A numerical model for thermal mapping in a hermetically sealed reciprocating refrigerant compressor

In a refrigerant compressor, improvement in performance such as reduction of various electrical and mechanical losses, reduction of gas leakage, better lubrication, reduction of suction gas heating etc. can be achieved by maintaining a low temperature rise inside the compressor. Proper selection and location of an internal over load protector relay, estimation of heat transfer coefficient and winding insulation coefficient are also vital in enhancing the performance. In this context it is necessary to understand the temperature distribution inside a compressor for an optimal design. In this paper, a numerical model has been created and a heat transfer analysis for a hermetically sealed reciprocating refrigerant compressor is presented. The temperature distribution inside the compressor has been obtained taking into consideration the various heat sources and sinks and compared with experimental results. The maximum temperature was observed at the rotor which was 427.5 K. The deviation of the predicted rotor temperature from that of experimental value is 5.5% only. A good agreement was found between experimental results and that predicted in the numerical analysis. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.