BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of refrigerator technologies, and in particular to, a household refrigerator.

Related Art

Generally, refrigerating devices, such as refrigerators, adjust a temperature by controlling a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant cycle in the refrigeration cycle of the refrigerating device itself. The refrigerator in the prior art discloses a refrigerating cycle, including a compressor for compressing a refrigerant, a condenser for dissipating heat of the refrigerant, a dryer for removing moisture from the refrigerant, and a first evaporator and a second evaporator that are disposed in parallel, thereby controlling the refrigerant to simultaneously flow to the first evaporator and the second evaporator that are disposed in parallel, so that the first evaporator and the second evaporator may simultaneously provide cold air to a freezing chamber or a refrigerating chamber. For details, reference may be made to the Chinese invention with the publication number of CN100480604C.

SUMMARY

One of the problems to be solved by the present invention is how to balance refrigerant supply among a plurality of evaporators in the process of simultaneously refrigerating a plurality of chambers of a refrigerator and simultaneously supplying the refrigerant to the plurality of evaporators, thereby ensuring the refrigerating efficiency of the chambers.

To resolve the above problem, the present invention provides a refrigerating device, including: a chamber, configured to store an article in an environment with a controllable refrigerating temperature; a first evaporator; a second evaporator, providing a refrigerating effect for the chamber, where a resistance to supply of a refrigerant to the first evaporator is greater than a resistance to supply of a refrigerant to the second evaporator; a compressor, configured to increase pressure of the refrigerant; a condenser, configured to cool the refrigerant and condense at least a part of the refrigerant into a liquid refrigerant; a dryer, configured to remove at least a part of moisture contained in the refrigerant, the dryer including: a drying cavity; a desiccant, disposed in the drying cavity to remove moisture from the refrigerant; an inlet pipe, in flow communication with the dryer to introduce the refrigerant into the drying cavity; a first outlet pipe, in fluid communication with the dryer to deliver the refrigerant in the drying cavity to the first evaporator; and a second outlet pipe, in fluid communication with the dryer to deliver the refrigerant in the drying cavity to the second evaporator, where based on a gravity direction, a height of a position of a second inlet of the second outlet pipe on the dryer or in the dryer is greater than a height of a position of a first inlet of the first outlet pipe on the dryer or in the dryer.

In this way, by setting different heights of the first inlet and the second inlet, the liquid refrigerant from the dryer first enters the first outlet pipe through the first inlet and is delivered to the first evaporator, thereby ensuring that the first evaporator having a greater resistance to the supply of the refrigerant obtains the refrigerant first. As the liquid refrigerant in the dryer accumulates to such a level that it can enter the second outlet pipe through the second inlet and be delivered to the second evaporator, the first evaporator and the second evaporator obtain approximately balanced amounts of the discharged liquid refrigerant, so that the plurality of evaporators can simultaneously have the refrigerating effect, thereby greatly improving the refrigerating efficiency of simultaneous refrigeration of different chambers.

Further, a controllable first valve is connected to a flow path between the first outlet pipe and the first evaporator to control whether the refrigerant is delivered to the first evaporator, and a controllable second valve is connected to a flow path between the second outlet pipe and the second evaporator to control whether the refrigerant is delivered to the second evaporator.

Further, the second inlet of the second outlet pipe and the first inlet of the first outlet pipe are disposed at different heights, so that the liquid refrigerant first enters the first outlet pipe through the first inlet during accumulation of the liquid refrigerant in the drying cavity.

Further, the speed of the compressor is adjustable, and the speed of the compressor is adjusted in relation to the temperature of the chamber.

Further, as the speed of the compressor increases, a liquid level of the liquid refrigerant in the drying cavity also rises and is higher than the position of the second inlet of the second outlet pipe.

After the compressor is started to work, the liquid refrigerant gradually appearing in the dryer first enters the first inlet and enters the first outlet pipe, and at the same time, no liquid refrigerant enters the second inlet and enters the second outlet pipe. If the second evaporator does not obtain an enough amount of the refrigerant, the cooling effect declines, and the temperature of the chamber gradually increases. Correspondingly, the speed of the compressor gradually increases, and on the premise that the liquid refrigerant in the dryer is first supplied to the first evaporator, the liquid level of the liquid refrigerant still gradually rises until the level at least exceeds the height of the second inlet. In this case, the liquid refrigerant may also enter the second inlet and be delivered to the second evaporator through the second outlet pipe, thereby meeting a refrigeration requirement of the chamber.

