Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24F—AIR-CONDITIONING; AIR-HUMIDIFICATION; VENTILATION; USE OF AIR CURRENTS FOR SCREENING
  • F24F1/00—Room units for air-conditioning, e.g. separate or self-contained units or units receiving primary air from a central station
  • F24F1/06—Separate outdoor units, e.g. outdoor unit to be linked to a separate room comprising a compressor and a heat exchanger
  • F24F1/08—Compressors specially adapted for separate outdoor units
  • F24F1/10—Arrangement or mounting thereof
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24F—AIR-CONDITIONING; AIR-HUMIDIFICATION; VENTILATION; USE OF AIR CURRENTS FOR SCREENING
  • F24F1/00—Room units for air-conditioning, e.g. separate or self-contained units or units receiving primary air from a central station
  • F24F1/06—Separate outdoor units, e.g. outdoor unit to be linked to a separate room comprising a compressor and a heat exchanger
  • F24F1/14—Heat exchangers specially adapted for separate outdoor units
  • F24F1/16—Arrangement or mounting thereof
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24F—AIR-CONDITIONING; AIR-HUMIDIFICATION; VENTILATION; USE OF AIR CURRENTS FOR SCREENING
  • F24F1/00—Room units for air-conditioning, e.g. separate or self-contained units or units receiving primary air from a central station
  • F24F1/06—Separate outdoor units, e.g. outdoor unit to be linked to a separate room comprising a compressor and a heat exchanger
  • F24F1/46—Component arrangements in separate outdoor units
  • F24F1/48—Component arrangements in separate outdoor units characterised by air airflow, e.g. inlet or outlet airflow
  • F24F1/50—Component arrangements in separate outdoor units characterised by air airflow, e.g. inlet or outlet airflow with outlet air in upward direction

Definitions

• a top-flow type outdoor unit that includes, in a housing, an outdoor heat exchanger having multiple heat transfer tubes between a pair of headers, and a fan that is arranged above the outdoor heat exchanger and blows air drawn in from below upward (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
• the outdoor heat exchanger in the outdoor unit of Patent Document 1 is configured such that, when viewed from the front, a pair of headers are arranged spaced apart on the left and right, and multiple heat transfer tubes extending in the left-right direction are arranged in parallel in the vertical direction between the pair of headers, so that the refrigerant flows in the left-right direction between the pair of headers.
• the fan In a top-flow type outdoor unit, the fan is installed at the top inside the housing, so there is a distribution of air speed between the lower and upper sides inside the housing, with the air speed at the upper side being faster than the lower side. For this reason, when focusing on one heat transfer tube, the amount of heat exchange in the heat transfer tube on the lower side of the housing is less than the amount of heat exchange in the heat transfer tube on the upper side of the housing. For this reason, in a top-flow type outdoor unit, in a configuration where heat transfer tubes extending in the left-right direction are arranged in parallel in the up-down direction, variations in the amount of heat exchange occur, leading to reduced performance.
• a refrigerant distributor is used to reduce the amount of refrigerant flowing through the lower heat transfer tube compared to the amount of refrigerant flowing through the upper heat transfer tube, improving the variation in the amount of heat exchange and preventing a decrease in the amount of heat exchange in the entire outdoor heat exchanger.
• the outdoor unit of Patent Document 1 controls the amount of refrigerant flowing through each heat transfer tube to suppress the decrease in heat exchange amount caused by uneven vertical airflow distribution.
• a top-flow type outdoor unit if the heat exchanger is configured with heat transfer tubes extending in the vertical direction arranged in parallel in the left-right direction, it can be less susceptible to uneven vertical airflow distribution.
• the heat exchanger of the above configuration is arranged facing each of multiple faces out of the four sides of the front, rear, right, and left sides of the housing, the following new problem occurs.
• the outdoor unit is equipped with built-in equipment that occupies a large volume, such as a compressor, inside the housing.
