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Manuscript_4868e2d78956c2ecdf9983efcfe6cf8c

Manuscript for International Journal of Refrigeration

Evaluation of Two-phase suction, Liquid Injection and

Two-phase Injection for Decreasing the Discharge
Temperature of the R32 Scroll Compressor

Minghong Yanga, Baolong Wang a,*, Xianting Li a, Wenxing Shi a, Leping Zhang b

a
Department of Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University,

Beijing, 100084, China

b
Danfoss (Tianjin) Ltd, Commercial Scroll Compressor, Tianjin, China

* Corresponding author: Baolong Wang

Department of Building Science, School of ArchitectureTsinghua University
Beijing, 100084, China
Tel: +86-10-62786571
Fax: +86-10-62773461
E-mail: wangbl @tsinghua.edu.cn

© 2015 published by Elsevier. This manuscript is made available under the Elsevier user license
https://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/
Abstract

R32 has been considered as an important alternative in the phase-out of

hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) due to its advantages such as relatively low global

warming potential compared to R410A, favorable thermal properties. However, the

increased discharge temperature of the R32 compressor, compared with R410A, is the

main barrier affecting the wide and quick adoption. In this work, three promising

methods to decrease the discharge temperature of R32 scroll compressor, namely,

two-phase suction, liquid injection and two-phase injection, have been investigated. By

considering the variations of motor efficiency and leakage rate, an improved distributed

parameter model of the scroll compressor is rebuilt based on a previously developed one

(Wang et al., 2008). By that model, the effectiveness of these three methods in decreasing

discharge temperature and their influence on thermodynamic performance are researched.

It is concluded that all the three methods show excellent potential in decreasing the

discharge temperature of R32 scroll compressor. Besides, two-phase injection

outperforms the other two methods in cooling capacity and COP by 11.8% and 4.8%,

respectively.

Keywords

R32; discharge temperature; two-phase suction; two-phase injection; liquid injection

2
Nomenclature

COP coefficient of performance, W/W

Cd leakage coefficient

h specific enthalpy, kJ/kg

m mass flow rate, kg/s
p pressure, kPa
Q& e cooling capacity, W

SH degree of superheating, °C
Te evaporating temperature, °C
Tc condensing temperature, °C
W& power consumption, W
x thermodynamic quality of refrigerant
y0 parameters of compressor without injection

y′ parameters of compressor using methods to decrease discharge temperature

Greek letters
α injection ratio
β relative intermediate pressure
ε compression ratio, p dis p suc
φ relative performance, ratio of the performance of the compressor under
discharge temperature control to the one without control
θ orbiting angle, rad

Subscripts
con condenser
eva evaporator
l saturated liquid refrigerant
g saturated gas refrigerant
dis discharge
in inlet
inj injection
int intermediate
out outlet
suc suction

1. Introduction

1.1. R32 as an alternative refrigerant

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), such as R22, are widely used in vapor compression

refrigeration and air conditioning systems due to their high energy efficiency ratio (Yang

and Wu, 2013). However, the transition from HCFCs is underway for environmental

protection pursuant to the Montreal Protocol, and the increasingly stringent global

restriction of greenhouse gas emission accelerates the schedule. Hydrofluorocarbons

(HFCs) are the leading replacement for HCFCs in refrigeration and air-conditioning

systems (Bolaji and Huan, 2013). Mixtures of HFCs, such as R410A and R407C, are

being used in some countries to replace R22 (Calm and Domanski, 2004), while the

global warming potential (GWP) of R410A (GWP=2088) and R407C (GWP=1770) are

still relatively high.

Recently, R32 has been considered as an important alternative for use in small to medium

capacity air conditioners and heat pumps by many countries. Although it is slightly

flammable, it has advantages such as relatively low GWP (675) compared to R410A

(2025) and favorable thermal properties (Pham and Rajendran, 2012). The latent heat of

vaporization of R32 is about 40% higher than that of R410A, which means R32 system
requires a lower mass flow rate for same cooling capacity. But generally, high latent heat

of vaporization refrigerant cause high discharge temperature (Yan et al., 2012). The

discharge temperature of the R32 compressor is typically approximately 20°C higher than

that with R410A in standard air conditioning condition (Te=7.2°C, Tc=54.4°C and

SH=11.1°C). The excess may be over 30°C in severe conditions such as air conditioner

with ambient temperature higher than 45°C and heat pump with ambient temperature

lower than -15°C.

