Refrigeration – Disparate apparatus utilized as heat source or absorber – With vapor compression system
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-09
2003-12-02
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Disparate apparatus utilized as heat source or absorber
With vapor compression system
C062S323100, C062S196400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06655164
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to air conditioning systems and more particularly to a combined refrigerant heating and cooling system for vehicles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Generally, automobiles, trucks and the like are ventilated by air forced into the interior by vehicle motion and by a variable speed, electrically driven blower. When heating of the vehicle interior is required, air is passed over a heater core. The core is connected to the engine water jacket and is an air-to-engine coolant heat exchanger. The interior or cabin temperature may be controlled by mixing or blending outside air with the heated air, mixing the heated air with recirculated air, or by a variation of the blower speed.
In order to cool the vehicle interior, a refrigeration air conditioning system is normally used. The system includes an evaporator core disposed in the interior of the vehicle, a refrigerant compressor driven by the vehicle engine, a condenser located in the engine compartment and an expansion valve. Refrigerant is pumped by the compressor through the condenser, expansion valve and the evaporator.
Recent generation engines, and particularly recent diesel engines, show a very high efficiency. Due to this high efficiency, insufficient heating capacity is available using a conventional forced air, heater core system, especially at low ambient temperatures. Conventional heaters suffer from time delay in achieving the desired heater output. Such heaters will not function until the coolant is heated. Coolant temperature varies as a result of different engine operating and vehicle loading conditions.
It has been proposed to, in addition, use a heat pump for heating the vehicle interior. A heat pump is a refrigeration system, which increases rather than decreases the temperature within the vehicle interior. A heat pump uses mechanical energy to raise the temperature from a lower temperature to a useful level. The heat pump process differs from the conventional A/C refrigeration process only in that its purpose is to supply rather than extract heat from the interior of the vehicle.
A typical heat pump system includes a compressor, an outside heat exchanger, an inside heat exchanger and an expansion valve. When in the heating mode, the outside heat exchanger is an evaporator and ambient air is the heat source. The inside heat exchanger functions as a condenser and heats the air circulated over the heat exchanger. Conventional air-to-air heat pumps are of limited utility in a vehicle due to the wide range of ambient temperature conditions that may be experienced. At low ambient temperatures, insufficient heat capacity is available to maintain the vehicle interior at a comfortable temperature.
It has been proposed to combine heating and cooling in a refrigeration system for a vehicle wherein the engine coolant is used as the heat source in the heating mode. In such a system, refrigerant is pumped by the compressor through an outside condenser, a first expansion device and an inside heat exchanger which functions as an evaporator when air cooling is desired. When in the heating mode, the refrigerant is passed through the inside heat exchanger, which functions as a condenser, a second expansion device and a refrigerant-to-engine coolant heat exchanger, which functions as an evaporator.
One typical layout of a combined heating and cooling system is shown in the attached FIG.
1
. In heat pump mode, the outside heat exchanger
10
and the first expansion device
12
are bypassed by means of a bypass conduit
14
connecting the inlet of the inside heat exchanger
16
to the outlet of the compressor
18
. The switching between the outside heat exchanger
10
and the bypassing line
14
can be achieved by a redirector valve
20
connected on the one side to the compressor outlet and on the other side to the bypass conduit
14
and the external heat exchanger
10
. At the same time, the second expansion device
22
and the refrigerant-to-engine coolant heat exchanger
24
are connected in line between the inside heat exchanger
16
and the compressor inlet. Again the switching is achieved by means of a redirector valve
26
connected on the one side to the inside heat exchanger and on the other side to the second expansion device
22
and to a bypass line
28
between the inside heat exchanger
16
and the compressor inlet. In order to prevent refrigerant flow into the outside heat exchanger during heat pump mode, a control valve or a non-return valve is further connected between the outside heat exchanger and the first expansion device. During heat pump operation, the refrigerant flows in a loop as indicated by the solid line arrows, while in cooling mode, the refrigerant flows in a loop as indicated by the broken line arrows.
Such a coolant-based heat pump has certain advantages compared to an ambient air heat source based heat pump, such as no de-icing requirements and substantially higher evaporation temperatures due to the higher heat source temperature. These characteristics improve heat rejection and long term compressor reliability.
One drawback of the above described combined heating and cooling system during heat pump mode is due to liquid refrigerant accumulation in non active parts of the loop, such as the outside heat exchanger
10
. The underlying reason for this phenomenon is the difference in pressure between the active part of the loop (indicated with solid line arrows) and the passive part, which faces the ambient air temperature during running. In addition to this the outside heat exchanger
10
is the part of the loop that will face the coldest temperature and therefore attract most of the refrigerant.
Refrigerant will not only collect in the outside heat exchanger due to leakage of the valves and migration, but also due to previous cooling mode running, which drives most of the refrigerant to the outside heat exchanger.
With the shown loop layout, there is no possibility to recover the refrigerant from the outside heat exchanger back into the heat pump loop. The effect of this undesired refrigerant accumulation is malfunction of the heat pump loop due to lack of refrigerant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved combined refrigerant heating and cooling system, which solves the problem of refrigerant accumulation in the non-active parts of the loop.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, the present invention proposes an improved combined refrigerant heating and cooling system, comprising a compressor, an outside heat exchanger, an inside heat exchanger, a refrigerant-to-engine coolant heat exchanger, at least one refrigerant expansion device and at least one redirection device, wherein the arrangement being such that said compressor is switchable between a heat pump loop and a cooling loop by means of said redirection device, said heat pump loop comprising said inside heat exchanger, said refrigerant expansion device and said refrigerant-to-engine coolant heat exchanger, and said cooling loop comprising said outside heat exchanger and said inside heat exchanger. According to the invention, the outside heat exchanger is arranged in such a way that an outlet of said outside heat exchanger is connected to a connection point of said heat pump loop which in heat pump mode lies downstream of said refrigerant expansion device, e.g. between said refrigerant expansion device and said refrigerant-to-engine coolant heat exchanger.
The proposed arrangement of the combined heating and cooling system connects the outside heat exchanger downstream of the expansion device, i.e. to the low pressure side of the heat pump loop, which insures that all or a major part of the refrigerant is sucked into the heat pump loop when the compressor is started. At the same time, the redirection device will be closed in the direction of the outside heat exchanger, which enables evacuation of the outside heat exchanger. It follows, that refrigerant which has previously accumulated in said outside heat exchanger will be recovered into th
Delph Technologies, Inc.
Doerrler William C.
Griffin Patrick M.
Zec Filip
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