Investigation on output capacity control strategy of variable refrigerant flow air conditioning system with multi-compressor

A set of 14 HP variable refrigerant flow air conditioning system (VRF AC) with multi-compressor has been designed, and the output capacity control strategy of compressor(s) including the switching control model of standard compressor has been built. In the output capacity control model, a certain suction pressure is used as the pressure control target to adjust the output capacity of compressors, and a little pressure fluctuation is taken into account to amend the target pressure. Furthermore, in the compressor switching control model, the most favorable operation frequency region is determined on base of the energy efficiency characteristic and noise characteristic of the compressor. And, in order to solve the large fluctuation problem of the system running and frequent ON-OFF action of the standard compressor, the equal output capacity switching principle can be used to determine the thermo-on and thermo-off switched frequency points, and control the switching process of the compressor. Experiments demonstrate the feasibility of this control strategy to ensure the stability and reliability, improve the energy efficiency and reduce the compressor noise. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.