The extremely high discharge temperature of R32 compressor reduces the reliability of

system operation due to the possibility of lubricating oil degradation, and leads to the

limited operating envelope of R32 compressors. The increased discharge temperature of

R32 compressor becomes the main barrier affecting the wide and quick adoption.

1.2. Methods to decrease discharge temperature

Various technologies have been found to be conducive to decreasing discharge

temperature. Among them, two-phase suction, liquid injection and two-phase injection

are considered to be promising for wide application in compressors with low sensitivity

to wet compression, such as scroll compressors.

Refrigerant drawn into a compressor is usually a vapor with a certain superheated degree

to avoid slugging problems. The discharge temperature of the compressor can be reduced

by minimizing superheating degree, however, the decrease is insufficient in severe

conditions. When the suction refrigerant quality is lower than 1.0, indicating two-phase

suction, the process in the compressor chamber could be wet compression. In this

situation, the discharge temperature would be sharply decreased (Dutta et al., 1996).
Yajima et al. (2011) found that the discharge temperature can be controlled within 135°C

with the suction quality of 0.93 in a high-side R32 scroll compressor. Cao et al. (2009)

conducted an experiment to investigate the influence of liquid injection into the suction

line on the performance of a heat pump water heater utilizing R22 as refrigerant. It is

found that the 5% ratio of liquid injection into the suction line could reduce the discharge

temperature by above 10°C, whereas the heating capacity decreases 5% and power

consumption increases less than 1.5%.

Liquid refrigerant injection is also a good option to avoid excessively high discharge

temperature (Xu et al., 2011). Liquid injection is intended to protect the compressor by

providing adequate cooling. Dutta et al. (2001) theoretically and experimentally

investigated the influence of liquid refrigerant on performance of a R22 high-side scroll

compressor, and found that the oil temperature decreased with increasing injection ratio

and lead to a slight improvement in performance. Winandy et al. (2002) studied the

effects of liquid injection on the discharge temperature of a R22 compressor and their

results showed that the discharge temperature decreased linearly with injection ratio. For

each percentage of liquid injection, discharge temperature decreased by approximately

1.2°C. Cho et al. (2003) studied the influence of liquid injection on an inverter-driven

low-side scroll compressor at different compressor frequencies. It was concluded that

liquid injection under high frequency was very effective at attaining higher performance

and reliability of the compressor, whereas injection under low frequency showed some

disadvantages with respect to compressor power, capacity, and adiabatic efficiency due to

high leakage through the gap in the scroll wrap.

Gas refrigerant injection is an important technique to improve the cooling capacity and

COP (Navarro et al., 2013). Wang et al. (2007) compared the influences of gas injection

and liquid injection on system performance. It was revealed that gas injection increased

the system performance significantly and that liquid injection had limited influence. A

number of studies on gas injection have also proven that gas injection provides

significant enhancement in capacity and COP (Guo et al., 2012; Xu et al., 2013a; Xu et

al., 2013b; Bell et al., 2013). In addition, gas injection demonstrates a decrease in

discharge temperature (Xu et al., 2011), though the cooling effect provided by vapor

refrigerant is limited. Two-phase injection is able to offer more effective cooling during

compression. Park et al. (2002) compared the discharge temperature of two-phase

injection with that of no injection in a low-side R22 compressor, and found that the

discharge temperature can be reduced by 10-20°C with the injected refrigerant quality of

0.9. Wang et al. (2009a) also analyzed the effects of injection enthalpy on a R22 scroll

compressor. It was found that the indicated efficiency increased with the decrease of

injection enthalpy, which was attributed to decrease in the inner leakage and effects on

the under- or over-compression loss.

1.3. Objectives of this work

Although there are some previous research separately conducted on two-phase suction,

liquid injection, or two-phase injection, the comparative study of these three method on

R32 scroll compressor is still lack. The objective of this study is to comparatively

investigate the effectiveness of the three methods to decrease the discharge temperature

and their effects on performance of the R32 scroll compressor.

Fig. 1 (a~c) shows the schematics and p-h diagrams of the injection cycles for three

methods: (1) two-phase suction, which can be achieved by either directly controlling the

opening of the expansion valve or injecting liquid refrigerant into the suction line (the

latter is used in this study); (2) liquid injection, by injecting liquid refrigerant at the outlet

of the condenser into the compression pocket through a control valve; (3) two-phase

injection, by injecting two-phase refrigerant into the compression pocket, an internal heat

exchanger is settled in the outlet of the condenser and a liquid injection line in added to

the system, vapor generated in the internal heat exchanger and liquid from liquid

injection line are mixed and then injected into compressor.

