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8Experimental study on refrigeration system performance of pure electric
8Experimental study on refrigeration system performance of pure electric
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: In view of the low refrigeration efficiency of the refrigeration system of the pure electric logistics car under the
Electric logistics car high temperature environment, an experimental platform of the refrigeration system based on medium pressure
Refrigeration system air supply of the pure electric refrigerator car was built with R404A as the refrigerant, the experiment results
Medium pressure air supply
show that the system refrigerating capacity, COP and EER decrease with the increase of external environment
temperature under the same internal environment temperature, the compressor power and exhaust temperature
increase with the increase of the external environment temperature. When the external environment temperature
is 43 ◦ C, the medium pressure air supply technology is obviously better than the non-air supply technology, the
refrigerating capacity increased by 4.1–12.73 %, the compressor power and EER changed little, the COP
increased by 1.3–6.38 %, and the exhaust temperature reduced by 3.4 ◦ C-7.11 ◦ C, especially at -3 ◦ C, the system
refrigerating capacity decreases by 30.1 %, the compressor power increases by 35.6 %, the COP and EER dis
tribution decreases by 51.24 % and 42.68 %.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: waymyyy@126.com (K.-Z. ZHAO).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prime.2023.100399
Received 15 August 2023; Received in revised form 25 October 2023; Accepted 11 December 2023
Available online 12 December 2023
2772-6711/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
K.-Z. ZHAO and Z.-Y. SU e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy 7 (2024) 100399
the conditions studied, and the refrigeration efficiency is similar to that Principle of cold storage system
of direct refrigeration system [8]. Xia et al. designed a new type of
refrigerated truck box. A certain amount of composite phase change The principle of the refrigeration system is shown in Fig. 1. The
material was added into the box of the refrigerated truck, and the refrigerant is compressed into high temperature and high pressure
solid-liquid phase change property of the phase change material was saturated gaseous refrigerant by the compressor. The saturated gaseous
used to increase the cold storage characteristics of the box [9]. Liu refrigerant releases heat to the surrounding environment through the
Huijuan studied the influence of the type and thickness of insulation condenser outside the car and condenses into high pressure supercooled
material on the thermal environment in the refrigerated carriage by liquid refrigerant, which passes through the liquid reservoir and filter
numerical simulation calculation and analysis method. The results dryer and then enters the economizer. At this time, the refrigerant is
showed that the thicker the insulation material selected for the refrig divided into the main road and the supplement road, the main road
erated carriage body, the lower the average temperature inside the refrigerant is throttled by the evaporator electronic expansion valve to
carriage body, and the better the insulation effect[10]. Xie et al. con become a low temperature and low pressure gas-liquid mixed refrig
ducted a simulation study on the temperature field in the refrigerated erant. The mixed refrigerant absorbs heat in the evaporator and evap
compartment under three conditions: partial overhead and partial side, orates into saturated gaseous refrigerant, and then enters the
overhead and side, and found that the temperature in the compartment compressor. The supplement road refrigerant passes through the elec
was low and the uniformity was the best when the cold plate was placed tronic expansion valve, and becomes low temperature and low pressure
on the side [11]. Cui Siqi et al. simulated the medium pressure air refrigerant. Then the supplement road refrigerant reversely flows into
supplement technology, found that at high compressor speed, the the economizer and exchanges heat with the main road refrigerant, so
exhaust temperature of the system based on medium pressure air supply that the refrigerant flowing into the economizer of the main road can be
was lower than that of the non-air supply, and the operation perfor cooled again. After the supplement road refrigerant enters the middle
mance of the system based on medium pressure air supply was more chamber of the compressor and mixes with the main road refrigerant, it
stable[12]. Tang Jingchun et al. studied the technology of medium is compressed again to complete a refrigeration cycle.
