• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.823-829
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• 2012

In this study, the performance of mobile air conditioner(MAC) systems to which the refrigerants R134a and R1234yf were used was evaluated to compare the characteristic of automotive refrigeration cycles with refrigerant. The experimental setup of a MAC consists of an belt driven compressor, a condenser, an evaporator and a block type thermal expansion valve. The drop-in test on MAC were carried out under variable compressor speed from 800 to 2500 rpm. Performance test by using R1234yf and R134a in the same system revealed low the charge amount and mass flow rates for using R1234yf, that is, up to 10% and 17%, respectively. The compressor discharge temperature of R1234yf is $8^{\circ}C$ lower than that of R134a. The cooling capacity with R1234yf system decreased by 4~7% compared with R134a system. In addition, The COP of R1234yf system is lower 3~4% than that of R134a system.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.183-188
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• 2014

Solenoid operated electromagnetic control valve (ECV) using in an external variable displacement swash plate type compressor is widely used for air conditioning control system because of its low energy consumption and high efficient characteristics. ECV controls the entire vehicle air conditioning system by means of a pulse width modulation (PWM) system that supplied from an external controller. Different pressure ports located within ECV has important functions to control the air/refrigerant flow through its internal passages. The flow paths are preciously maintained with acceptable ranges of leakage (gap) between the parts inside it which is followed by effective design and critical dimensioning of its internal features. Therefore, it saves energy losses from the solenoid operation as well as ensures the balance of forces within it. The research paper highlights analysis of the leakages (at different pressure ports) and dimensioning tolerance factors that affects the ECV performance.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.610-619
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• 2011

This paper investigates the simplified comfort index and control logic for VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) system by using 3 environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and air flow. Indoor test under thermal load was conducted to explore relationship of each environment factors that is related to simplified comfort index. Simplified comfort function that has 3 environmental variables was proposed based on survey results. Each factor is measured and comfort preference was surveyed by more than 30 subjects in the indoor comfort test. Moreover, control logic for VRF system was developed and then simulated by using thermal load calculation method and verified with test. The proposed comfort function was in good agreement with survey results, and also verification test trend of comfort change and maintenance are quite similar with survey. Furthermore, through the additional test data analysis some differences of comfort according to position of people staying in the test room were additionally investigated by air flow. People being under an exit of air in the indoor air-conditioner feel more comfortable condition and speed of response to comfort change is relatively fast.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 2018

This study compared constant water bath performances of conventional water-cooled refrigerator and electric heater with an air-cooled VRF chiller and electric heater equipped with optimal control algorithm. In heating mode, the air cooled VRF chiller and electric heater combination reduced the set temperature arrival time by an average of 42 minutes, and energy was also reduced by 18%. In cooling mode, the two systems took 70 minutes to reach the set temperature and showed no difference. Energy was reduced by 33.5% with the new system. For constant temperature maintaining experiment, after reaching the set temperature of $15^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$ and $22^{\circ}C$, temperature deviations were all in the range of $-0.2^{\circ}C$ to $+0.1^{\circ}C$. Energy was reduced by an average of 84.9%. Through this study, possibility of precise temperature control by an air cooled VRF chiller system was confirmed.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.394-398
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• 2013

