Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 26042610 www.elsevier.

com/locate/enconman

Simulation studies on GAX absorption compression cooler

A. Ramesh Kumar
a

a,*

, M. Udayakumar

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pacheri Sri Nallathangal College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul 624 622, Tamil Nadu, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620 015, Tamil Nadu, India Received 10 December 2005; accepted 29 March 2007 Available online 18 May 2007

Abstract This paper presents simulation studies conducted on a GAX absorptioncompression (hybrid) cycle using ammoniawater as working uid for air conditioning applications. The degassing range of the cycle has been optimized for maximum COP. The eect of absorber pressure on the heat duties of the cycle has also been studied. It is found that the maximum COP occurs at an optimum degassing range of about 0.4 kg of ammonia per kg of strong solution. Comparison of hybrid and conventional GAX cycle was conducted, and it was found that the hybrid GAX cycle has an average of 30% higher value of COP than the conventional GAX cycle. A reasonable agreement is observed between the results and performance parameter trends obtained from the present study and the published results available in the literature. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: GAX; Ammoniawater; Degassing range; Compressionabsorption; Simulation

1. Introduction The GAX (generator absorber exchange) absorption cycle is an elegant way of achieving higher coecient of performance (COP) with a cycle conguration that essentially appears to be a single stage absorption system. In the absorber and generator, the pressures and concentrations are maintained in such a way as to cause a temperature overlap between the absorber and the generator. This provides the possibility that some of the heat of absorption may be rejected to the generator. Several theoretical and experimental works have been performed on the GAX cycle and reported in the literature. Using ABSIM-OSU software Priedeman and Christensen [1] modeled a GAX cycle ammoniawater absorption chiller of 5 ton capacity and calibrated the simulation model using experimental data. In the rst stage, the cycle was optimized by parametric variations. In the second stage, the model was calibrated using the experimental data. The calibrated model was
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 451 247 1502; fax: +91 451 255 4249. E-mail address: aramesh2003@redimail.com (A. Ramesh Kumar).

readjusted to get the desired results in the nal stage. Experimental validation showed a 0.5 percentage dierence of COP value between the simulation and experiment. Staicovici [2] introduced a new method to analyze a polybranched regenerative GAX cycle. NH3/H2OLiBr was selected as a working uid due to its increased solubility at elevated temperatures. The author claims that the three stage polybranched regenerative GAX cycle gives 1.9 times higher COP and 82% of the Carnot cooling eciency for the lift of 47 C. However, economic analysis for the choice of working uid was not justied. Also, The Carnot COP does not address the internal heat exchange in the GAX cycle [3]. Velazquez and Best [4] proposed a methodology to evaluate the thermodynamic performance of an air cooled GAX cycle driven by natural gas and solar energy. For the specied design conditions, they calculated the properties at dierent state points and the energy transfer of the components based on external currents. The methodology also using an iterative procedure for the internal currents and convergence was achieved. The model does not consider the pressure losses. A COP value of 0.86 for cooling

0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2007.03.013

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Nomenclature Q heat ow (kW) f circulation ratio T temperature (C or K) P pressure (kPa) C specic heat (kJ/kg K) W power (kW) U overall heat transfer coecient (W/m2K) A heat exchanger area (m2) CW compressor work (kW) v specic volume (m3/kg) h specic enthalpy (kJ/kg) m mass ow rate (kg/s) rc refrigerant concentration ssc strong solution concentration wsc weak solution concentration e eectiveness of heat exchanger n compression index k clearance ratio RHX condensate pre-cooler GAX generator absorber heat exchange GAX A GAX absorber GAX D GAX desorber PGAX panel heating GAX cycle PSE panel heating single eect cycle

