BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a fluid flow control system for use with a heat exchange apparatus comprising a system charge control device to regulate the active charge of refrigerant in the system and the flow of refrigerant between the condenser and evaporator.

Description of the Prior Art

Numerous heating and cooling apparatus have been developed for use with fluorocarbon refrigerants such as Freon. In such systems the three major components, compressor, condenser and evaporator, require certain refrigerant conditions in order to operate at optimum efficiency. For optimum efficiency the compressor requires a dry or totally evaporated refrigerant with little or no superheat at the compressor inlet. The condenser requires the refrigerant outlet pressure to be just sufficient to force all fluid to condense or become liquid just as the refrigerant reaches the outlet or a point near the outlet if subcooling is desired. The evaporator should, on the other hand, receive only liquid refrigerant at the evaporator inlet. Evaporation should be complete just as the refrigerant reaches

the outlet. In this condition, the evaporator is said to be "flooded". However, no unevaporated refrigerant should leave at the outlet.

In conventional refrigeration systems, refrigerant flow controls have many shortcomings which cause inefficient operation of the three major components described above. For example, thermal expansion valves control the output of the evaporator and input to the compressor inefficiently as the superheat at the compressor inlet, evaporator outlet is held at about 12 degrees F. Such valves are wholly unable to control conditions in the condenser. Electric expansion valves exhibit similar shortcomings except that they are able to hold the superheat at the compressor inlet closer to the desired 0 degrees F. Both thermal and electric expansion valves are unable to control systems with relatively long evaporators such as long supermarket coolers and earth tap evaporators, as these systems "hunt" wildly.

Capillary tubes, "automatic* expansion valves and fixed orifices control the conditions in all three major components very inefficiently. This is especially true in systems having condensers and/or evaporators with wide temperature and pressure excursions during each run cycle.

With conventional flow controls "blow-through" of uncondensed vapor at the condenser outlet is not uncommon. Conventional flow controls are unable to provide fixed subcooling including zero subcooling in the condenser or to provide a continuously flooded evaporator without returning unevaporated refrigerant to the compressor.

SgHHARY OF TSE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide subcooling and blow-through control, and to maintain liquid refrigerant flow from the condesnor at exactly the rate at which the condenser and the entire system is able to produce liquid condensate.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide a constant smooth flow of liquid refrigerant to the evaporator and a constant smooth flow of vapor refrigerant, of low superheat, from the evaporator to the compressor providing an efficient, effective and reliable fluid flow control system. In short, it is an object of the invention to provide the desired optimum refrigerant conditions at the condenser, evaporator and compressor at all times during operation.

The present invention relates to a fluid flow control system comprising a system charge control device for use in combination with a heat exchange apparatus including a first heat exchanger to extract heat, a compressor, and a second heat exchanger to provide heat.

The system charge control device comprises a thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir. The inlet portion of the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir is in fluid communication with the outlet of the second heat exchanger or evaporator while the outlet portion of the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir is in fluid communication with the inlet of the compressor.

Refrigerant reaching the inlet is made to pass through the liquid stored therein to trap any liquid refrigerant or to evaporate some of the stored liquid if the arriving refrigerant is superheated.

A vertical evaporator tube may be directly coupled to the inlet of the system charge control device. The vertical evaporator tube is in fluid communication with the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir through an opening to the evaporator tube disposed such that the liquid level in the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir and the vertical evaporator tube are substantially the same. The refrigerant charge in the system is such that when the system is operating the liquid level in the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir, and therefore in the evaporator tube, is such that refrigerant reaching the inlet of the reservoir must pass through the liquid stored therein before exiting. Whenever vapor entering at the inlet tube is superheated, meaning the system is undercharged and the evaporator is not "flooded," the superheated vapor bubbles through the liquid in the evaporator tube, thereby evaporating some of the liquid, reducing the superheat of the vapor and placing more refrigerant in circulation in the system. This process continues until the evaporator becomes "flooded" and equilibrium is reached when refrigerant vapor at zero superheat and containing no unevaporated refrigerant reaches the inlet of the system charge control device. In the event that the system is overcharged and the evaporator becomes over-flooded and

liquid in form of mist or droplets begins to arrive within the vapor at the inlet of the system charge control device, the tiny droplets or mist are trapped in the liquid within evaporator tube.

Thus, it can be seen that the system charge control device serves to prevent any liquid or unevaporated refrigerant from reaching the compressor, serves as a liquid reservoir to supply the varying active refrigerant charge requirements of the system and serves to evaporate refrigerant as necessary to keep the evaporator flooded and prevent the building of superheat at the compressor entrance, while continuously passing the compressor oil entrained in the refrigerant.

While the preferred embodiment following herein utilizes the present invention in an application where conventional flow devices cannot function properly, it is to be understood that the present invention will also provide improvement in efficiency in applications where conventional flow devices are normally applied, such as in air conditioning, heat pumps and refrigeration systems, and will greatly simplify many of such applications.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the fluid flow control system with the heat exchange apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of the system charge control device.

