In the conventional system, heat is recovered as sensible heat through liquid anti-freezer circulating in a piping laid underground, but if CO₂ is used as a heat transfer fluid, heat is recovered as latent heat which increases the capacity and enables to promote downsize of the equipment and reduction of the electric consumption. It also enables the diameter or the length of heat recovery piping for the same heat exchange performance, thus the installation cost of the piping would be reduced. In our study, a geothermal recovery system using CO₂ for air-conditioning was installed, and the heating capacity and the electric consumption were measured. Also, those of a conventional propylene-glycol system were measured. As a result, the CO₂-system exerted the same heating ability with the propylene-glycol system with a half length of heat recovery piping and a half electric consumption of the propylene-glycol system. And the reduction in the diameter of the CO₂ recovery piping was possible to 50 mm at most to gain more than adequate heating effect.

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An analytical model for mixed lubrication in bearings of reciprocating compressors for refrigerators has been developed and a new bearing which could decrease its friction losses by 20% has been designed. Because friction losses, which are generated in the journal and thrust bearing of our reciprocating compressor, are estimated to be one-third or more of all losses, it is an essential issue to decrease bearing losses to design more efficient compressors. The developed analytical model can calculate the shaft posture which changes during its rotation. Based on this posture, losses due to oil viscosity and solid contact at both the thrust and journal bearing are specified. By using this model, how and how much friction loss is generated in each bearing is clarified. A specific approach to decrease bearing losses is clarified and the validity of the developed model is confirmed by the experiment. By using the model, improvement of performance of our compressor by 2.5% has been achieved.

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The objective of the present study is to develop a correlation applicable to a prediction of an axially local heat transfer coefficient in flow boiling within small diameter tubes. From experimental data of authors obtained previously, it was found that, for the accurate prediction of the heat transfer in small diameter tubes, it was necessary to evaluate precisely the contribution of evaporation heat transfer of thin liquid film around vapor plugs in slug flow, adding to the forced convection heat transfer and nucleate boiling heat transfer. There are, however, only conventional heat transfer correlations which consider any two of the three contributions; forced convection and nucleate boiling in most cases. In this study, a new correlation considering all of three contributions was developed based on data of R 410A by authors and data of other Freons, water and CO₂ by other researchers. In the new correlation, the liquid film evaporation heat transfer is evaluated using liquid film thickness correlated with the Capillary number, the forced convection heat transfer is calculated by use of the Dittus-Boelter correlation and the Lockhart-Martinelli parameter, and the nucleate boiling heat transfer is predicted from the Stephan-Abdelsalam correlation with the suppression factor. The new correlation showed higher prediction performance compared with conventional heat transfer correlations.

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The design limits were examined to determine the lowest temperature for hot water that can be used as a heat source to drive a hot water fired absorption chiller. Advantage was taken of the fact that the cycle calculation method using the minimum temperature difference is quite effective. This minimum temperature difference was the lower of the two temperature differences used to get the logarithmic mean temperature difference that need to design the evaporator, absorber, condenser and generator in an absorption refrigerator. This report proposes a new solution algorithm employing this minimum temperature difference to make a cycle simulation of the hot water fired absorption chiller. It shows the lowest usable temperature for hot water and makes clear the chilled water and cooling water temperature conditions that can provide the lowest temperature.

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To improve rated efficiency and partial load efficiency of gas engine heat pump (GHP), we are developing a new type air-cooled absorption refrigerator which is driven by the engine waste hot water. To shape the compact absorption refrigerator body that was able to be built into the space of a GHP outdoor-unit, an air-cooled sub-cooled adiabatic absorber and flowing liquid film plate type generator were newly developed. Maximum cooling capacity was increased about 20%, rated load COP was increased 40%, and partial load COP was increased 46% or less, as a result of the combination examination of a prototype 8.0kW absorption refrigerator and a 56kW GHP at a laboratory.

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On conventional gas heat pump(GHP), waste heat from gas engine that uses as driving source is emitted into outside. So from the standpoint of efficient use of waste heat, it is assumed that waste heat from gas engine is used as driving source of absorption chiller, and high temperature condensate refrigerant in GHP is subcooled to middle temperature by cold source from absorption cycle, and as a result, GHP makes more efficiency. However, in equipping GHP with absorption cycle, downsizing and high-efficiency of absorption cycle is required. In this study, air-cooled subcooled adiabatic absorber is focused and physical phenomenon in it is analyzed, and finally one perception of the optimized designing is shown.

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