Greek symbols g eciency n degassing range Subscripts a absorber g generator e evaporator p pump c condenser hf hot uid cf cold uid gt total generator rq required at total absorber av available r refrigerant s strong solution w weak solution L liquid V vapour

and 1.86 for heating together with an energy integration of 16.9 kW was obtained for a 10.6 kW cooling capacity. Garimella et al. [5] studied the performance of a GAX heat pump for both cooling and heating modes using the OSU-ABSIM simulation program. It was shown that for a given capacity, the gas input based COP can be maximized based on the UA variation of heat exchanging components of the cycle. Also, it was demonstrated that the choice of desorber bypass fraction primarily depends on the design requirements of the adiabatic analyzer, rather than being based on the potential heat duty matching between the GAX absorber and desorber. A performance simulation considering both the cooling and heating modes as functions of the operating parameters using ABSIM was investigated on a Phillips conguration GAX heat pump by Grossman et al. [6]. They identied the eect on COP of the heat rejection temperature and equilibrium deviations. Three control schemes were attempted to maintain a xed COP. With the assistance of a Lorentz type plot, they arrived at the optimum ow rate of coolant in the GAX heat transfer loop. Kang et al. [7] established a theoretical model for the rectier in the GAX absorption heat pump. Three dierent rectier congurations were considered for study in this work. Their investigations revealed that a minimum temperature dierence between the interface and bulk regions and a high heat transfer coecient in the vapour region reduces the size of the rectier. Hanna et al. [8] analyzed the GAX cycle processes by introducing the pinch point

technique. They showed that by knowing the closeness of the state points of the heat recovery processes, an economic design trade o of cycle components could be achieved. Scharfe et al. [9] analyzed the advantages and limitations of the GAX cycle. An equation for the heat of desorption was derived, and it showed that at any temperature interval, the heat demand in the desorber is higher than the heat supplied by the absorber. It was observed that the exergy losses were high due to the high temperature range of the heat exchange process. Kang et al. [10] developed an advanced GAX cycle for utilization of waste heat, which was called the waste heat GAX (WGAX) cycle. They reported that the generator outlet could be reduced to 172 C with a higher COP of the WGAX cycle than that of the standard GAX (SGAX) cycle. They presented that the corrosion problem in the standard GAX cycle at higher Tg than 200 C could be solved by adopting the WGAX cycle. Sabir et al. [11] studied the GAX-resorption refrigeration cycle model. They showed that the COP of the GAX-resorption cycle is higher than that of the simple absorption and resorption cycle. Although the cost analysis was not reported, it is understood from the discussion that the simple GAX cycle is less expensive and gives a better COP than the GAX-Resorption cycle. Kang and Kashiwagi [12] developed a GAX cycle for panel heating, which was called the PGAX cycle. They studied the eects of UA ratio and coolant split ratio on COP in the PGAX and PSE cycles and concluded that there is an optimum UA ratio that gives the highest COP in the PGAX cycle

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for a given split ratio. For a 17.5 TR capacity, this paper provides the optimum UA values of the absorbers for the split ratio of 0.87. Kang et al. [13] developed four dierent advanced Hybrid GAX cycles. By controlling the pressure of the heat exchanging components, the study showed that a higher COP, very low evaporator temperature with reasonable COP, corrosion minimization at higher generator temperatures and an increase of hot water outlet temperature can be achieved. The above literature review reveals that although many works have been conducted to analyze the performance of the basic GAX cycle, few attempts have been made to modify it. Also, the cost and economic analysis of the GAX cycle are rarely reported. Furthermore, the degassing range (dierence between the masses of the strong and weak solutions), which has the dominant role in the performance of the GAX cycle is not well documented. This particular issue prompted the present work in which a hybrid GAX compressionabsorption cycle is introduced, and the eect on the COP is investigated in terms of degassing range. 2. Description of GAX absorption compression cycle Fig. 1 illustrates the main components of the GAX compressionabsorption refrigeration cycle. The saturated solution is assumed to leave the absorber (1) and the generator (3), and saturated ammonia liquid is assumed to leave the condenser (8). Saturated vapour is assumed to leave the evaporator (11). The condensate pre-cooler subcools the refrigerant that leaves the condenser (8) by preheating the vapour entering the compressor (12). The high pressure cooled liquid refrigerant (8) from the condensate pre-cooler enters the evaporator (10) through an expansion valve that reduces the pressure of the refrigerant to the evaporator pressure. The liquid refrigerant (10) vaporizes in the evaporator by absorbing heat from the room being conditioned, and the resulting low pressure sat-