pressure air supply, found that the applied temperature difference range
of the system based on medium pressure air supply was wider and the Experimental process
applicability was better [13]. Li Haijun et al. studied the refrigeration
performance of pure electric buses based on medium pressure air supply, Experimental apparatus
found that the refrigeration efficiency of the system based on medium
pressure air supply was much better than that of the non-air supply This experiment was conducted in the standard enthalpy difference
system [14]. laboratory, which is composed of three parts: control and adjustment
The above literatures have carried out simulation experiments on the room, independent adjustable outdoor side and independent adjustable
refrigeration performance of the refrigerating system and the advantage indoor side. The indoor and outdoor side can simulate the indoor and
of the medium pressure air supplement technology. However, there are outdoor temperature and humidity according to the requirements of the
few literatures on the research of pure electric refrigerator car refrig test scheme developed in the experiment, ensure the accuracy of the
erating system based on medium pressure supply. Based on the struc experimental data. The outdoor side refrigeration system has ten
tural characteristics of pure electric logistics cars, this paper sets up the refrigeration units, and the designed refrigerating capacity of the
experimental platform of cold storage system based on medium pressure refrigeration units is two 5HP, two 10PH and six 20HP respectively. The
air supply of pure electric logistics cars. R404A was selected as the heating system is two adjustable electric heaters and two fixed heaters
refrigerant, scroll compressor with intermediate air supplement was with 231 kW. The humidifier system consists of two fixed humidifiers
used, tube fin heat exchanger was used in the interior evaporator and and one adjustable humidifier. There are 8 refrigeration units in the
micro-channel parallel flow heat exchanger was used in the exterior indoor side, and the designed refrigerating capacity is two 5HP, two
condenser. The effects of different ambient temperature outside the car 10PH, four 20HP. The heating system is two adjustable electric heaters
on the refrigeration performance of the system were studied and two fixed heaters with 231 kW. The humidifier system consists of
experimentally. two fixed humidifiers and one adjustable humidifier. The humidity
adjustment range is 0–100%. The indoor air volume box that can be
measured ranges from 500 m3/h to 15000 m3/h.
The compressors used in this experiment are variable frequency
2
K.-Z. ZHAO and Z.-Y. SU e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy 7 (2024) 100399
The experimental conditions were established according to GBT- refrigeration system and the refrigeration system of medium pressure air
24616–2019 "Refrigerated, frozen food logistics packaging, marking, supply under the ambient temperature outside the car at 43℃ were
transportation and storage", GB/50072–2010 "cold storage design code", studied and compared. Table 2 shows the performance data of the non-
GB/T30134–2013 "cold storage management code" GB/T25129–2010 air supply system, Table 3 shows the performance data of the medium
"Air cooler for refrigeration", JB/T11967–2014 "Micro Channel Heat pressure air supply system.
Exchanger for Condenser of Refrigerating Air Conditioning Equipment", The study found that when the temperature inside the car is set at − 3
SB/T 10797–2012 "Indoor Prefabricated Cold Storage". In the experi
◦
C, 3 ◦ C, 7 ◦ C, 12 ◦ C, the refrigerating capacity of the medium pressure
ment, R404A refrigerant is adopted. Through the charging experiment, air supply system is increased by 12.73 %, 11.45 %, 7.55 % and 4.1 %
the optimal charging amount of the system is determined to be 2.9 kg. respectively compared with that of the non-air supply system, show that
Compressor speed is set at 4200 r/min. The ambient temperature the medium pressure air supply system is obviously superior to the non-
outside the car is 21 ◦ C, 27 ◦ C, 32 ◦ C, 43 ◦ C, the ambient temperature air supply system when the refrigeration demand is high. The
inside the car is 12 ◦ C, 7 ◦ C, 3 ◦ C, − 3 ◦ C, and the relative humidity inside compressor power of the medium pressure air supply system is slightly
the car is 45 %. The calculation formulas of refrigerating capacity and higher than that of the non-air supply system, because the medium
COP are shown in Eqs. (1) and (2). pressure air supply system increases the mass flow of refrigerant in the
( ) compressor. Compared with that of the non-air supply system, the COP
QC = mc hevap,out − hevap,in (1) of the medium pressure air supply system increased by 1.3 %, 6.36 %,
6.38 % and 2.44 % respectively. Compared with that of the non-air
QC supply system, the exhaust temperature of the medium pressure air
copc = (2)
W supply system reduced by 1.3 %, 6.36 %, 6.38 % and 2.44 % respec
Where, mc is the mass flow rate of refrigerant entering the evaporator, tively, this is because the gaseous refrigerant from the supplement road
kg/s; hevap,out is the enthalpy value of refrigerant at the evaporator outlet, is mixed with the refrigerant from the evaporator to reduce the super
heat of the refrigerant. Compared with that of the non-air supply system,
kJ/kg; hevap,in is the enthalpy value of the refrigerant imported into the
the EER of the medium pressure air supply system increased by 0.28 %,
evaporator, kJ/kg; W is the compressor power consumption, kW.
