Experimental investigation on improving defrosting performance of air source heat pump through vapor injection

During the defrosting process in cold regions, the air source heat pump with vapor injection encounters some problems, e.g. long defrosting time and low defrosting efficiency. To solve these problems, a new defrosting strategy through injecting medium-pressure vapor refrigerant into compressor during defrosting process was proposed based on its special structure. Five groups of experiments having different openings of injection electronic expansion valve were designed and conducted to investigate the effect of this defrosting strategy. Results indicate that an optimal opening of injection electronic expansion valve exists during defrosting process with vapor injection. For the experimental air source heat pump, it is 50%. At the opening of less than 50%, the experimental unit can run safely and defrosting performance improves gradually with the opening increase. When the opening increases to greater than 50%, the defrosting process is unsteady. At the optimal opening of injection electronic expansion valve, the defrosting time and power consumption are respectively decreased by 20.61% and 17.98%, while the defrosting efficiency is improved by 6.22%. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

During the defrosting process in cold regions, injecting medium-pressure vapor refrigerant into the compressor of an air source heat pump can effectively improve defrosting efficiency. Experimental results show that an optimal opening of the injection electronic expansion valve exists, leading to reduced defrosting time, power consumption, and improved defrosting efficiency.