At present, using of electromagnetic control valve (ECV) in external variable displacement swash plate type compressor is a common issue. Solenoid operated ECV controls vehicle air conditioning system through a pulse width modulation (PWM) input signal that supplied from an external source. Different port pressure controls the swash plate movement inside the compressor at certain angles that finally determines the refrigerant flow rate to the vehicle compartment for passengers comfort. In this paper, crankcase pressure flow (Pc flow) is calculated with some ECV samples with corresponding to amount of variable supply of current ranges from 0.20Amp to 0.95Amp.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems have recently attracted attention in many countries due to a variety of advantages over conventional system. Especially, the water-cooled VRF heat pump, including geothermal heat pump, is a system that accurately controls the flow rate of refrigerant for the improved efficiency under part load operation. This paper describe the process of generating the cooling and heating energy performance curve coefficients and performance expressions for modeling water cooled VRF system using EnergyPlus. Through this study, the process for generating performance curves can be implemented into EnergyPlus or other comparable building energy analysis tools for the long-term evaluation of heat pump under dynamic conditions.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed at developing an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for predicting the amount of cooling energy consumption of the variable refrigerant flow (VRF) cooling system by the different set-points of the control variables, such as supply air temperature of air handling unit (AHU), condenser fluid temperature, condenser fluid pressure, and refrigerant evaporation temperature. Applying the predicted results for the different set-points, the control algorithm, which embedded the ANN model, will determine the most energy efficient control strategy. Method: The ANN model was developed and tested its prediction accuracy by using matrix laboratory (MATLAB) and its neural network toolbox. The field data sets were collected for the model training and performance evaluation. For completing the prediction model, three major steps were conducted - i) initial model development including input variable selection, ii) model optimization, and iii) performance evaluation. Result: Eight meaningful input variables were selected in the initial model development such as outdoor temperature, outdoor humidity, indoor temperature, cooling load of the previous cycle, supply air temperature of AHU, condenser fluid temperature, condenser fluid pressure, and refrigerant evaporation temperature. The initial model was optimized to have 2 hidden layers with 15 hidden neurons each, 0.3 learning rate, and 0.3 momentum. The optimized model proved its prediction accuracy with stable prediction results.

• Architectural research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.71-77
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• 2017

Dynamic pricing refers to a system in which a tariff varies, according to a level of charging and applied time depending on time change. The power billing system used in the Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) is based on time of use (TOU) pricing, which is one of the dynamic pricing systems. This paper aimed to determine the operational results of a variable refrigerant flow system, to which a new control algorithm was applied, in order to respond to dynamic pricing, in summer and the utility of the new control. To do this, real measured data was acquired from a VRF system installed in a building for educational purposes, where dynamic pricing was applied for about 100 days during summer time. At the maximum load operation time period in TOU, the new control minimized operation within the indoor comfort range, an increase in refrigerant evaporation temperature in the indoor unit and the number of revolutions in a compressor in the outdoor unit was limited. As a result, power usage was decreased by 11%, and the operational cost by 14.6%. Furthermore, measurement results using the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) model, that represented satisfaction of thermal environment, showed that 82.8% to 90.4% of the occupants of the building were satisfied during operation when the new control was applied.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.313-320
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• 2001

In the present study, various experiments were performed to investigate capacity modulation and refrigerant flow distribution of a multi-heat pump using a variable speed compressor and electronic expansion valves(EEVs) in the cooling mode. Based on the experimental results, it was possible to understand the interrelation of dual indoor units which provides some difficulties in capacity control of each indoor unit. The characteristics of capacity modulation of two indoor units were measured by controlling two EEVs with a cooling load of each indoor unit.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.6 s.261
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• pp.531-538
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• 2007

In this study, an air conditioning system using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant was developed for automotive cabin cooling. Experiments have been carried out to examine the steady state and dynamic characteristics of this system. The system consists of a compressor, a gas cooler, an evaporator, an expansion device, an internal heat exchanger and an accumulator. The compressor is a variable displacement type, driven by the electric motor, and the gas cooler and the evaporator are aluminum extruded heat exchangers of micro channel type. The $CO_2-refrigerant$ charge, the compressor speed, the air inlet temperature of the gas cooler, the air inlet temperature and the air flow rate of the evaporator and the cooling load are varied and the performance of the system is experimentally investigated. As the compressor speed increased, cooling capacity increased, but the coefficient of performance was deteriorated. As the cabin air temperature or the air flow rate to the cabin was set high, both the cooling capacity and the COP increased. In the cool down experiment with 1.0 or 2.0 kW of heat load, the dynamic characteristics of the air-conditioning system were investigated. For a given capacity of compressor, cool down speed was monitored, and the temperature change was acceptable fur low heat load condition.