Effects of Water Amount in Refrigerant on Cooling Performance of Vehicle Air Conditioner

This study was conducted to figure out the diagnosis basis of cooling performance depending on water amount in the refrigerant of air conditioner, which can be estimated by the temperatures and pressures along the refrigerant circulation line. A car air conditioner of SONATA III (Hyundai motor Co., Korea) was tested at maximum cooling condition at the engine speed of 1500 rpm in the room controlled at 33~$35^{\circ}C$ air temperature and 55~57% relative humidity conditionally. Measured variables were temperature differences between inlet and outlet pipe surfaces of the compressor, condenser, receive drier and evaporator; and high pressure and low pressure in the refrigerant circulation line; and temperature difference between inlet and outlet air of the cooling vent of evaporator. In this study, changes of the water amount in the refrigerant were correlated to the temperatures and pressure changes and also water amount caused poor cooling performance. As water amount increased in the refrigerant in the air conditioner, the performance of the cooling or the heat transfer became worse. Temporal variations of the surface temperature of the evaporator outlet pipe and the low-side pressure showed various patterns that could estimate the water amount. When the water amount caused bad cooling performance, the patterns of the temperature of the evaporator outlet pipe indicated irregular fluctuation greater than $5^{\circ}C$. When the diagnosis system is using just external sensors of the low-side pressure and the temperatures of inlet and outlet air of cooling vent of the evaporator, the precise pattern of bad cooling performance caused by excess water amount in the cooling line was irregular pressure fluctuation, 25 kPa under 120 kPa, and temperature, $12^{\circ}C$ and less.

냉매 내 수분의 혼입량이 차량 에어컨의 냉각성능에 미치는 영향