• the outdoor unit includes an outdoor heat exchanger having multiple heat exchangers that have multiple heat transfer tubes extending in the vertical direction and exchange heat between the refrigerant flowing through the multiple heat transfer tubes and the air, a rectangular housing that houses the outdoor heat exchanger and has a rectangular parallelepiped shape with an air outlet formed at the top and is rectangular in shape when viewed from above, a fan that is disposed at the top of the housing and blows air upward from the air outlet, and is equipped with a fan that supplies air to the outdoor heat exchanger, and a built-in device that is disposed inside the housing and includes a compressor that compresses the refrigerant, each of the multiple heat exchangers is disposed opposite each of multiple side surfaces out of the four side surfaces when the housing is viewed from above, the built-in device is disposed opposite the multiple heat exchangers in a direction perpendicular to the vertical direction, and the shortest distance between the built-in device and any one of the multiple heat exchangers is 125 mm or more and less than half the longitudinal
• the refrigeration cycle device disclosed herein includes the outdoor unit and an indoor unit connected to the outdoor unit by piping.
• FIG. 1 is a refrigerant circuit diagram of a refrigeration cycle device according to a first embodiment.
• FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic diagram of a heat exchanger of a refrigeration cycle apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention
• FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outdoor unit of a refrigeration cycle device according to a first embodiment
• 1 is a perspective view showing an outdoor unit of a refrigeration cycle apparatus according to a first embodiment, with some of the members constituting the outdoor unit removed
• FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the inside of an outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle apparatus according to the first embodiment.
• FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the inside of an outdoor unit of a refrigeration cycle device according to a comparative example.
• FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of measurement positions of a compressor and a heat exchanger in an outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle device according to the first embodiment.
• FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of measurement positions of an accumulator and a heat exchanger in the outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle device according to the first embodiment.
• FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the distance between the built-in equipment and the heat exchanger in the outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle apparatus according to the first embodiment and the heat exchanger airflow distribution loss.
• FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a second modified example of the outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle apparatus according to the first embodiment.
• FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a third modified example of the outdoor unit of the refrigeration cycle apparatus according to the first embodiment.
• Embodiment 1. 1 is a refrigerant circuit diagram of a refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment.
• the refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 is, for example, an air-conditioning apparatus.
• the refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 includes an outdoor unit 10 and an indoor unit 20 connected to the outdoor unit 10 via a pipe 90.
• the refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 is not limited to a 1:1 correspondence between the outdoor unit 10 and the indoor units 20, and may be a 1:multiple, multiple:1, or multiple:multiple correspondence.
• the outdoor unit 10 has a compressor 11, a flow path switching device 12, a flow rate adjustment device 15, an accumulator 16, an outdoor heat exchanger 300, and a fan 17.
• the indoor unit 20 has a throttling device 21 and an indoor heat exchanger 22.
• the compressor 11, the flow path switching device 12, the indoor heat exchanger 22, the throttling device 21, the outdoor heat exchanger 300, the flow rate adjustment device 15, and the accumulator 16 are connected by piping 90 to form a refrigerant circuit.
• the refrigerant circuit in FIG. 1 is an example, and is not limited to the configuration shown in the figure.
• the flow path switching device 12 is, for example, a four-way valve, and switches between cooling operation and heating operation by switching the direction in which the refrigerant flows.
• the flow path switching device 12 switches to the state shown by the solid lines in FIG. 1, and the discharge side of the compressor 11 is connected to the outdoor heat exchanger 300.
• the flow path switching device 12 switches to the state shown by the dashed lines, and the discharge side of the compressor 11 is connected to the indoor heat exchanger 22.
• the outdoor heat exchanger 300 is a heat exchanger that exchanges heat between the outdoor air and the refrigerant. During cooling operation, the outdoor heat exchanger 300 functions as a condenser that releases heat from the refrigerant to the outdoor air to condense the refrigerant. During heating operation, the outdoor heat exchanger 300 functions as an evaporator that absorbs heat from the outdoor air to evaporate the refrigerant.
• the flow rate control device 15 is a device that adjusts the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing into the outdoor heat exchanger 300.
• the flow rate control device 15 includes a first flow rate control valve 13 and a second flow rate control valve 14.
• the first flow rate control valve 13 and the second flow rate control valve 14 are, for example, electronic expansion valves that can adjust the aperture of the throttle.
• the first flow rate control valve 13 is provided corresponding to the heat exchanger 30a and the heat exchanger 30c, and adjusts the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing into the heat exchanger 30a and the heat exchanger 30c by changing the aperture.
• the second flow rate control valve 14 is provided corresponding to the heat exchanger 30b, and adjusts the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing into the heat exchanger 30b by changing the aperture.
• the heat exchanger 30 has a first header 31, a heat transfer tube 32, corrugated fins 33, a folded header 34, and a second header 35.