Further, the first outlet pipe and the second outlet pipe extend into the drying cavity separately.

Further, based on the gravity direction, an outlet of the inlet pipe is located below the first inlet of the first outlet pipe and the second inlet of the second outlet pipe, and the first outlet pipe and the second outlet pipe vertically extend into the drying cavity from top to bottom separately.

Further, based on the gravity direction, an outlet of the inlet pipe is located above the first inlet of the first outlet pipe and the second inlet of the second outlet pipe, and the first outlet pipe and the second outlet pipe vertically extend into the drying cavity from bottom to top separately.

Further, the first valve and the second valve can be controlled to stay in the following states: a first state: the first valve is open, the second valve is closed, and the liquid refrigerant flows only to the first evaporator; a second state: the first valve is closed, the second valve is open, and the liquid refrigerant flows only to the second evaporator; a third state: the first valve is open, the second valve is open, and the liquid refrigerant may flow to the first evaporator and the second evaporator simultaneously.

Further, the refrigerating device further includes another chamber for storing an article. The first evaporator provides a refrigerating effect for the another chamber. The another chamber is provided as a refrigerating chamber. The chamber is provided as a freezing chamber. The first evaporator is provided as a refrigerating chamber evaporator. The second evaporator is provided as a freezing chamber evaporator.

When the technical conditions permit, the claimed subject matter of any of the above independent claims may be combined with a single subject matter or a combination of subject matters claimed in any of the appended claims to form a new claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of an arrangement of a refrigerant inlet pipe and an outlet pipe relative to a dryer; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another implementation of an arrangement of a refrigerant inlet pipe and an outlet pipe relative to a dryer.

Reference Numerals: 100-refrigerator; 10-refrigerating system; 11-first valve; 12-second valve; 1 -freezing chamber; 2-refrigerating chamber; 4-compressor; 5-condenser; 6-dryer; 61- housing; 62-drying cavity; 66-desiccant; 63-inlet pipe; 631 -outlet; 64-first outlet pipe; 641 -first inlet; 65-second outlet pipe; 651 -second inlet; 7-freezing chamber evaporator; and 8- refrigerating chamber evaporator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following clearly and completely describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments instead of all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by a person skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a refrigerating device of an implementation of the present invention is provided as a side-by-side refrigerator having two storage chambers that implement refrigeration independently. The refrigerator 100 includes a freezing chamber 1 , a refrigerating chamber 2, a refrigerating system 10, and a control device (not shown in the figure) for controlling the refrigerating system 10. The refrigerating system includes a compressor 4, a condenser 5, and components, such as evaporators and fans, which independently refrigerate the two storage chambers respectively. The control device includes a freezing chamber sensor and a refrigerating chamber sensor (not shown in the figure) that detect storage temperatures of the two storage chambers respectively. The refrigerating system 10 has two refrigerating cycles that independently refrigerate the two storage chambers respectively, and each chamber is capable of independently controlling the temperature. The refrigerating cycle mainly refers to circulating flow of a refrigerant in various components of the refrigerating system. For example, starting from the compressor 4, the refrigerant that releases cold and absorbs heat from the storage chamber is sucked by the compressor 4 in a gaseous form, and is compressed into high-temperature high-pressure steam to enter the condenser 5 through a pipe. The refrigerant in the condenser 5 dissipates heat to outside air, and is condensed into a high-pressure liquid refrigerant. A dryer 6 is installed downstream of the condenser 5, so as to minimize the water content of the refrigerant in the refrigerating cycle. After moisture in the liquid refrigerant is removed by the dryer 6, the liquid refrigerant, split by a first valve 11 and a second valve 12, may flow to a refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 and a freezing chamber evaporator 7 in a controllable manner, to independently refrigerate the refrigerating chamber 2 and the freezing chamber 1 respectively, thereby cooling the two storage chambers. The liquid refrigerant absorbs heat from the storage chambers, vaporizes into a vapor refrigerant and is sucked by the compressor 4. This process is repeated, and the refrigerant enters a next cycle. In this implementation, the temperature of the freezing chamber 1 is normally set to 18 degrees below zero, and the temperature of the refrigerating chamber 2 is normally set to 2 degrees to 6 degrees. An air cooling mode and a direct cooling mode may be used in both the freezing chamber 1 and the refrigerating chamber 2. Both the air cooling mode and the direct cooling mode are cooling modes well known to a person skilled in the art. Details are not described herein again.

