Abstract
Ammonia-water absorption refrigeration cycle converts thermal energy input into concentration difference of the refrigerant in solutions, then produces cooling. In the proposed system, refrigerant weak solution and strong solution are separately stored in tanks, which works as heat storage. This study investigated the feasibility of solution storage for thermal storage by dynamical simulation and examined the actual performance of heat release process experimentally. When separated refrigerant and weak solution were put into the evaporator and the absorber respectively cooling effect was observed to have almost steady output. It was also found that the cooling effect clearly depended on the mass flow rate of the refrigerant, which suggests that the heat release process is dominated by mass transfer, not heat transfer. The results reveal that solution storage functions as thermal storage definitely.