• the first header 31, the folded header 34, and the second header 35 are formed to extend in the left-right direction.
• the heat exchanger 30 has a configuration in which the heat transfer tube group 39 in the front row is arranged between the second header 35 and the folded header 34 as a pair of headers, and the heat transfer tube group 38 in the rear row is arranged between the first header 31 and the folded header 34 as a pair of headers.
• the first header 31 is provided at the bottom of the heat exchanger 30.
• the first header 31 is connected to other devices that constitute the refrigeration cycle device 100, and is a pipe through which the refrigerant flows in and out and through which the refrigerant branches or merges.
• the first header 31 is connected to a refrigerant inlet/outlet pipe 36 through which the refrigerant flows in and out from the outside.
• the heat transfer tube 32 is composed of a flat tube.
• the heat transfer tube 32 has a flat cross section, with the outer surface along the long side of the flat shape along the air flow direction being flat, and the outer surface along the short side perpendicular to the long direction being curved.
• the heat transfer tube 32 is, for example, a multi-hole flat tube with multiple holes inside the tube that serve as flow paths for the refrigerant.
• the holes in the heat transfer tube 32 are formed to extend in the vertical direction. Note that the heat transfer tube 32 is not limited to a flat tube, and may be a circular tube.
• the corrugated fin 33 has a wave shape and is disposed between two adjacent heat transfer tubes 32, with multiple apexes joined to the flat outer surface of the heat transfer tube 32.
• the foldback header 34 is a header that acts as a bridge between a group of heat transfer tubes 32 in one row and a group of heat transfer tubes 32 in the other row.
• the second header 35 is provided at the bottom of the heat exchanger 30.
• the second header 35 is connected to other devices that constitute the refrigeration cycle device 100, and is a pipe through which the refrigerant flows in and out and through which the refrigerant branches or merges.
• the second header 35 is connected to a refrigerant inlet/outlet pipe 37 through which the refrigerant flows in and out from the outside.
• the heat exchanger 30 is not limited to the configuration shown in the figure.
• the heat exchanger 30 has corrugated fins 33 as fins, but the fins may be plate fins.
• the heat exchanger 30 may also be a finless heat exchanger that does not have fins.
• the heat exchanger 30 has a configuration in which the heat transfer tubes are arranged in two rows in the air flow direction, but the heat transfer tubes may be arranged in one row, or three or more rows. In short, it is sufficient for the heat exchanger 30 to have a configuration including a plurality of heat transfer tubes extending in the vertical direction and arranged at intervals in the horizontal direction, and a pair of headers connected to both ends of the plurality of heat transfer tubes.
• FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle device 100 according to embodiment 1.
• FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle device 100 according to embodiment 1, with some of the components constituting the outdoor unit 10 removed. Note that up/down, left/right, front/rear in FIG. 3 and subsequent figures refer to directions when the outdoor unit 10 is viewed from the front with a sealing plate 43 (described below) facing forward. These directional terms are for explanatory purposes only and do not limit the present disclosure.
• the outdoor unit 10 is a top-flow type in which an air outlet 41 is formed in the upper center of the housing 40.
• the air outlet 41 is an opening through which air blown from the fan 17 is discharged.
• the housing 40 has four sides when viewed in a plan view, and these four sides form a rectangular parallelepiped shape that rises vertically from the lower surface 40e that forms the bottom of the housing 40.
• the housing 40 is a rectangular parallelepiped that is long in the vertical direction.
• the four sides are the right surface 40a, the rear surface 40b, the left surface 40c, and the front surface 40d.
• the housing 40 is also formed in a rectangular shape when viewed in a plan view, with the long side being the left-right direction and the short side being the front-rear direction.
• a removable sealing plate 43 is provided on the front surface 40d that forms the front of the housing 40. The sealing plate 43 is removed during maintenance of the outdoor unit 10, etc.
• a compressor 11 and other components are housed inside each heat exchanger 30 in the housing 40.
• a fan 17 is housed in the housing 40 above each heat exchanger 30, directly below the air outlet 41.
• the fan 17 is, for example, a propeller fan.
• the fan 17 takes in air from the intake ports 42 on each side of the housing 40, supplies it to each heat exchanger 30, and then blows it out upward from the air outlet 41.
• FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of the inside of the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment.
• FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of the inside of the outdoor unit 10A of the refrigeration cycle apparatus according to the comparative example.
• thin arrows indicate the flow of refrigerant inside the outdoor units 10, 10A.
