Refrigeration cycle apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9523521-B2
Application number	US-201314443125-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2013
Priority date	Nov 16, 2012
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

Abstract

In a dehumidification-air heating mode, a refrigerant circuit is configured such that a refrigerant outlet side of an exterior heat exchanger communicates with a heating side refrigerant suction port of a heating side ejector as a refrigerant decompression means, and that a refrigerant inlet side of an interior evaporator communicates with an outlet side of a heating side diffuser of the heating side ejector. A refrigerant evaporation temperature in the exterior heat exchanger is set lower than that of the interior evaporator by a pressurizing effect of the heating side ejector. Thus, the amount of heat absorption by the refrigerant at the exterior heat exchanger is increased to improve the heating capacity of the air in an interior condenser.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigeration cycle apparatus to be applied to an air conditioner, the refrigeration cycle apparatus comprising:
a compressor compressing and discharging a low-pressure refrigerant;
a heating heat exchanger that heats air to be blown into a space to be air-conditioned, using a high-pressure refrigerant discharged from the compressor as a heat source;
a branch portion that branches a flow of the refrigerant flowing out of the heating heat exchanger;
a heating side ejector that draws a refrigerant from a heating side refrigerant suction port by a suction effect of an injection refrigerant injected from a heating side nozzle portion that decompresses one of the refrigerants branched by the branch portion, the heating side ejector including a heating side pressure-increasing portion that raises a pressure of a mixed refrigerant including the injection refrigerant and a suction refrigerant drawn from the heating side refrigerant suction port;
an exterior heat exchanger that exchanges heat between a refrigerant on a downstream side of the heating side pressure-increasing portion and outside air to evaporate the refrigerant, and allows the refrigerant to flow out toward a side of the heating side refrigerant suction port;
a cooling side decompressor decompressing the refrigerant; and
a cooling heat exchanger that evaporates the refrigerant decompressed by the cooling side decompressor to cool the air before passing through the heating heat exchanger, wherein
in a dehumidification-air heating mode in which the heating heat exchanger reheats the air cooled by the cooling heat exchanger, the other refrigerant branched by the branch portion flows into the cooling side decompressor, and the refrigerant on a downstream side of the heating side ejector and the refrigerant on a downstream side of the cooling side decompressor are drawn into the compressor.

2. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a dehumidification bypass passage that guides the refrigerant flowing out of the cooling heat exchanger to a side of the exterior heat exchanger;
an auxiliary decompressor that decompresses the refrigerant which flows into the exterior heat exchanger via the dehumidification bypass passage; and
a refrigerant circuit switch that switches a refrigerant circuit in which the refrigerant circulates, wherein
the refrigerant circuit switch switches one refrigerant circuit in a serial dehumidification-air heating mode of reheating the air cooled by the cooling heat exchanger with a lower heating capacity than that in the dehumidification-air heating mode, the one refrigerant circuit being adapted to:
allow a part of the refrigerant on the downstream side of the heating side ejector to flow into the cooling heat exchanger via the cooling side decompressor while another part of the refrigerant on the downstream side of the heating side ejector is drawn into the compressor;
decompress the refrigerant flowing out of the cooling heat exchanger by the auxiliary decompressor to allow the decompressed refrigerant to flow into the exterior heat exchanger; and
further interrupt a refrigerant passage leading from the branch portion to the cooling side decompressor.

3. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the cooling side decompressor is a cooling side ejector that includes a cooling side nozzle portion decompressing the other of the refrigerants branched by the branch portion, a cooling side refrigerant suction port that draws a refrigerant by a suction effect of an injection refrigerant injected from the cooling side nozzle portion, and a cooling side pressure-increasing portion raising a pressure of a mixed refrigerant of the injection refrigerant injected from the cooling side nozzle portion and the suction refrigerant drawn from the cooling side refrigerant suction port, and
in the dehumidification-air heating mode, the refrigerant flowing out of the cooling side pressure-increasing portion flows into the cooling heat exchanger, and the refrigerant flowing out of the cooling heat exchanger flows into the cooling side refrigerant suction port.

4. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a gas-liquid separator that separates the refrigerant flowing out of the heating side ejector into gas and liquid phase refrigerants in the dehumidification-air heating mode, wherein
the liquid-phase refrigerant separated by the gas-liquid separator flows into the exterior heat exchanger.

5. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an auxiliary heating bypass passage that guides the high-pressure refrigerant to the cooling heat exchanger; and
a refrigerant circuit switch that switches a refrigerant circuit in which the refrigerant circulates, wherein
the refrigerant circuit switch switches a refrigerant circuit in a strong air heating mode of heating the air both at the heating heat exchanger and the cooling heat exchanger, the refrigerant circuit being adapted to allow the high-pressure refrigerant to flow into both the heating heat exchanger and the cooling heat exchanger, and to interrupt a refrigerant passage leading from the branch portion to the cooling side decompressor.

6. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the heating side ejector includes a heating side body forming the heating side refrigerant suction port and the heating side pressure-increasing portion,
a mixing portion that mixes the injection refrigerant and the suction refrigerant, the mixing portion being provided in a range of an internal space of the heating side body from a refrigerant injection port of the heating side nozzle portion to an inlet of the heating side pressure-increasing portion,
a refrigerant passage defined in the heating side nozzle portion includes a tapered portion in which a refrigerant passage area gradually decreases, and an injection portion that guides the refrigerant from the tapered portion to the refrigerant injection port, and
the heating side nozzle portion is configured to flexibly expand the injection refrigerant to be injected into the mixing portion by adjusting a spreading angle on a section of the injection portion in an axial direction to 0° or more.

7. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the mixing portion is formed in a shape that reduces a refrigerant passage area toward a downstream side of a refrigerant flow.

8. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein a refrigerant passage area of the inlet of the heating side pressure-increasing portion is set smaller than that of the refrigerant injection port.

9. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the heating side ejector includes a swirling space formation member that forms a swirling space in which the refrigerant flowing into the heating side nozzle portion swirls about an axis of the heating side nozzle portion.

10. The refrigeration cycle apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the heating side ejector includes a valve body that changes a refrigerant passage area of the heating side nozzle portion.

11. A refrigeration cycle apparatus to be applied to an air conditioner, comprising:
a compressor that compresses a low-pressure refrigerant drawn from a suction port and discharges a high-pressure refrigerant from a discharge port the compressor including an intermediate pressure port that allows an intermediate-pressure refrigerant in a refrigerant cycle to be introduced and to be merged with the refrigerant being compressed;
a heating heat exchanger that heats air to be blown into a space to be

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Awa Ryoko
• Nishijima Haruyuki
• Takano Yoshiaki
• Yamada Etsuhisa
• Itoh Satoshi
• Kayano Kenta

Classifications

• F25B41/00 Primary

  Fluid-circulation arrangements · CPC title

• B60H2001/3298

  Ejector-type refrigerant circuits · CPC title

• F25B2341/0015

  using two or more ejectors · CPC title

• B60H1/00921

  where the flow direction of the refrigerant does not change and there is an extra subcondenser, e.g. in an air duct · CPC title

• F25B2341/0011

  Ejectors with the cooled primary flow at reduced or low pressure · CPC title