Fig. 1. Schematics and p-h diagrams of the three methods.

2. Model development and validation

The scroll compressor offers low vibration and noise level, high efficiency and high

reliability, and has become increasingly popular in the fields of refrigeration and

air-conditioning (Gravesen and Henriksen, 2001). Wet compression might occur in all

three methods studied and slugging is a common concern. Fortunately, the scroll

compressor has been widely recognized as the most suitable compressor type for

application of refrigerant injection technology, as it is less sensitive to slugging problems

(Liu and Soedel, 1994).

Owing to possible damage to compressor and large expense caused by experimental

research, this study is carried out by numerical simulation based on the validated model

of the R32 scroll compressor.

2.1. Model development

The refrigerant injection process is a continual parameter-varying and time-varying

“adiabatic throttling + isobaric mixing” process (Wang et al., 2008). To investigate the

effects of refrigerant injection on the whole process of the compressor, a distributed

parameter model of the scroll compressor is applied (Wang et al., 2005 and 2008). This

model includes the suction, compression and discharge processes. The refrigerant leakage,

both in radial direction and flank direction, and the refrigerant injection have been

considered. Besides, the heat transfer of refrigerant with suction tube, the scroll wall,

motor, mechanical components and shell have been calculated. Fig. 2 shows the flow

chart of the distributed parameter model for scroll compressor. Because the time scale of

compressor is much smaller than that of the refrigeration system, the time-averaged

outputs of the dynamic compressor model are used to calculate the cycle performance

(Wang et al., 2009b).

The leakage coefficient Cd in scroll compressor is affected by many factors such as

lubricating performance of oil and operating conditions. However, these influence are

usually neglected in most compressor models. In this study, the simulated conditions vary

in a large range and the lubricating performance varies greatly from condition to

condition. To generally involve these effects in the model, the leakage coefficient is fitted

as a function of compression ratio ε (equals to pdis / psuc ) based on 28 test results on the

studied compressor, as shown in equation (1):

 0.2772 ε ≤ 2.72

Cd = 0.003666ε − 0.0844ε + 0.6763ε − 2.0917ε + 2.4609 2.72 < ε < 8.00
4 3 2
(1)
 ε ≥ 8.00
 0.8136
It should be noticed that this equation of leakage coefficient is just fit for the specified

compressor studied in this research. For the other compressors, the expression will need

modification based on the test results of the research compressors.

In addition, the variation of motor efficiency in different conditions has been taken into

account. Fig. 3 shows the motor efficiency variation with compressor power input

according to the motor catalog.

Fig. 2. Flow chart of distributed parameter model for scroll compressor.

Fig. 3. Variation of motor efficiency with compressor power input.

2.2. Model validation

The model has to be validated with a variety of conditions before it is employed in

performance prediction of the R32 scroll compressor. The compressor chosen for this

study is a low-side (suction gas cooled motor) scroll compressor. Table 1 presents the

parameters of the compressor.

The experimental data provided by manufacture is obtained on a standard test plant with

high accuracy instruments, the uncertainties of cooling capacity and power consumption

are 2.0% and 1.5% respectively. Both conditions without refrigerant injection and those

with liquid refrigerant injection are validated, as shown in Fig. 4. It can be concluded that

the predicted results agree well with experimental results, with the relative errors of

cooling capacity and power consumption within 6% and 9%, respectively. The average

deviations of cooling capacity and power consumption are 1.4% and 2.6%, respectively.

The results indicate that the model is capable of predicting performance of the R32 scroll

compressor.
 Table 1 Parameters of the scroll compressor.

Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental and simulated results.

3. Methodology

To investigate the influences of the three methods on compressor performance, the

modified distributed parameter model is applied to simulate the performance of the R32

scroll compressor in various conditions. The subcooling degree at the condenser outlet

and superheating degree at the evaporator outlet are maintained at 3°C and 5°C,

respectively.

During the evaluation, the performance of the R32 scroll compressor without injection is

used as the baseline, and the relative performance is defined in equation (2):

y′
ϕ= (2)
y0

Where ϕ is the relative performance, y 0 represents the parameters of the R32 scroll

compressor without discharge temperature control, and y ′ represents the parameters of

the R32 scroll compressor using methods to decrease discharge temperature. The

injection ratio is defined as the injected refrigerant divided by the mass flow rate in the

evaporator, as given in equation (3):

m inj
α= (3)
m su c

where minj is the injected mass flow rate, and meva is the mass flow rate in evaporator.

