Experimental Research on a Lightweight Miniature Wankel Compressor for a Vapor Compression Refrigeration System in Aerospace

Ruiping Zhi, Rui Ma, Delou Zhang and Yuting Wu ()
Additional contact information
Ruiping Zhi: MOE Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Rui Ma: Key Laboratory of Wind Energy and Solar Energy Technology, College of Energy and Power Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot 010051, China
Delou Zhang: China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102488, China
Yuting Wu: MOE Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: Vapor compression refrigeration is considered one promising technology for dissipating much higher heat fluxes from electronic devices at lower temperatures. The compressor, one key component, has a great effect on the overall size and performance of the system. One lightweight, miniature, hermetic Wankel compressor was developed to solve limited space cooling problems. The assembled Wankel compressor had a diameter of 65 mm, a length of 85 mm and a weight of 340.2 g, without a motor and housing. An experimental system for miniature refrigeration was set up to explore the optimal refrigerant charge and the performance of the compressor under changing rotational speeds and inlet temperatures of cooling water. The experimental results showed that the optimal refrigerant charge was 220 g and the coefficient of performance was approximately 2.8. The refrigeration coefficient of the system decreased with increases in rotational speed and inlet temperature of the cooling water at a stable cooling capacity of 100 W. The developed lightweight, miniature, hermetic Wankel compressor had reliable performance after running for 600 h, with a power consumption of 35 W and a high coefficient of performance (COP) of 2.63.

Keywords: vapor compression refrigeration; aerospace; Wankel compressor; electronics cooling; miniature compressor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8826/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8826/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:11:p:8826-:d:1159784

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().