The control device may control a flow direction of the refrigerant by controlling the first valve 11 and the second valve 12, thereby achieving independent temperature control of the refrigerating chamber 2 and the freezing chamber 1. Specifically, the control device may control the first valve 11 and the second valve 12 to stay in the following states: a first state: the first valve 11 is open, the second valve 12 is closed, and the liquid refrigerant flows only to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 through the first valve 11 , where in this case, the refrigerating chamber 2 is refrigerated, while the freezing chamber 1 is not refrigerated; a second state: the first valve 11 is closed, the second valve 12 is open, and the liquid refrigerant flows only to the freezing chamber evaporator 7 through the second valve 12, where in this case, the freezing chamber 1 is refrigerated, while the refrigerating chamber 2 is not refrigerated; and a third state: the first valve 11 and the second valve 12 are open simultaneously, and the liquid refrigerant may flow to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 and the freezing chamber evaporator 7 simultaneously through the first valve 11 and the second valve 12, so that the refrigerating chamber 8 and the freezing chamber 7 may be refrigerated simultaneously.

FIG. 2 shows an implementation of an arrangement of a refrigerant inlet pipe and an outlet pipe relative to a dryer 6. The dryer 6 includes a generally vertical cylindrical housing 61. The housing 61 defines a drying cavity 62. A dehumidification desiccant 66 is disposed in the drying cavity 62, so as to remove water from the liquid refrigerant flowing through the drying cavity 62. A refrigerant inlet pipe 63 is in fluid communication with the dryer 6, so as to introduce the refrigerant flowing from the condenser 5 into the dryer 6. A first outlet pipe 64 is in fluid communication with the dryer 6, so as to deliver a to-be-transmitted refrigerant to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8. The first valve 11 is installed downstream of the first outlet pipe 64. Similarly, a second outlet pipe 65 is in fluid communication with the dryer 6, so as to deliver the to-be-transmitted refrigerant to the freezing chamber evaporator 7. The second valve 12 is installed downstream of the second outlet pipe 65.

When both the refrigerating chamber 2 and the freezing chamber 1 have refrigeration requirements and are simultaneously refrigerated, the first valve 11 and the second valve 12 are open simultaneously, so that the refrigerant leaves the dryer 6 and may simultaneously flow to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 and the freezing chamber evaporator 7 through the first outlet pipe 64 and the second outlet pipe 65. Due to different set temperatures and different refrigeration requirements of the freezing chamber 1 and the refrigerating chamber 2, the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 and the freezing chamber evaporator 7 have different operating temperatures. A resistance encountered by the liquid refrigerant that leaves the dryer 6 to be delivered to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 is greater than a resistance encountered by the liquid refrigerant that leaves the dryer 6 to be delivered to the freezing chamber evaporator 7.

Therefore, on the housing 61 or in the drying cavity 62 of the dryer, when a first inlet 641 for the liquid refrigerant to flow into the first outlet pipe 64 and a second inlet 651 for the liquid refrigerant to flow into the second outlet pipe 65 are located at positions of approximately same heights and all other parameters are the same, pressure required for supplying the refrigerant from the dryer 6 to the freezing chamber evaporator 7 is lower than pressure required for supplying the refrigerant from the dryer 6 to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8. The liquid refrigerant leaving the dryer 6 shows a considerable preference to enter the second inlet 651 and flow through the second outlet 65 to the freezing chamber evaporator 7, while the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 is supplied with a relatively small amount of the liquid refrigerant. Therefore, when the refrigerating chamber 2 and the freezing chamber 1 are simultaneously refrigerated, the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 cannot obtain an enough amount of the refrigerant for refrigeration, and the refrigerating efficiency of the refrigerating chamber 2 is extremely low.