To describe the state of suction refrigerant and injected refrigerant, the thermodynamic

quality is adopted (Kandlikar, 1999). In the two-phase region, the thermodynamic quality
equals to the mass quality. But in the superheated vapor region and subcooled liquid

region, the thermodynamic quality can more clearly represent the refrigerant state.

h − hl
x= (4)
hg − hl

where h is the enthalpy of refrigerant, h l and hg are the enthalpy of saturated liquid

and gas refrigerant, respectively.

Especially in two-phase injection, the intermediate pressure is an important parameter

affecting the injected mass flow rate and the heat transfer in internal heat exchanger. To

make the conclusions more general, the relative intermediate pressure is defined as the

ratio of the intermediate pressure to the geometric mean value of suction pressure and

discharge pressure of compressor (Ma and Chai, 2004), which is given by equation (5):

pint
β= (5)
psuc • pdis

where pint is the intermediate pressure, psuc is the suction pressure and pdis is the

discharge pressure.

In this research, the effects of different methods on the theoretical system performance is

evaluated, which means the evaporating temperature and the condensing temperature

keep same under the same working condition. It’s the important basis of further system

performance evaluation.

The cooling capacities of three cycles can be calculated by equation (6):

Q& e = meva ( heva ,out − heva ,in ) (6)

It need be mentioned that, in the two-phase suction cycle and liquid injection cycle, the

specific enthalpy at the inlet of the evaporator heva ,in equals to the specific enthalpy at

the outlet of the condenser hcon ,out , but for the two-phase injection cycle, the refrigerant is

further subcooled in the internal heat exchanger and heva ,in is calculated as following:

heva ,in = hcon,out − minj ( hinj − hcon,out ) / meva (7)

4. Results and discussion

As illuminated in Fig.5, the operating envelope of scroll compressor is affected by many

factors, such as mechanical structure deformation, lubricants pyrolysis in high

temperature, instability of the scroll, overload of the motor, performance degradation of

the lubricating system, largely decrease of the thermodynamic performance, and so on.

The R32 has a close thermodynamic properties with R410A but the discharging

temperature. So the well-developed R410A scroll compressor will work well for the R32

in the operating envelope except in the region with high discharge temperature. Fig.5

presents the test operating envelopes of the same scroll compressors using R32 and

R410A, respectively. It is obvious that operating envelope of R32 compressor is largely

narrowed by approximately 10°C in condensing temperature. So, by the effective control

of the discharge temperature, the R410A compressor can be used in the R32 applications,

which means the operating envelope of the R32 scroll compressor can be same as R410A

scroll compressor. So this work mainly investigates the effect of different methods and

parameters on envelope lines controlled by the discharge temperature. The evaporating

temperature range for the adopted compressor is from -20°C to 15°C and condensing

temperature ranging is from 25°C to 65°C.

 Fig. 5. Limiting factors and operating envelopes of the scroll compressor using R32 and
R410A.

4.1. Two-phase suction

In two-phase suction, the liquid refrigerant from the condenser outlet is directly injected

into the suction line to adjust the enthalpy of the suction refrigerant. By lowering the

suction thermodynamic quality to a certain degree, within the scroll compressor’s ability

to handle liquid slugging, it is possible to reduce the discharge temperature of R32

compressor.

4.1.1. Effects on discharge temperature and performance

Fig. 6 (a~d) illustrates the variations of discharge temperature, injection ratio, relative

cooling capacity and relative power consumption of R32 scroll compressors with various

suction qualities. The evaluation is conducted under three operating conditions with the

condensing temperature of 40°C, 50°C and 60°C, respectively, and the evaporating

temperature is maintained at -5°C. It is clearly observed that the discharge temperature

decreases almost linearly with the decrease of suction refrigerant thermodynamic quality.

In average, discharge temperature decreases by approximately 7°C, 14°C and 22°C by

lowering suction thermodynamic quality to 1, 0.98 and 0.96, respectively. With the

suction thermodynamic quality going down, the two-phase suction obtains greater

potential in decreasing discharge temperature, but it shows a limited impact on cooling

capacity. The cooling capacity increases slightly at first until a suction thermodynamic

quality of around 0.98 and decreases afterwards with the maximum deviation no more

than 1.5%. In addition, the power consumption shows minimal difference in conditions

with the suction thermodynamic quality higher than 0.98. With further lowering of
suction thermodynamic quality, the gas refrigerant compression in the compression

pocket partially becomes two-phase refrigerant compression and the power consumption

continuously decreases.

