Performance of A Three-Stage Condensation Heat Pump

In this study, computer simulation programs were developed for single-stage, two-stage, and three-stage condensation heat pumps and their performance with CFC11, HCFC123, HCFC141b was examined under the same external conditions. The results showed that the coefficient of performance(COP) of an optimized 'non-split type' three-stage condensation heat pump is 25-42% higher than that of a conventional single-stage heat pump. The increase in COP, however, differed among the fluids tested. The improvement in COP is largely due to the decrease in average LMTDs in condensers, which results in the decrease in thermodynamic irreversibility in heat exchange process. For the three-stage heat pump, the highest COP is achieved when the total condenser area is evenly distributed among the three condensers. For the two-stage heat pump, however, the optimum distribution of the total condenser area varies with an individual working fluid. For the three-stage system, 'splitting the condenser cooling water'for the use of intermediate and high pressure subcoolers helps increase the COP further. When the individual cooling water entering the intermediate and high pressure subcoolers is roughly 10% of the total condenser cooling water, the maximum COP is achieved showing roughly an 11% increase in COP as compared to that of the 'non-split type' heat pump.