4.87 %, 0.69 % and 0.43 % respectively.
Advantages of cold storage system based on medium pressure air
supply
When the refrigerated system of pure electric logistics car is running, Analysis of experimental results
it has the characteristics of large span of environmental conditions,
which is easy to affect the stability of system. When the outside envi The influence of the ambient temperature inside and outside the car
ronment of the air is the standard working condition, the ordinary on the refrigerating capacity is shown in Fig. 3. As can be seen from the
refrigeration system can meet the refrigeration demand efficiently, the figure, under the same temperature inside the car, the refrigerating ca
performance of the refrigerating system based on the medium pressure pacity of the system decreases with the increase of the ambient tem
air supply is slightly better than that of the non-air supply system, and perature outside the car. Under the same ambient temperature outside
the advantage of the refrigerating system based on the medium pressure the car, the refrigerating capacity of the system decreases with the
air supply is not obvious. However, when the refrigerator car is running, decrease of the temperature inside the car. If the temperature inside the
it mostly in the environment of large temperature difference, while the car is kept unchanged at − 3 ◦ C, and ambient temperature outside the car
ordinary refrigeration system shows obvious problems such as poor increases from 21 ◦ C to 43 ◦ C, the refrigerating capacity is reduced from
refrigeration effect, unstable system operation and unable to meet the 5.11 kW to 3.55 kW, which is reduced by 30.1 %. If the temperature
refrigeration demand. In view of the existing problems, the general inside the car is kept unchanged at 3 ◦ C, and ambient temperature
outside the car increases from 21 ◦ C to 43 ◦ C, the refrigerating capacity
Table 1 is reduced from 6.83 kW to 5.01 kW, which is reduced by 26.6 %. If the
Component specification parameters. temperature inside the car is kept unchanged at 7 ◦ C, and ambient
temperature outside the car increases from 21 ◦ C to 43 ◦ C, the refrig
Device name Equipment parameters
erating capacity is reduced from 8.15 kW to 6.07 kW, which is reduced
Scroll compressor Displacement 35.6 ml/rev, 900~7200 r/min
External condenser 940 × 469 × 20 mm, Single row and two flows
In-car evaporator 1230 × 546 × 195 mm, 54 tubes and 3 processes Table 2
Outside fan Air volume 3500~4000 m3/h, 2 sets Performance data of the non-air supply system.
Interior fan Air volume 2500~3000 m3/h, 3 sets
Ambient Refrigerating Compressor COP Exhaust EER
Main road electronic Rated refrigerating capacity 11.6 kW, The Opening
temperature capacity(kW) power(kW) temperature
expansion valve adjustment range of 10 %~100 %
inside the car (℃)
Supplement road electronic Rated refrigerating capacity 6.2 kW, The Opening
(℃)
expansion valve adjustment range of 10 %~100 %
Economizer Design capacity 10 kW; Design temperature − 160 − 3 3.149 1.95 1.615 55.39 1.07
~+200 ◦ C 3 4.498 2.29 1.964 61.75 1.315
Reversing valve Applicable capacity 18–45 kw 7 5.64 2.4 2.35 69.54 1.59
Gas-liquid separator Volume 4 L, maximum working pressure 4.5 MPa 12 7.531 2.48 3.037 80.12 1.864
3
K.-Z. ZHAO and Z.-Y. SU e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy 7 (2024) 100399
Tab 3
Performance data of the medium pressure air supply system.
Ambient Refrigerating Compressor COP Exhaust EER
temperature capacity(kW) power(kW) temperature
inside the car (℃)
(℃)
Fig 4. The influence of the temperature change outside the car on the power of
the system compressor.
4
K.-Z. ZHAO and Z.-Y. SU e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy 7 (2024) 100399
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