In contrast, in this implementation, by setting the first inlet 641 and the second inlet 651 at the positions of different heights, it is sufficient to obtain a preference that approximately balanced amounts of the liquid refrigerant are discharged from the first inlet 641 and the second inlet 651. For one of specific implementations, reference may continue to be made to FIG. 2. Based on a gravity direction, the dryer 6 is disposed generally vertical. The inlet pipe 63 is connected to an upper portion of the housing 61 of the dryer. The first outlet pipe 64 and the second outlet pipe 65 separately pass a lower portion of the housing 61 of the dryer and extend into the drying cavity 62 from bottom to top. An outlet 631 of the inlet pipe 63 is located above the first inlet 641 of the first outlet pipe 64 and the second inlet 651 of the second outlet pipe 65, and a height at which the first inlet 641 is located is lower than a height at which the second inlet 651 is located.

When both the refrigerating chamber 2 and the freezing chamber 1 have the cooling requirements and are simultaneously refrigerated, the compressor 4 is stated to work, and the refrigerant flows in the refrigerating cycle. The first valve 11 and the second valve 12 are open simultaneously, so that the refrigerant leaves the dryer 6 and may simultaneously flow to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 and the freezing chamber evaporator 7 through the first outlet pipe 64 and the second outlet pipe 65. When the compressor 4 works at a starting speed, the liquid refrigerant accumulates in the drying cavity 62 and first enters the first inlet 641 and is delivered to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 through the first outlet pipe 64, thereby first ensuring that the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 obtains a sufficient amount of the refrigerant during working. In this case, the freezing chamber evaporator 7 does not obtain the liquid refrigerant. The storage temperature of the freezing chamber 1 increases gradually. The control device correspondingly adjusts the speed of the compressor 4 as the storage temperature of the freezing chamber 1 increases, to accelerate the circulation of the refrigerant. As the liquid refrigerant accumulated in the drying cavity 62 satisfies the supply to the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8, the liquid level of the remaining liquid refrigerant in the drying cavity 62 can continue to rise and is at least higher than the position of the second inlet 651. The liquid refrigerant can start to enter the second inlet 651 and be delivered to the freezing chamber evaporator 7 through the second outlet pipe 65, thereby meeting the refrigeration requirement of the freezing chamber 1. Therefore, the freezing chamber evaporator 7 and the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 obtain approximately balanced amounts of the liquid refrigerant discharged from the dryer 6, so that the two evaporators can simultaneously have the refrigerating effect. The refrigerating requirements of the freezing chamber 1 and the refrigerating chamber 2 are met simultaneously, thereby greatly improving the refrigerating efficiency of simultaneous refrigeration of the freezing chamber 1 and the refrigerating chamber 2.

FIG. 3 shows another implementation of an arrangement of a refrigerant inlet pipe and an outlet pipe relative to a dryer 6. As shown in FIG.3, this implementation is different from the foregoing implementation in that: based on the gravity direction, the dryer 6 is disposed approximately vertically. The first outlet pipe 64 and the second outlet pipe 65 separately pass the upper portion of the housing 61 of the dryer and extend into the drying cavity 62 from top to bottom. The inlet pipe 63 is connected to the lower portion of the housing 61 of the dryer. The outlet 631 of the inlet pipe 63 is located below the first inlet 641 of the first outlet pipe 64 and the second inlet 651 of the second outlet pipe 65, and the height at which the first inlet 641 is located is higher than the height at which the second inlet 651 is located. Therefore, the freezing chamber evaporator 7 and the refrigerating chamber evaporator 8 also obtain approximately balanced amounts of the liquid refrigerant discharged from the dryer 6, so that the two evaporators can simultaneously have the refrigerating effect. The refrigerating requirements of the freezing chamber 1 and the refrigerating chamber 2 are met simultaneously.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments enables a person skilled in the art to implement or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments are obvious to a person skilled in the art, and the general principles defined in this specification may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated in the present invention, but needs to conform to the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed in the present invention.