However, it must be mentioned that two-phase suction in the low-side scroll compressor

probably operates in unsteady state and could reduce the reliability of compressor. When

the thermodynamic quality of suction refrigerant is lower than a certain degree, the

refrigerant is still two-phase after the motor heating (Dash line in Fig.6). In this situation,

the saturated gas will be sucked into the scroll and the liquid will remain in the casing

and accumulates. The compressor will keep a steady state until the liquid level reaches

the suction port of the scroll and the liquid refrigerant is sucked into the scroll pocket in a

large amount, which is quite dangerous due to possible liquid slugging. Moreover, the

accumulation of the liquid refrigerant in the case will lead to amount of refrigerant

dissolving into the oil, which will largely decrease the lubricating effect of the oil and

increase the possibility of mechanical failure. To reduce the risks, it is better to keep the

suction refrigerant thermodynamic quality higher than a safety level in the low-side

compressor.

Fig. 6. Effects of suction thermodynamic quality on the compressor performance (Te=

-5°C).

4.1.2. Operating envelope

To decide the operating envelope of the R32 scroll compressor using different discharge

temperature control methods, 72 conditions are simulated with the step of 5°C for

evaporating temperature and condensing temperature, and bilinear interpolation is used to

generate the contour map for discharge temperature. The conditions with discharge
temperature higher than 135°C are considered to be unacceptable and hence outside the

operating envelope.

Fig. 7 shows the operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different suction

qualities. The envelope of suction refrigerant with superheating of 5°C refers to the

envelope of the R32 scroll compressor without injection. For compressors with suction

qualities maintained at 1.00, 0.95 and 0.90, the envelopes expand by approximately 5°C,

10°C and 20°C in condensing temperature over that without injection. In general, with

lower suction thermodynamic quality, the R32 compressor achieves a wider operating

envelope. To expand the R32 envelope to that as large as R410A envelope, the suction

thermodynamic quality should be lowered to 0.95.

Fig. 7. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different suction qualities.

4.2. Liquid injection

In liquid injection, the liquid refrigerant from the condenser outlet is injected into

compression pocket. As the specific enthalpy of liquid refrigerant is much lower than that

of refrigerant in compression pocket, it is possible to provide internal cooling and reduce

the discharge temperature of compressor.

4.2.1. Effects on discharge temperature and performance

Fig. 8 (a~d) demonstrates the variations of discharge temperature, relative cooling

capacity, relative power consumption and relative COP of R32 scroll compressors with

various injection ratios. With the increase in injection ratio, the discharge temperature

decreases dramatically. For each percentage of liquid injection increased, discharge

temperature decreased by 2.1-2.8°C, which is higher than the decrease in the R22
compressor (Winandy et al., 2002 and Cho et al., 2003). As the latent heat of R32 is high,

R32 compressor enjoys more benefits in decreasing discharge temperature than

compressors utilizing other refrigerants. It is noticed that cooling capacity shows a slight

enhancement of no more than 3% with the increasing injection ratio, which is mainly due

to the reduction of inner leakage caused by the decreasing refrigerant pressure in

compression pocket. The power consumption shows some decrease with the increasing

injection ratio. The reason is also relevant to the lower refrigerant pressure in pocket and

less leakage in wet compression. Hence, the COP is improved by liquid injection by no

more than 6%.

Fig. 8. Effects of liquid injection ratio on the compressor performance (Te= -5°C).

4.2.2. Operating envelope

Fig. 9 shows the operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different injection

ratios. For compressors with injection ratios of 5%, 10% and 20%, the envelopes expand

by approximately 7°C, 12°C and 20°C in condensing temperature over that without

injection. The internal cooling provided by liquid refrigerant is very effective in

decreasing discharge temperature. With the injection ratio of 10%, the envelope is able to

cover most of the conditions with high compression ratios. On the whole, with an 8%

injection ratio, liquid injection is able to guarantee the steady operation of R32 scroll

compressor in the same operating envelope as the R410A scroll compressor.

Fig. 9. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different injection ratios.
4.3. Two-phase injection

In the two-phase injection, the refrigerant is injected into the compression pocket after

heat exchange in the internal heat exchanger. The injected refrigerant could be two-phase

or superheated gas. The injected refrigerant could also provide internal cooling for the

compressor and thereby decrease the discharge temperature.

