into gas-liquid contact in the separator 13 to perform a rectifying action, and the low boiling point refrigerant is stored in the reservoir 18. The main cycle has a cycle composition rich in high boiling points, and can be operated with high efficiency without the high pressure rise that occurs when operating with a low boiling point refrigerant during cooling.

At this time, since a gas-liquid two-phase refrigerant is used between the expansion device 4 and the load-side heat exchanger 3 as a cooling source, a high thermal conductivity can be achieved, and therefore the top heat exchanger 17
The structure can be made compact.

In addition, for example, during cooling, by providing a throttle in the piping 15 that serves as the inlet to the separator 13 to generate and introduce gas components into the separator 13 at an intermediate pressure, the gas components in the bottom heat exchanger 20 can be Reduce the amount of heating,
It is also possible to reduce the heat loss that occurs during separation. Basically, separation is not applied during heating, but as a method of using both separation during cooling and cases where separation is not applied, it is possible to stop heating by using a bypass, or to reduce the amount of refrigerant flowing into the separator 13. This is possible by increasing the amount of refrigerant, or by returning the refrigerant from the reservoir 18 to the low-pressure piping. In this embodiment, the bottom heat exchanger 20 is attached to the pipe 15, but it may be attached to the pipe 14, or may be configured to span both pipes.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, in the heat pump device according to the present invention, the non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant is operated with a refrigerant composition suitable for cooling and heating, and is operated with a refrigerant composition rich in high boiling point components during cooling. It performs rectification separation to increase efficiency, and during heating, it operates with a refrigerant composition rich in low boiling point components, which is the same as the sealed composition, to achieve high performance. At this time, the heating source for rectification separation during cooling The high-temperature refrigerant between the heat source side heat exchanger and the four-way valve is used as the cooling source, and the low-temperature refrigerant between the load side heat exchanger is used rather than the throttling device as the cooling source, so during heating, this heating source becomes a supercooling source. The refrigerant in the cooling source during cooling separation is in a gas-liquid two-phase state, so it can be made compact as a heat exchanger.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a heat pump device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cycle block diagram showing an embodiment of a prior invention related to the present invention. 1...Compressor, 3...Load side heat exchanger, 2...
Four-way valve, 4... Throttle device, 6... Heat source side heat exchanger, 13... Separator, 17... Tower top heat exchanger, 2
0... Bottom heat exchanger.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant is enclosed, a compressor, a four-way valve,
a rectification separator that configures a main cycle by connecting a load side heat exchanger, a throttle device, and a heat source side heat exchanger in an annular manner, and separates a non-azeotropic mixed refrigerant in the main cycle;
A pipe provided with an auxiliary throttling device that connects to the bottom of the rectification separator and bypasses the throttling device, an overhead reservoir provided in a circuit that returns to the top of the rectification separator, and Heat exchange is possible between the connecting piping to the bottom of the separator column and the main cycle refrigerant piping between the heat source side heat exchanger and the four-way valve, and further with the upper piping of the return circuit provided at the top of the rectification separator column. A heat pump device characterized in that heat exchange is possible between the load side heat exchanger and the main cycle refrigerant pipe between the expansion devices. 2. The heat pump device according to claim 1, wherein the separator has an intermediate pressure.