• the flow of refrigerant is shown during cooling operation when the outdoor heat exchanger 300 functions as a condenser.
• Thin solid arrows indicate the flow of refrigerant in the piping
• thin dotted arrows indicate the flow of refrigerant in each heat exchanger 30a.
• the hollow arrows indicate the direction of air flow.
• the size of the hollow arrow indicates the air flow rate, with the larger the arrow, the greater the flow rate.
• the compressor 11 and accumulator 16 are disposed inside the housing 40.
• the compressor 11 is shown as having a compressor body 11a that compresses the refrigerant and a rectangular parallelepiped compressor box 11b that covers the compressor body 11a, but the compressor box 11b may be omitted.
• the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 are arranged facing the heat exchanger 30 in a direction perpendicular to the up-down direction.
• the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 are built-in devices 50 that occupy a large volume. Therefore, if these built-in devices 50 are arranged close to the heat exchanger 30, the ventilation resistance of the heat exchanger 30 will be large.
• the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 are arranged closest to the heat exchanger 30a. Also, when comparing the heat exchanger 30b with the heat exchanger 30c, the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 are arranged closer to the heat exchanger 30b than to the heat exchanger 30c. Therefore, as shown by the size of the white arrows, the flow rate of air passing through each heat exchanger 30 is, in order from smallest to largest, heat exchanger 30a, heat exchanger 30b, and heat exchanger 30c.
• each heat exchanger 30 differs depending on the arrangement of the built-in equipment 50 in the housing 40, causing variations in the amount of heat exchange in each heat exchanger 30, and the heat exchange performance of the outdoor heat exchanger 300 as a whole is reduced.
• a flow control device 15 is also arranged inside the housing 40, but its size is smaller than the compressor 11 and accumulator 16, and the ventilation resistance caused by the flow control device 15 can be ignored.
• heat exchangers 30a, 30b, and 30c are connected in parallel as shown in FIG. 1.
• the outdoor unit 10 requires improvement because the deterioration of heat exchange performance caused by the arrangement of the built-in equipment 50 becomes particularly noticeable.
• the outdoor unit 10 of the first embodiment has the following configuration.
• the outdoor unit 10 of the first embodiment has a proximity distance, described below, within a range of 125 mm or more and less than half the longitudinal length of the housing 40 when viewed in a plan view.
• the proximity distance is the shortest distance between the built-in device 50, such as the compressor 11 or accumulator 16, and each heat exchanger 30.
• the shortest distance between the built-in equipment 50 and each of the heat exchangers 30 is L1, which is the distance between the accumulator 16 and the heat exchanger 30b. Therefore, in the example arrangement in Figure 5, the proximity distance is L1, and the accumulator 16 is arranged at a position where the distance from the heat exchanger 30b is 125 mm or more and within a range of less than half the length in the longitudinal direction (left-right direction in Figure 5) when the housing 40 is viewed in a plan view.
• the outdoor unit 10 includes both the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 as built-in equipment 50 in the housing 40, but there are configurations in which the accumulator 16 is not included.
• the proximity distance is L2, which is the distance between the compressor 11 and the heat exchanger 30c. Therefore, in FIG. 5, when the outdoor unit 10 does not include the accumulator 16, the heat exchanger 30 that is closest to the compressor 11 among the heat exchangers 30a, 30b, and 30c is the heat exchanger 30.
• the compressor 11 is disposed at a position where the distance from the heat exchanger 30c is 125 mm or more and within a range of half or less of the longitudinal length of the housing 40 when viewed in a plan view.
• the distance between the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30 is specifically the distance between the outer parts of the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30.
• the outer shell part of the compressor 11 as an example of the built-in device 50 is the compressor box 11b when the compressor 11 has the compressor box 11b, and is the compressor body 11a when the compressor 11 does not have the compressor box 11b. Therefore, when the compressor 11 has the compressor box 11b, the distance between the compressor 11 and the heat exchanger 30 is the horizontal distance La1 between the compressor box 11b and the heat transfer tube 32 of the heat exchanger 30. When the compressor 11 does not have the compressor box 11b, the distance between the compressor 11 and the heat exchanger 30 is the horizontal distance La2 between the compressor body 11a and the heat transfer tube 32.