4.3.1. Effects on discharge temperature and performance

Both the intermediate pressure and the specific enthalpy of injected refrigerant affect the

cooling by two-phase injection. The intermediate pressure influences the mass flow rate

injected into compression pocket, whereas the specific enthalpy determines the cooling

intensity by injected refrigerant. As illuminated in Fig.1(c), the expansion valve 2 can

control the intermediate pressure and the opening of the control valve can control the

specific enthalpy of refrigerant at the injection port.

Fig. 10 presents the variations of discharge temperature, injection ratio, relative cooling

capacity and relative COP of R32 scroll compressors with gas injection ( SH inj =5°C) and

two-phase injection ( x inj =0.8) with various relative intermediate pressures. In general,

the decreases in discharge temperature by gas injection are quite limited and the

decreases by two-phase injection are very effective (7.4°C, 11.2°C and 20.8°C for

condensing temperature 40°C, 50°C and 60°C, respectively). The injection ratio increases

with the increase of intermediate pressure, but two-phase injection obtains higher

injection ratio than gas injection under the same intermediate pressure. Two-phase

injection and gas injection achieve similar enhancements both in cooling capacity and

COP, and the enhancements become more obvious with higher injection ratio. Overall,
the enhancements of cooling capacity by two-phase injection could reach up to

approximately 8%, 11% and 15% in conditions with the condensing temperatures of

40°C, 50°C and 60°C, and the maximum improvements in COP are 0.8%, 2.6% and

6.7%.

Fig. 10. Effects of injected refrigerant states on the compressor performance (Te= -5°C).

Fig. 11 shows the variations of discharge temperature, injection ratio, relative cooling

capacity and relative COP of R32 scroll compressors with various qualities of injected

refrigerant at the relative intermediate pressure of 1.0. With the decrease of injected

refrigerant thermodynamic quality, more liquid refrigerant is injected into the

compression pocket and provides more internal cooling for compressor. The decreases in

discharge temperatures reach up to 12.4°C, 17.6°C and 24.6°C in conditions with the

condensing temperatures of 40°C, 50°C and 60°C with the injected refrigerant

thermodynamic quality of 0.7. It is found that two-phase injection could remarkably

enhance the cooling capacity as gas injection, but the enhancement remains almost

constant with the decrease of injected refrigerant thermodynamic quality. The reason is

that the volume flow rate of gas refrigerant is far larger than that of liquid refrigerant in

two-phase injection, and the flow resistance is mainly decided by gas flow rate. Under the

same intermediate pressure, the gas refrigerant flow rate for different injection

thermodynamic quality are almost the same, which decides the same enhancement in

cooling capacity. The improvement in COP increases gradually due to the decrease of

power consumption by wet compression, and the maximum improvements are 4.1%, 4.9%

and 8.4% in conditions with the condensing temperatures of 40°C, 50°C and 60°C.
 Fig. 11. Effects of injected thermodynamic quality on the compressor performance
(β=1.0 and Te= -5°C).

4.3.2. Operating envelope

Fig. 12 shows the operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different qualities

of injected refrigerant at the relative intermediate pressure of 1.0. The discharge

temperature is extremely high when evaporating temperature is lower than -15°C, the

decrease in discharge temperature by gas injection becomes less effective. In general, the

envelopes of compressors with the injected refrigerant thermodynamic quality of 1.0, 0.8

and 0.6 expand by about 5°C, 10°C and 17°C in condensing temperature over that

without injection. With the thermodynamic quality of injected refrigerant at 0.8, R32

scroll compressor is qualified to cover an envelope as large as that of the R410A

compressor.

Fig. 12. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with various qualities of injected
refrigerant (β=1.0).

4.4. Performance Comparison of the three methods in severe conditions

All three methods show promising capabilities to decrease discharge temperature in

severe conditions. To make a performance comparison of the three methods, four severe

conditions with relatively high compression ratios are selected, as shown in Table 2. By

various methods, the discharge temperature is maintained at 135°C. The performance of

liquid injection is used as the baseline.

Table 2 Four conditions selected for performance comparison of the three methods.
Fig. 13 shows the performance comparison of the R32 scroll compressor with different

methods in four severe conditions. It is obvious that two-phase injection outperforms

liquid injection and two-phase suction in both cooling capacity and COP. In average, the

cooling capacity and COP of two-phase injection with a relative intermediate pressure of

1.0 are enhanced by 11.8% and 4.8%, respectively, over liquid injection.

