Title: Thermo-ecological performance optimisation of two stage irreversible refrigerators

Authors: S. Kalaiselvam, V. Balaji, M. Veerappan, S. Iniyan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India

Abstract: The present study investigates the optimal performance of two stage refrigeration system based on thermo-ecological performance criterion. To maximise the ecological performance function, the working fluid temperatures are optimised. The optimal conditions such as cooling load, entropy generation rate and Coefficient of Performance (COP) are arrived analytically. The derived solution provides a general theoretical tool for ecological design of the two stage refrigerators. In this analysis, the effects of irreversibilities such as finite rate of heat transfer and heat leakage on the ecological performance are considered. The study also investigates the effect of intermediate temperature ratio and source temperature ratio on the ecological performance function.

Keywords: thermo-ecological optimisation; refrigeration cycle; irreversibilities; ecological performance; cooling load; entropy generation rate; coefficient of performance; COP; ecological design; refrigerator design; heat transfer; heat leakage; intermediate temperature ratio; source temperature ratio.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2009.023998

International Journal of Exergy, 2009 Vol.6 No.2, pp.200 - 213

Published online: 22 Mar 2009 *

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