Performance Simulation Model of a Radiation-Enhanced Thermal Diode Tank-Assisted Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (RTDT-RAC) System: A Novel Cooling System

Mingzhen Wang, Eric Hu () and Lei Chen
Additional contact information
Mingzhen Wang: School Electrical of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Eric Hu: School Electrical of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Lei Chen: School Electrical of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: This paper presents a novel technology to improve the energy efficiency of refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems by applying a condenser cooling approach. The approach is based on the integration of an innovative radiation-enhanced thermal diode tank (RTDT) with a RAC system. The thermal diode tank (TDT), consisting of heat pipes and an insulated water tank, is a passive device to generate cooling water at a minimum night ambient temperature. When the radiation-enhanced heat pipe (RHP) is equipped with the TDT, it becomes an RTDT, which could theoretically lower the water temperature below the ambient temperature. In this study, a radiation-enhanced thermal diode tank (RTDT) is proposed to supply cooling water to the RAC system. Simulation models for the proposed RTDT-assisted RAC (RTDT-RAC) system are developed in order to investigate the impacts of the tank size to cooling capacity (TS/Q c ) ratio, day/night ambient temperature fluctuations on the system’s coefficient of performance (COP) and the energy saving percentage (ESP). The results show that a greater day/night ambient temperature difference and a larger TS/Q c value can both enhance the COP and ESP of the RTDT-RAC system. The optimal and threshold TS/Q c values were 1 m 3 /kW and 0.18 m 3 /kW, respectively. These findings demonstrate the potential of the RTDT-RAC system to achieve significant energy savings and provide valuable insights for the design and optimization of an RTDT-RAC system.

Keywords: thermal diode tank; heat transfer; radiative cooling; WSHP; thermal energy storage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/18/6506/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/18/6506/ (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:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:18:p:6506-:d:1236486

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

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