Experimental Investigation on a Vapor Injection Heat Pump System with a Single-Stage Compressor

Abstract

In this study, a heat pump of 10 kW with vapor injection using refrigerant of R410A was developed. A vapor injection pipe connecting a gas–liquid separator at the outlet of the main expansion valve and the suction of a single-stage rotary compressor was designed. The heating performance of this vapor injection heat pump was investigated and analyzed at different compressor frequencies and primary temperatures. The experimental results show that for the heat pump without vapor injection, the heating capacity increased linearly with the compressor frequency, while the heating coefficient of performance (COP) decreased linearly with the compressor frequency for each tested primary temperature. The developed vapor injection technique is able to increase the heat pump system’s heating capacity and heating COP when the injection ratio R falls into the range 0.16–0.17. The refrigerant mass flow rate can be increased in the vapor injection heat pump cycle due to the decreased specific volume of the suction refrigerant. The power consumption of vapor injection heat pump cycle almost remains the same with that of the conventional heat pump cycle because of the increased refrigerant mass flow rate and the decreased compression ratio. Finally, it was found that the developed vapor injection cycle is preferable to decreasing the compressor’s discharge temperature.