KR101890366B1

KR101890366B1 - Oil separator

Info

Publication number: KR101890366B1
Application number: KR1020160027161A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 안준; 선구원
Original assignee: 국민대학교 산학협력단
Priority date: 2016-03-07
Filing date: 2016-03-07
Publication date: 2018-08-21
Also published as: KR20170104291A

Abstract

The present invention discloses an oil separator. The present invention includes a cylindrical housing, a helical mounted to pivot inside the housing, and an inlet provided in the housing to guide the refrigerant and the oil to a space other than the center of the sectional area of the housing.

Description

Oil separator

The present invention relates to an apparatus, and more particularly to an oil separator.

Oil separators are used in a variety of industries. These oil separators can separate oil from various gases. In particular, in the case of an oil separator used in a refrigerator or an air conditioner using a refrigeration cycle, safety of the system can be secured by separating the oil from the refrigerant. When such an oil separator is used, an oil separator can be connected to the discharge port portion of the compressor. At this time, the oil separator can separate the oil from the compressed refrigerant.

The oil separator as described above can separate the oil by rotating the refrigerant. At this time, when the refrigerant turns, the refrigerant collides with the respective components of the oil separator, energy can be lost, and the pressure of the refrigerant can be lowered.

In this case, the pressure drop of the refrigerant may degrade the efficiency of the overall system and increase the energy used in the system. Thus, when designing or using such an oil separator, the pressure drop is a significant problem.

Embodiments of the present invention seek to provide an oil separator.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator comprising: a housing having a cylindrical shape; a helical member installed to pivot inside the housing; and an inlet formed in the housing to guide the refrigerant and the oil to a space other than the center of cross- An oil separator can be provided.

The apparatus may further include an outlet provided in the housing to pass through the housing.

In addition, the inlet may be arranged to face the beginning of the helical.

In addition, the inlet may guide the refrigerant and the oil in a tangential direction of the outer surface of the housing.

In addition, the inlet may inject the refrigerant and the oil toward the helical side in a direction in which the helical descends.

The inlet may be installed in the housing such that the inlet is eccentric from the center of the sectional area of the housing perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the housing.

Embodiments of the present invention can improve oil separation performance. In addition, embodiments of the present invention can increase the energy efficiency of the overall system by minimizing pressure build-up during oil separation.

1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an oil separator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a plan view showing various embodiments of the oil separator shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a flow direction of the oil separator and the conventional oil separator shown in FIG. 1 through numerical analysis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. It is to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It is noted that the terms "comprises" and / or "comprising" used in the specification are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the components, steps, operations, and / Or additions. The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by terms. Terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

1 to 3, the oil separator 100 includes a housing 110, a helical 120, an inlet 130, an outlet 140, a filter 150, an oil guide 160, 170).

The housing 110 may be formed in a cylindrical shape. The housing 110 may include a fixing unit (not shown) for fixing the housing 110 to an external object or the outside. At this time, the fixing portion may be formed to protrude from the housing 110, and a hole to which a screw, a bolt or the like is coupled may be formed. Further, the plurality of fixing portions may be provided in the housing 110, and may be arranged to be symmetrical with respect to each other.

The housing 110 may have two spaces. For example, the upper portion of the housing 110 may be supplied with refrigerant and oil from the outside, and the oil may be agitated while rotating. Further, the oil can be guided to the outside according to the operation of the opening and closing part 170 after the agglomerated oil falls and collected in the lower part of the housing 110.

The helical 120 may be disposed inside the housing 110. At this time, the helical 120 may be formed in a thread shape, and the central portion and the inner surface portion of the housing 110 may be connected to each other. In particular, the helical 120 can connect the portion of the outlet 140 with the interior of the housing 110.

The helical 120 may have a starting portion 121 formed at the uppermost end of the housing 110. At this time, the start portion 121 may be connected from the inner surface of the housing 110 to the central portion of the end surface of the housing 110. In particular, the starting portion 121 may be formed to extend straight from the inner surface of the housing 110 to the outlet 140.

The helical 120 may be formed spirally from the top 121 to the bottom of the housing 110. At this time, the helical 120 can guide the refrigerant and the oil from the starting portion 121 downward.

The inlet 130 may be installed in the housing 110. At this time, the inlet 130 can guide the refrigerant and the oil to an area other than the center of the cross-sectional area perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the housing 110. That is, the inlet 130 may be installed in the housing 110 so as to be eccentric from the center of the cross-sectional area of the housing 110 perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the housing 110. For example, the inlet 130 may be connected to the housing 110 in a tangential direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the housing 110 to guide the refrigerant and the oil. In particular, the inlet 130 may be installed in the housing 110 to guide the refrigerant and the oil in the tangential direction of the outer surface of the housing 110. At this time, the inlet 130 may be installed in the housing 110 so as not to coincide with the start portion 121 of the helical 120. The inlet 130 is installed in the housing 110 such that the inlet 130 forms a position opposite to the beginning 121 of the helical 120, that is, the beginning 121 of the helical 120 .

The inlet 130 may guide the refrigerant and the oil in a direction in which the helical 120 descends. That is, the inlet 130 may be installed in the housing 110 to guide the refrigerant and the oil from the high to the low position of the helical 120.

The outlet 140 may be installed to pass through the upper surface of the housing 110. At this time, the outlet 140 may be installed at the center of the housing 110. Particularly, the helical 120 is supported by the outer surface of the outlet 140 by being in contact with the helical 120.

The outlet 140 may be installed in the height direction of the housing 110. At this time, the outlet 140 may be installed up to a part of the height of the housing 110.

