Refrigerant Compressor Motor Cooling via Gas-Liquid Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Refrigerant compressors face issues with motor efficiency due to high temperatures, leading to decreased refrigeration capacity and complex, costly configurations for cooling, especially in high-rotation and high-circulation scenarios, where gas-liquid separation is challenging.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerant compressor design with a sealed vessel, a compression mechanism, a motor, a suction pipe, and a cover that forces refrigerant to collide for gas-liquid separation, allowing liquid refrigerant to cool the motor coil, while the gas refrigerant is directed to the compression chamber without thermal influence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If refrigerant is cooled by the motor in a low-pressure chamber system, then motor efficiency is improved, but refrigerant density decreases and refrigeration capacity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The sealed vessel is divided into a motor chamber and a compression chamber by a partition wall. The motor chamber allows refrigerant to cool the motor, while the compression chamber maintains high-density refrigerant for compression, separating the cooling function from the compression function to resolve the contradiction between motor efficiency and refrigeration capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The suction port is positioned to introduce refrigerant directly into the compression chamber, extracting the high-density refrigerant from the motor chamber before it can be cooled and diluted. This ensures that the refrigerant used for compression maintains its density and refrigeration capacity while the motor still receives cooling from the refrigerant in the motor chamber
2Quantity of substance
If refrigerant is introduced without thermal influence from the motor, then refrigeration capacity is maintained, but motor temperature increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The sealed vessel is divided into a motor chamber and a compression chamber by a partition wall. The motor chamber allows refrigerant to cool the motor, while the compression chamber maintains high-density refrigerant for compression, separating the cooling function from the compression function to resolve the contradiction between motor efficiency and refrigeration capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The refrigerant serves dual functions: it cools the motor in the motor chamber and provides refrigeration capacity in the compression chamber. By allowing refrigerant to perform both cooling and compression functions in different chambers, the system achieves both motor temperature reduction and refrigeration capacity maintenance
3Quantity of substance
If a rotating gas-liquid separation plate is used, then gas-liquid separation is achieved, but liquid refrigerant merges easily and separation efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The suction port is positioned to introduce refrigerant directly into the compression chamber, extracting the high-density refrigerant from the motor chamber before it can be cooled and diluted. This ensures that the refrigerant used for compression maintains its density and refrigeration capacity while the motor still receives cooling from the refrigerant in the motor chamber
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using a rotating plate that actively pushes liquid outward, the invention uses a stationary partition wall with strategically positioned ports that passively guide gas and liquid in opposite directions based on their density differences, inverting the active mechanical separation approach for a simpler passive separation mechanism
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design prevents refrigerant density decrease, maintains refrigeration capacity, lowers motor temperature for improved efficiency, and is cost-effective with reliable gas-liquid separation without additional cooling circuits.
Implementation Method 1
a cover (117a) that is arranged to face an outlet of the suction pipe (104), to force the refrigerant sucked through the suction pipe (104) to collide against the cover (117a) for gas-liquid separation
Implementation Method 2
to allow liquid refrigerant outputted from the separation to drop on a coil (126) of the motor (102)
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerant compressor (100) includes: a sealed vessel (103); a compression mechanism (101) that sucks refrigerant, sucked in the sealed vessel (103), for compression; a motor (102) that drives the compression mechanism (101); a suction pipe (104) for sucking the refrigerant into the sealed vessel (103) when sucking the refrigerant; a cover (117a) arranged to face an outlet of the suction pipe (104), to force the refrigerant sucked through the suction pipe (104) to collide against the cover for gas-liquid separation, and to allow liquid refrigerant from the separation to drop on a coil (126) of the motor (102); and a suction passage (118) that introduces gas refrigerant from the gas-liquid separation, for which the refrigerant sucked through the suction pipe is forced to collide against the cover (117a), to an inlet of the compression chamber provided in the compression mechanism (101). Thus, a decrease in density of the refrigerant to be compressed, sucked into the sealed vessel (103), can be prevented to prevent a decrease in refrigeration capacity, and the temperature of the motor (102) can be lowered to improve a motor efficiency.