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Improving heat pump system performance using a novel frost/defrost model.

Number: 2272

Author(s) : ALAM I., TOBIN N., LEONARD A., SPASOV M., KHICHAR M.

Summary

Heat pump systems are attractive for mildly cold climates because they can be more efficient than conventional heating sources and are able to reuse pre-existing air conditioning layouts (if present), but they are also quite susceptible to frost formation. It is of utmost importance to understand the frost growth in these systems and to use that understanding to develop an appropriate defrosting strategy in order to prevent system inefficiencies or failures from occurring. A predictive model for frosting and defrosting is indispensable to gain this understanding. To that end, we have developed
and implemented in GT-SUITE a unified nonequilibrium model for condensation, frosting, melting and sublimation to account for these important processes in an accurate, fast and robust manner. The ’nonequilibrium’ approach employs a driving force between the bulk and the saturation mass fractions of the water vapor to calculate rates of these processes.
Special care has been taken to handle the transitions between these phenomena in a smooth manner in order to keep numerical instabilities at bay. For defrosting, we model both sublimation and melting phenomena, which can occur simultaneously. We demonstrate the usefulness of our novel mathematical model for simulating frosting and defrosting phenomena for a detailed heat pump system in this work. This simulation helps us study the build-up and abatement of frost, and the effects the defrost strategy have on the indoor (cabin) temperature and the power consumed, clearly
showing the usefulness of a defrost strategy for heat pump operation.

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Pages: 10 p.

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  • Original title: Improving heat pump system performance using a novel frost/defrost model.
  • Record ID : 30033105
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Technology
  • Source: 2024 Purdue Conferences. 20th International Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2024/07/17

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