• the compressor body 11a has a cylindrical container 11a1 extending in the vertical direction, and various parts (not shown) such as piping and a fixed base connected to the outside of the container 11a1. More specifically, the horizontal distance La2 is the horizontal distance between the container 11a1 of the compressor body 11a and the heat transfer tube 32.
• FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the measurement positions of the accumulator 16 and the heat exchanger 30 in the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle device 100 according to the first embodiment.
• the accumulator 16 has a cylindrical container 16a extending in the vertical direction, and various parts (not shown) such as piping connected to the outside of the container 16a.
• the outer part of the accumulator 16, which is an example of the built-in equipment 50, is, in detail, the container 16a. Therefore, the distance Lb between the accumulator 16 and the heat exchanger 30 is the horizontal distance between the container 16a and the heat transfer tube 32.
• FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the distance L between the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30 in the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle device 100 according to the first embodiment and the heat exchanger airflow distribution loss.
• the horizontal axis is the distance L [mm] between the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30, and the vertical axis is the heat exchanger airflow distribution loss [%].
• the heat exchanger airflow distribution loss is calculated by ((heat exchanger performance when not affected by the built-in device 50 - heat exchanger performance when affected by the built-in device 50) / heat exchanger performance when not affected by the built-in device 50) x 100.
• the graph in FIG. 9 is a graph calculated by setting two devices, the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30, as trial models.
• the graph in FIG. 9 is an example of calculation using a fluid circuit network that takes into account the friction loss when the air passing through the gap between the built-in device 50 and the heat exchanger 30 passes through the built-in device 50, the bending of the airflow, the merging of the airflow, and other losses.
• the heat exchanger airflow distribution loss drops sharply as distance L increases from 50 mm to 100 mm, but the rate of drop drops when distance L is around 125 mm.
• a lower limit for distance L is preferably 125 mm.
• the upper limit for distance L is set taking into account the size of the housing 40.
• the upper limit for distance L is set to half the longitudinal length of housing 40 when viewed in a plan view. When the longitudinal (left-right) length of housing 40 is 1207 mm, the upper limit for distance L is 603.5 mm.
• the arrangement of the built-in devices 50 in the outdoor unit 10 is not limited to the arrangement shown in FIG. 5, and various modified examples are possible, for example, as follows.
• the compressor 11 and the accumulator 16 are disposed in the center when the housing 40 is viewed in a plan view, but they do not have to be disposed in the center as long as the above-mentioned conditions for placement are met.
• distributing the built-in equipment 50 in the center when the housing 40 is viewed in a plan view can better suppress bias in ventilation resistance and can further enhance the effect of equalizing the heat exchange performance of each heat exchanger 30.
• FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a third modified example of the outdoor unit 10 of the refrigeration cycle apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment.
• the compressor box 11b is rectangular parallelepiped-shaped, but it may be cylindrical as shown in Fig. 11.
• air can flow more easily around the compressor box 11b than when it is rectangular parallelepiped-shaped, thereby further improving the heat exchange performance.
• the built-in equipment 50 is disposed inside the housing 40 and includes a compressor 11 that compresses the refrigerant.
• Each of the plurality of heat exchangers 30 is disposed opposite each of the plurality of side surfaces among the four side surfaces of the housing 40 when viewed in a plan view.
• the built-in device 50 is disposed facing the multiple heat exchangers 30 in a direction perpendicular to the up-down direction.
• the shortest distance between the built-in device 50 and any one of the multiple heat exchangers 30 is 125 mm or more and half or less of the longitudinal length of the housing 40 when viewed in a plan view.
• the proximity distance is the horizontal distance between the external part of the built-in device 50 and any one of the multiple heat exchangers 30.
• the external part is the compressor body 11a when the compressor 11 is configured to have a compressor body 11a that compresses the refrigerant.
• the external part is the compressor box 11b when the compressor 11 is configured to have a compressor body 11a that compresses the refrigerant and a compressor box 11b that covers the compressor body 11a.
• the above configuration allows the outdoor unit 10 to reduce ventilation resistance and improve heat exchange performance compared to a configuration in which the side of the compressor box 11b is arranged parallel to the heat exchanger 30 closest to the compressor box 11b.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Other Air-Conditioning Systems (AREA)

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Citations (5)

• 2024
  • 2024-01-12 JP JP2025569237A patent/JPWO2025150180A1/ja active Pending
  • 2024-01-12 WO PCT/JP2024/000592 patent/WO2025150180A1/ja active Pending

Patent Citations (5)

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