FIGS. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of an alternate system charge control device.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional side view of the vertical evaporator tube and liquid/vapor inlet tube.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of the liquid flow control device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention relates to a fluid flow control system comprising a system charge control device generally indicated as 2 for use in combination with a liquid flow control device generally indicated as 4 and a heat exchange apparatus including a first heat exchanger (condenser) 6 to extract heat from the apparatus, a compressor 8 and second heat exchanger (evaporator) 10 to provide heat.

As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid flow control device 4 comprises an enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 including a first liquid port 14 in fluid communication with the lower or outlet portion of heat exchanger 6 and a second liquid port 16 in fluid communication with the second heat exchanger 10 through a liquid conduit 18.

As shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, the system charge control device 2 comprises an enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 20 holding liquid refrigerant 68. The lower portion of the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 20 is in fluid communication with the outlet of the second heat exchanger 10 through a liquid/vapor inlet port 22, liquid/vapor inlet tube 24 and a vapor conduit 26. Reservoir 20 is in fluid communication with the compressor 8 through a vapor outlet port 28, a vapor outlet tube 30 and a vapor conduit 32 (FIG. 1). In this embodiment the entire enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 20 is thermally enclosed in an insulating covering or thermally encapsulating material 34.

To accommodate heat exchanger apparatus of relatively large refrigerant requirements, the thermally encapulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 20 may comprise a lower enlarged portion 36 and an upper reduced portion 38 to provide proper vapor flow. A liquid evaporating means disposed within reservoir 20 comprises a vertical evaporator tube 40 including liquid entrance 42, a liquid/vapor inlet port 44, a liquid/vapor outlet port 46. With respect to the evaporator tube 40, what is meant by "vertical" is that the liquid/vapor outlet port 46 is oriented to discharge the liquid/vapor mixture in a generally

vertical direction, it being obvious that, so long as the liquid entrance 42 is below the surface of liquid 68, numerous other configurations of the evaporator tube 40 are fully equivalent. A fluid velocity reducing means comprising a liquid/vapor deflector member 48 is coupled to the upper portion of the vertical evaporator tube 40 by an interconnecting member 50 adjacent the evaporator outlet port 46. The liquid/vapor deflector member 48 deflects or redirects the vertical movement of refrigerant rising within the vertical evaporator tube 40 radially outward into the upper reduced portion 38 (FIG. 3).

As best shown in FIG. 5, the liquid flow control device 4 comprises the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 having a liquid metering means disposed within. The liquid metering means comprises a hollow float 52 and a movable metering member 54 disposed in variable restrictive relationship to a liquid metering orifice 56. Affixed to the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 is a liquid inlet tube or port 58 in fluid communication with the lower or outlet portion of the first heat exchanger 6. The liquid metering orifice 56 through a liquid outlet tube or port 60 is in fluid communication with the second heat exchanger 10 through the liquid conduit 18. The movable metering member 54 comprises an arcuate lower element 62 pivotally attached to a mounting member 64 by interconnecting element 66.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, refrigerant entering the liquid flow control device 4 through the liquid inlet port 58 and leaving through the liquid metering orifice 56 will be greatly

restricted when the hollow float 52 is supported only by the bottom of the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 and the movable metering member 54 is in maximum restrictive relationship with the liquid metering orifice 56. As a result, pressure increases in the first heat exchanger 6 and condensation of vapor within the first heat exchanger 6 increases until only liquid reaches the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 through the liquid inlet port 58. As such liquid increases the liquid level in enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12, hollow float 52 rises correspondingly. The movable metering member 54 then moves to a less restrictive relationship with the liquid metering orifice 56. This allows the rate of liquid flow through the liquid metering orifice 56 to increase as the liquid level increases, until equilibrium is reached when the rate of liquid flow through the liquid metering orifice 56 equals the rate that liquid is produced in condenser 6.

In the event any substantial amount of vapor reaches enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 through the liquid inlet port 58, the liquid level in the enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12 is forced downward. As a result the level of the hollow float 52 drops and movable metering member 54 moves into an increased restrictive relationship with the liquid metering orifice 56. Such increased restriction again increases the pressure at the outlet of the first heat exchange 6 with the result that more liquid and less vapor is allowed to reach reservoir 12 through the liquid inlet port 58. This causes the hollow float 52 to again move upward and the movable metering metering member 54 to

ove to a lesser restrictive relationship with the liquid metering orifice 56 until equilibrium is restored.

