Investigation on the Influence of Refrigerant Charge Amount on the Cooling Performance of Air Conditioning Heat Pump System for Electric Vehicles

The application of air conditioning heat pump (ACHP) in electric vehicles could lead to significant electrical power saving effect. As for an air conditioning heat pump system for electric vehicles, the influence of refrigerant charge amount should be investigated during the design phase. In this study, experimental method was employed to investigate the influence of the refrigerant charge amount on the performance of the ACHP system. The results showed that the refrigerant charge amount had different influence on the refrigerant properties at various locations within the system. The coefficient of performance and pressure-enthalpy diagram were calculated, and showed a close relationship with refrigerant charge amount under different compressor speeds. The degree of subcooling and the degree of superheating were recorded and the critical charge amount was determined by a typical practical test method. In addition, the critical refrigerant charge amount determined by the experimental method was also compared with two typical void fraction correlation models, and the model with consideration of two phase stream reaction of the refrigerant showed a good estimation accuracy on the critical charge amount.