The filter unit 150 may be installed inside the housing 110. At this time, the filter unit 150 may be installed at the inflow portion of the outlet 140 inside the housing 110. The filter unit 150 is formed in a lattice shape to prevent the oil from flowing out together with the refrigerant when the refrigerant is discharged from the inside of the housing 110. Specifically, the filter unit 150 may be formed in a net shape, and the holes of the grating may be formed to be sufficiently smaller than the oil particles. Therefore, when the refrigerant moves from the inside of the housing 110 to the outlet 140, the oil collides with the filter unit 150 and is formed so that a part of the oil can be removed.

The oil guide 160 is installed in the housing 110 to guide the agglomerated oil to the outside. At this time, the oil guide portion 160 may be installed on the lower surface of the housing 110. In particular, the oil guide portion 160 may be formed in a pipe shape and connected to an external device.

The opening and closing part 170 may be installed inside the housing 110 and may be installed at the lower part of the housing 110 to float to open and close the oil guide part 160 when the oil reaches a certain level.

The opening and closing part 170 may be formed in various ways. In one embodiment, the opening / closing unit 170 may include a water level sensor and a solenoid valve electrically connected to the water level sensor to open / close the oil guide 160. As another embodiment, the opening and closing part 170 may include a valve for opening and closing the oil guide part 160. As another embodiment, the opening and closing part 170 may include a ball float 171, a magnet 172, and a needle valve 173. [ The ball float 171 may be installed under the housing 110 and the magnet 172 may be in contact with the ball float 171. At this time, if the ball float 171 reaches a certain level of the oil, the needle valve 173 may be operated while the oil float 17 is floating while being separated from the magnet 172 to open the oil guide portion 160.

Meanwhile, the oil separator 100 may be installed in an apparatus using a refrigeration cycle such as a refrigerator using a refrigerant, a large refrigerator, and an air conditioner. At this time, the oil separator 100 may be installed between a compressor (not shown) and a condenser (not shown).

The oil separator 100 installed as described above can separate the oil from the refrigerant compressed in the compressor. Specifically, when the refrigerant is compressed through the compressor, the oil used in the compressor can be mixed with the refrigerant. In this case, the oil mixed in the refrigerant circulates through each device and accumulates in each device or accumulates in the pipe, thereby lowering the purifying efficiency of the refrigerant, and there is a risk of fire if heat is applied. Therefore, separating these oils from the refrigerant is a very important problem. Particularly, when the oil separator is used to separate such oil, a pressure drop occurs during passage through the oil separator, thereby reducing the overall efficiency of the device using the refrigeration cycle.

The refrigerant in which the oil is mixed as described above can enter the oil separator 100. At this time, the refrigerant and the oil may enter the inside of the housing 110 through the inlet 130 according to the operation of the compressor. The refrigerant and the oil that have entered as described above can be rotated while being rotated from the upper portion of the housing 110 to the lower portion while rotating along the helical 120 in the housing 110. At this time, the oil is attracted to the inner wall of the housing 110 by the centrifugal force, and can fall down to the lower portion of the housing 110 due to its own weight. In addition, the refrigerant can be guided to the outside through the outlet 140 of the central portion of the housing 110.

In such a case, the pressure drop may occur in the refrigerant. At this time, the pressure drop of the oil separator 100 according to the present embodiments may be smaller than that of the conventional oil separator according to the direction of the inlet 130. Specifically, in the conventional oil separator, the pressure drop of the refrigerant passing through the oil separator is about 6295.7 Pa, while it is lower than that of the oil separator according to the present embodiments. For example, in FIG. 2 (a), the pressure drop may be 5842.0 Pa when the inlet 130 forms 90 degrees with the beginning of the helical 120. 2B, it can be confirmed that the pressure drop is 3081.42 Pa when the inlet 130 forms 180 degrees with the start of the helical 120. In FIG. 2 (c), it can be seen that the inlet 130 forms 270 degrees with the helical start, resulting in a pressure drop of 1677.89 Pa. In FIG. 2 (d), it can be seen that the inlet 130 forms 360 degrees with the helical start, resulting in a pressure drop of 2327.6 Pa. As described above, when the inlet 130 is installed in the housing 110 as in the embodiment of the present invention, as compared with the case where the central portion of the housing 110 is viewed in the same direction as the beginning of the helical 120, It can be seen that the drop is less than that of the conventional oil separator.

Further, it can be seen that the oil separator 100 according to the embodiments of the present invention has better separation efficiency than the conventional oil separator. Specifically, it can be seen that the separation efficiency of the conventional oil separator is about 98.97%, while that of FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (d) is 99.22%, 99.28%, 99.33%, and 99.30%, respectively.

Accordingly, the oil separator 100 can increase the efficiency of the entire system by reducing the degree of the pressure drop of the refrigerant after the oil is separated. Further, the oil separator 100 is capable of effectively separating the oil from the refrigerant.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the above-mentioned preferred embodiments, it is possible to make various modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

100: Oil separator
110: Housing
120: Helical
130: inlet
140: Outlet
150:
160: Oil guide portion
170:

Claims

A cylindrical housing;
A helical installed to pivot inside the housing;
And an inlet disposed in the housing to guide the refrigerant and the oil to a space other than the center of the sectional area of the housing,
Said inlet being arranged to face a beginning of said helical,
Wherein an angle formed by the inlet and the beginning of the helical is 270 degrees.

The method according to claim 1,
And an outlet formed in the housing so as to pass through the upper side of the housing.

delete

The method according to claim 1,
And the inlet port guides the refrigerant and the oil in a tangential direction of the outer surface of the housing.

The method according to claim 1,
And the inlet port injects the refrigerant and the oil to the helical side in a direction in which the helical descends.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the inlet is installed in the housing such that the inlet is eccentric from the center of the sectional area of the housing perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the housing.