Conversely, if no vapor reaches reservoir 12 the vapor therein will gradually condense, allowing the hollow float 52 to rise so that metering member 54 moves to a lesser restrictive relationship with the liquid metering orifice 56. This causes the rate of flow of liquid out through the liquid metering orifice 56 to increase until the liquid level decreases to the point that a very small amount of vapor enters reservoir 12 to again force the hollow float 52 downward until equilibrium is again restored. Thus, it can be seen that, in operation, no vapor can pass through the liquid flow control 4, and all vapor from the compressor 8 is forced to condense within the first heat exchanger 6 except the miniscule amount that condenses within enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 12. ^*

In operation, the thermally encapsulated enclosed liquid/vapor reservoir 20 surrounded with thermal encapsulating material 34 retains a variable amount of liquid refrigerant 68 stored therein. The liquid/vapor inlet tube 24 is located such that refrigerant arriving from the evaporator 10 is discharged into reservoir 20 below the level of the stored liquid refrigerant. The thermal encapsulating material 34 around reservoir 20 causes the temperature of the liquid refrigerant 68 within to move rapidly toward the temperature dictated by the suction pressure imposed upon reservoir 20 by the compressor 8. The operating temperature of the liquid refrigerant 68 within

reservoir 20 is directly proportional to the suction pressure of the compressor 8. The level of liquid refrigerant 68 within the reservoir 20 and evaporator tube 40 is maintained substantially the same through the liquid entrance 42. While the entrance 42 is shown in this embodiment as an orifice through the wall of evaporator tube 40, it could be formed equally well by other, equivalent structure, such as by spacing the lowermost portion of evaporator tube 40 above the bottom of reservoir 20, or by numerous other functionally equivalent structures.

When the system has the proper active charge in circulation through the apparatus, the refrigerant arriving at the liquid/vapor inlet port 22 will be "saturated". This means that the refrigerant is totally vapor without superheat. In this instance, the refrigerant vapor bubbles upward through the stored liquid refrigerant 68 that is at the same temperature and exists the vapor outlet port 28 without change. It should be noted that this can only occur when evaporation becomes complete at the outlet of the evaporator 10, which means that the evaporator 10 is flooded.

However, if for any reason evaporation is not complete at the exit of the evaporator 10, the unevaporated liquid is carried into the system charge control device 2 and trapped by the liquid refrigerant 68 therein. Trapping the unevaporated liquid effectively removes refrigerant from the active charge (removes it from circulation), and this continues until the refrigerant arriving at inlet port 22 contains no unevaporated droplets or mist and the proper active charge is restored.

Conversely, if for any reason evaporation is complete substantially before the refrigerant reaches the outlet of the evaporator 10, the vapor will take on "superheat" in the remaining portion of the evaporator 10 and conduit 26 and will arrive at the liquid/vapor inlet port 22 in a superheated condition. Superheated vapor bubbles passing upward through the cooler stored liquid refrigerant 68 causes some of the stored liquid to evaporate and leave through vapor outlet port 28 as a vapor in active circulation. This continues until the additional active charge is just sufficient to "flood" the evaporator 10 and provide unevaporated refrigerant up to the exit of the evaporator 10 and inlet port 22 of system charge control device 2. As a result the proper active system charge is restored.

In systems where the condenser 6 gradually heats up during the run cycle, the back pressure to the compressor 8 increases, and more refrigerant is required in active circulation to provide the higher pressure. In systems where the evaporator 10 gradually cools down during the run cycle less refrigerant is required in active circulation due to the reduced pressure in the evaporator 10. As these changes or any other changes in active charge requirement occur, the correct charge is immediately and continuously restored by the action of the system charge control device 2.

Use of the system charge control device 2 in conjunction with the liquid flow control device 4 provides optimum refrigerant conditions in the condenser 6, evaporator 10 and compressor 8.

When system charge control device 2 is used in conjunction with other liquid flow control devices such as capillary tubes and fixed orifices, the operation of evaporator 10 and compressor 8 is improved as the evaporator 10 is properly "flooded" and compressor 8 receives vapor that is dry but at near zero superheat at all times. In addition, the operation of the condenser 6 will be enhanced by the increased throughput provided by the more efficient compressor 8 and evaporator 10.

Compressor lubricating oil entrained in the refrigerant arriving at the system charge control device 2 through inlet 22 is at first trapped in solution within the liquid in the system charge control device 2. As such trapping continues, the concentration of oil in the liquid increases until oil and vapor bubbles are formed above the surface of the liquid and the bubbles become* entrained in the vapor leaving reservoir 20. Any bubbles containing substantial liquid refrigerant are relatively heavy and fall back into the liquid upon entering the large cross section of vapor above the liquid refrigerant 68. Thus the compressor oil reaches a certain concentration within the liquid 68. The oil is effectively and continuously passed through the system charge control device 2 to return to the compressor 8. A small amount of compressor oil is added to the system to compensate for that amount trapped in the liquid refrigerant 68 in the system charge control device 2.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, and those made apparent from the preceding description are

efficiently attained and since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative of the principles of the invention and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter language, might be said to fall therebetween.