Fig. 13. Performance comparison of R32 scroll compressor with different discharge
temperature-decreasing methods.

5. Conclusions

R32 is an important alternative refrigerant, but its high discharge temperature has been

the main barrier for wide and quick adoption. In this work, three techniques, namely,

two-phase suction, liquid injection and two-phase injection, are comparatively

investigated to decrease the discharge temperature of the R32 scroll compressor. Through

comprehensive performance investigation, conclusions can be drawn as follows:

(1) All the three methods show excellent potential in decreasing the discharge

temperature of the R32 scroll compressor.

(2) Two-phase injection outperforms liquid injection and two-phase suction in both

cooling capacity and COP by 11.8% and 4.8%, respectively.

(3) In two-phase injection, injected refrigerant thermodynamic quality has little influence

on cooling capacity under the same intermediate pressure, because the effective flow

rate of the gas refrigerant is almost same and the flow resistance is mainly decided by

gas flow rate.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support of the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (Grant No. 51006059) and the National Science Foundation for

Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No.51125030), and we express our thanks

for the support of Commercial Scroll Compressor, Danfoss (Tianjin) Ltd.

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 a) Two-phase suction

b) Liquid injection

c) Two-phase injection

Fig. 1. Schematics and p-h diagrams of the three methods.

Fig. 2. Flow chart of distributed parameter model for scroll compressor.
 1.0

0.8
Motor efficiency (-)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

0 5 10 15 20 25
Power input (kW)

Fig. 3. Variation of motor efficiency with compressor power input.

 16
60 without refrigerant injection
without refrigerant injection

Simulated power consumption (kW)

with liquid refrigerant injection
Simulated cooling capacity (kW)

with liquid refrigerant injection

14
50
12
40
10
30
8
20
6
10
4
10 20 30 40 50 60 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Experimental cooling capacity (kW) Experimental power consumption (kW)
a) Cooling capacity b) Power consumption

Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental and simulated results.

 70
Overload of motor / Damage of shell and tube
65
60
Condensing temperature (°C)

55

Overheat of motor /
Dilution of lubricant
50
45
Degradation of lubricant

40
Envelope for R32
35
Envelope for R410A
30
25
Instability of orbiting scroll
20
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
Evaporating temperature (°C)

Fig. 5. Limiting factors and operating envelopes of the scroll compressor using R32 and
R410A.
 160
0.20
Tc=40°C
Tc=40°C
Tc=50°C
140 Tc=50°C
Discharge temperature (°C)

Tc=60°C
Tc=60°C
0.15

Injection ratio (-)

120

100 0.10

80 0.05

60
0.00
1.02 1.00 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.90 1.02 1.00 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.90
Thermodynamic quality of suction refrigerant (-) Thermodynamic quality of suction refrigerant (-)
a) discharge temperature b) injection ratio
1.10 1.10
Tc=40°C Tc=40°C
Relative power consumption (-)

Tc=50°C Tc=50°C
Relative cooling capacity (-)

1.05 Tc=60°C 1.05 Tc=60°C

1.00 1.00

0.95 0.95

0.90 0.90
1.02 1.00 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.90 1.02 1.00 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.90
Thermodynamic quality of suction refrigerant (-) Thermodynamic quality of suction refrigerant (-)
c) relative cooling capacity d) relative power consumption

Fig. 6. Effects of suction thermodynamic quality on the compressor performance (Te=

-5°C).
 70
65
60
Condensing temperature (°C)

55
50
SHsuc=5℃
Tsup=5℃
45
xsuc=1.00
Xsuc=1
40 xsuc=0.95
Xsuc=0.95
35 xsuc=0.90
Xsuc=0.9

30
25
20
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
Evaporating temperature (°C)

Fig. 7. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different suction qualities.
 160 1.10
Tc=40°C Tc=40°C

Relative cooling capacity (-)

Discharge temperature (°C)

140 Tc=50°C Tc=50°C

Tc=60°C 1.05 Tc=60°C
120

100 1.00

80
0.95

60

0.90
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
Injection ratio (-) Injection ratio (-)

a) discharge temperature b) relative cooling capacity

1.10 1.10
Relative power consumption (-)

Tc=40°C Tc=40°C
Tc=50°C Tc=50°C
1.05 Tc=60°C 1.05 Tc=60°C
Relative COP (-)

