• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.2012-2021
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• 1995

An experimental study was performed for the analysis of dynamic characteristics of refrigeration system by controlling the evaporator superheat. Experimental data have been taken utilizing two different devices, thermostatic expansion valve(T.E.V.) and electronic expansion valve(E.E.V.), for the control of the evaporator superheat. The ranges of parameters, such as superheat, mass flow rate of refrigerant and inlet temperature of evaporator were 5-30.deg. C 90-170 kg/h and 10-25.deg. C, respectively. The data taken from the T.E.v.and E.E.v.were discussed with the control of the superheat, pressure drop, refrigerating capacity, compression work, evaporating temperature, condensing temperature and COP affecting performance characteristics of refrigeration system. In case of the refrigerant flow control with T.E..V., the superheat and pressure drop of the evaporator varied periodically, but the control with E.E.V., the parameters were very stable. In E.E.v.control, refrigerating capacity, compression work and evaporating temperature were decreased with increasing superheat, and the highest COP was obtained in the range of superheat from 5.deg. C to 15.deg. C.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.252-262
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• 2007

In this paper, we suggest fuzzy control with feedforward compensator of superheat to progress both energy saving and coefficient of performance(COP) in a variable speed refrigeration system. The capacity and superheat are controlled simultaneously and independently by an inverter and an electronic expansion valve respectively for saving energy and improving COP in the system. By adopting the fuzzy control. the controller design for the capacity and superheat is possible without depending on a dynamic model of the system. Moreover, the feedforward compensator of the superheat can eliminate influence of the interfering loop between capacity and superheat. Some experiments are conducted to design the appropriate fuzzy controller by an iteration manner. The results show that the proposed fuzzy controller with the compensator can establish good control performances for the complicated refrigeration system with inherent strong non-linearity.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.382-388
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• 2003

Refrigerant flow rates of the multi-type air-conditioning system can be regulated by electronic expansion valves (EEV). The performance of the multi-type air-conditioning system may be improved by lowering the superheat at the compressor suction side. In this study, a superheat temperature setpoint reset algorithm was developed by using fuzzy logics, and a PI algorithm was applied to control the superheat temperature near setpoints. Experimental results showed energy savings and stable operations at a multi-type air-conditioning system. Therefore, the developed setpoint reset algorithm may be effectively used for the EEV superheat temperature control of the multi-type air-conditioning system.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1043-1048
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• 2003

An experimental investigation was executed to determine the capacity degradation due to non-uniform refrigerant distribution in a multi-path evaporator. In addition, the possibility of recovering the capacity reduction by controlling the refrigerant distribution among refrigerant paths was assessed. The finned-tube evaporator, which had a three-path and three-depth-row, was tested by controlling inlet quality, exit pressure, and exit superheat for each refrigerant path. The capacity reduction due to superheat unbalance between each path was as much as 30%, even when the overall evaporator superheat was kept at a target value of 5.6$^{\circ}C$. It may indicate that the internal heat transfer within the evaporator assembly caused the partial capacity drop. For the evaporator having air mal-distributions, the maximum capacity reduction was found to be 8.7%. A 4.5% capacity recovery was obtained by controlling refrigerant distribution to obtain the target superheat at the outlet of each path.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.9-15
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• 2008

In this paper, we suggest PI control with a predictive controller to progress both energy saving and coefficient of performance(COP) in a variable speed refrigeration system. The capacity and superheat are controlled simultaneously and independently by an inverter and an electronic expansion valve respectively for saving energy and improving COP in the system. The refrigeration system has long dead time in superheat inherently. The dead time makes the system difficult to achieve the satisfactory quick control response, especially superheat control response. In order to solve this problem, we designed a predictive controller based on PI control to progress superheat control performance. The control performance was investigated through some experiments to verify the effectiveness of the predictive controller.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.380-387
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• 1994

An experimental study was performed to investigate the characteristics of refrigerant flow rate control and superheat in an evaporator with an electronic expansion valve(EEV). The EEV used in this study was devised using a needle valve coupled with a stepping motor controlled by a personal computer. A Pill control equation was used to control the superheat of the evaporator and to set the superheat to $5^{\circ}C$. In order to determine an optimum running condition for the system, Pill parameters were varied for the wide range of values. The running condition of an air conditioning system with a PI control was reasonably stable compared with that of the Pill control. Experimental results for the PI control using parameter values, $K_p=1.5$, $T_i=400(sec)$ and $T_s=6(sec)$ show that the superheat reached its target value. When external disturbances were introduced to the system, the superheat target value was reached within about 3 minutes. When the EEV was applied to the air conditioning system driven by an inverter, room temperature control was excellent.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2005

An experimental investigation was executed to determine the capacity degradation due to fin conduction and non-uniform refrigerant distribution in a multi-path evaporator with cross-counter flow. The finned-tube evaporator, which had a three-path and three-depth-row, was tested by controlling inlet quality, exit pressure, and exit superheat for each refrigerant path. The capacity reduction due to superheat unbalance between each path was as much as $25\%$ for non-cutting evaporator, even when the overall evaporator superheat was kept at a target value of $5.6^{\circ}C$. It indicates that the internal heat transfer within the evaporator assembly causes the partial capacity drop. The capacity of cutting-evaporator with respect to non-cutting evaporator was enhanced according to the increment of air flow rate when superheat or superheat unbalance increased.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.122-133
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• 1997

Numerical analysis using finite volume method has been carried out to examine the effect of degree of superheat of LiBr aqueous solution on heat and mass transfer occurred in absorption process. According to the result of this study, it was found that refrigerant vaper was generated at the entrance region of absorber when LiBr aqueous soltion was superheated. As the degree of superheat increases, heat transfer rate increases and vapor absorption rate decreases. The increase in averaged Nusselt and Sherwood numbers could be found as film Reynolds number increases. The larger the degree of superheat, the greater the averaged Nusselt and Sherwood numbers.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.34-40
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• 1998

Performance characteristics of a refrigeration systems with various expansion valves and superheat changes were investigated experimentally. Experimental data have been taken utilizing three different devices; a thermostatic expansion valve, a linear type electronic expansion valve and a solenoid type electronic expansion valve. The data taken from tile three types of expansion valves were discussed with the temperature distribution of each zone in the evaporator and the superheat changes of the evaporator outlet In each zone temperature distribution fluctuated larger with the thermostatic expansion valve than with the electronic expansion valves. The optimum superheat ranged from $5^{\circ}C\;to\;15^{\circ}C$, and the superheat with the thermostatic expansion valve showed hunting phenomenon, which affected the evaporating and condensing temperature.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.81-87
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• 2006

This paper deals with an empirical model for decoupling control to control the refrigeration system effectively. The conventional control schemes of the system are mainly focused on representative two control methods, superheat control and capacity control. The capacity control is basically conducted to respond partial loading conditions on the purpose of energy saving. The superheat control is mainly carried out to maintain maximum coefficient of performance (COP). In the variable speed refrigeration system, the capacity and the superheat are controlled by inverters and electronic expansion valves respectively for saving energy and improving cost performance. The capacity and superheat can not be controlled independently because of interfering loop when the compressor speed and opening angle electronic expansion valve is varied. Therefore, we suggest decoupling model to eliminate the interfering loop at first. Next, each transfer function in decoupling control model is obtained from number of experiments.