1.00 1.00

0.95 0.95

0.90 0.90
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
Injection ratio (-) Injection ratio (-)

c) relative power consumption d) relative COP

Fig. 8. Effects of liquid injection ratio on the compressor performance (Te= -5°C).
 70
65
60
Condensing temperature (°C)

55
50 No injection
Tsup=5℃
45 α=0.05
Xsuc=1

40 α=0.10
Xsuc=0.95

α=0.20
Xsuc=0.9
35
30
25
20
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
Evaporating temperature (°C)

Fig. 9. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with different injection ratios.
 160
0.40 Tc=40°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=40°C, xinj=0.8

0.35 Tc=50°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=50°C, xinj=0.8

140
Discharge temperature (°C)

Tc=60°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=60°C, xinj=0.8

0.30

Injection ratio (-)

0.25
120
0.20

100 0.15

0.10
80 Tc=40°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=40°C, xinj=0.8
0.05
Tc=50°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=50°C, xinj=0.8
Tc=60°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=60°C, xinj=0.8 0.00
60
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
Relative intermediate pressure (-) Relative intermediate pressure (-)
a) discharge temperature b) injection ratio
1.20 1.10

1.15
Relative cooling capacity (-)

1.05
1.10
Relative COP (-)

1.05 1.00

1.00

Tc=40°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=40°C, xinj=0.8

0.95 Tc=40°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=40°C, xinj=0.8
0.95 Tc=50°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=50°C, xinj=0.8 Tc=50°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=50°C, xinj=0.8
Tc=60°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=60°C, xinj=0.8 Tc=60°C, SHinj=5°C Tc=60°C, xinj=0.8
0.90 0.90
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
Relative intermediate pressure (-) Relative intermediate pressure (-)
c) relative cooling capacity d) relative COP

Fig. 10. Effects of injected refrigerant states on the compressor performance (Te= -5°C).
 160
0.40
Tc=40°C Tc=40°C
Tc=50°C 0.35 Tc=50°C
140 Tc=60°C
Discharge temperature (°C)

Tc=60°C
0.30

Injection ratio (-)

120
0.25

100 0.20

0.15
80
0.10
60
1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3
Thermodynamic quality of injected refrigerant (-) Thermodynamic quality of injected refrigerant (-)
a) discharge temperature b) injection ratio
1.15 1.10

1.10
Relative cooling capacity (-)

1.05
Relative COP (-)

1.05
1.00
1.00

Tc=40°C 0.95 Tc=40°C

0.95 Tc=50°C Tc=50°C
Tc=60°C Tc=60°C
0.90 0.90
1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3
Thermodynamic quality of injected refrigerant (-) Thermodynamic quality of injected refrigerant (-)
c) relative cooling capacity d) relative COP

Fig. 11. Effects of injected thermodynamic quality on the compressor performance

(β=1.0 and Te= -5°C).
 70
65
60
Condensing temperature (℃)

55
50
Tsup=5℃
No injection
45
Xsuc=1
xinj=1.00
40 xinj=0.80
Xsuc=0.95

35 xinj=0.60
Xsuc=0.9

30
25
20
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
Evaporating temperature (°C)

Fig. 12. Operating envelopes of R32 scroll compressor with various qualities of injected
refrigerant (β=1.0).
 1.15 1.10

1.10
Relative cooling capacity (-)

1.05

Relative COP (-)

1.05
1.00
1.00

0.95
0.95 Liquid injection Liquid injection
Two-phase injection Two-phase injection
Two-phase suction Two-phase suction
0.90 0.90
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5
Compression ratio (-) Compression ratio (-)
a) relative cooling capacity b) relative COP

Fig. 13. Performance comparison of R32 scroll compressor with different discharge
temperature-decreasing methods.
Table 1
Parameters of the scroll compressor.
Item Value
Basic circle radius (mm) 3.36
Orbiting radius (mm) 5.06
Thickness of the scroll (mm) 5.49
Height of the scroll (mm) 40.60
Initial involute angle (rad) 0
Inner wrap starting angle (rad) 1.33
Outer wrap starting angle (rad) -0.28
Number of the circles 3.00
Radical gap with (μm) 15
Flank gap with (μm) 20
Location of injection ports a (rad) 0.02
Radius of injection ports (mm) 3
a
location of injection ports is relative to the orbiting angle where suction pocket closes.
Table 2
Four conditions selected for performance comparison of the three methods.
Compression ratio
Conditions Te (°C) Tc (°C)
( pdis / psuc )

1 -10 50 5.39
2 -10 55 6.04
3 -15 55 7.21
4 -15 60 8.06