urated vapour (11) passes to the compressor (12) through the condensate pre-cooler. The compressor is placed between the evaporator and the absorber. The compressor increases the absorber pressure (15) higher than the evaporator pressure. In the absorber, the refrigerant vapour is absorbed by the weak solution coming from the generator (3) through an expansion valve (4) and forms the strong solution (1). The term strong solution represents a solution that is strong with refrigerant (NH3), while weak solution represents a solution that is weak with refrigerant. The strong solution (1) pumped to the generator pressure (2) is introduced into the high temperature part of the absorber, where it receives heat from the absorber, and the refrigerant in it is boiled o in the generator. The remaining solution (3) ows back to the absorber and, thus, completes the cycle. The generator and absorber temperature ranges partially overlap. This overlapped heat is internally transferred from the absorber to the generator. The dotted line (Qgax in Fig. 1) represents the heat exchange between the absorber and generator. 3. Simulation study Simulation was performed to evaluate the hybrid GAX cooling cycle with the assumptions enumerated below: 1. Condenser pressure is the equilibrium pressure corresponding to the refrigerant concentration and the condenser temperature. 2. The condition of the refrigerant at the exit of the evaporator is saturated vapour, and the evaporator pressure is the saturated pressure at evaporator temperature. 3. The refrigerant pressure at the outlet of the reciprocating compressor is the absorber pressure. 4. The approach temperature at either end of the GAX heat exchanger is assumed to 0 K.

Qc 7 Condenser 8 12

Qr 5 Rectifier 6 GAXD 14L Qgax 14V

Qg

Generator 3 Expansion valve 4 13V

RHX P R 9 E S S Expansion U valve R 10 E

17 Pump 1 11

Absorber 15 Qa Compressor CW TEMPERATURE 13L

GAXA

Evaporator

Qe

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of GAX compressionabsorption cycle.

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5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

The eciency of the solution pump is 0.5. The eectiveness of the heat exchanger (RHX) is 0.8. The temperature of evaporator is assumed as 5 C. The condenser temperature varies between 45 C and 30 C in steps of 5 C. The generator temperature varies between 110 C and 170 C in steps of 10 C. The ow through all the components of the cycle is under steady state. Pressure drops within the cycle can be neglected except through the expansion valve. The result of the analysis is ignored whenever the mass ow rate of refrigerant becomes zero or an unrealistic value in any of the state points of the cycle.

The circulation ratio of the system can be derived as f rc wsc=ssc wsc The degassing range is dened as n ssc wsc The strong and weak solutions can be determined as ms f mr mw ms mr 13 14 12 11

The energy balance for the solution heat exchanger is as follows T 9 T 8 e mcf C cf T 8 T 11 =mhf C hf T 12 T 11 e T 8 T 11 The pump power is deduced as 15 16

A computer program to determine the thermodynamic properties of the saturated ammoniawater solutions has been developed based on the correlations of Patek and Klomfar [14]. The relation between the saturation pressure, solution temperature and ammonia concentration of the ammoniawater mixture can also be obtained [15]. The input parameters to the simulation program are the concentration of the refrigerant leaving the rectier, degassing ratio, temperatures of condenser, evaporator and generator, compressor parameters, eciency of the pump and the eectiveness of the heat exchanger. For a given degassing range and absorber pressure, the simulation program is capable of determining the rate of heat that has to be added or rejected from each component of the cycle as well as the COP at dierent generator temperatures. In the following section, equations based on the mass, energy and concentration balance of each component of the cycle is presented. For the desorber, the mass and energy balances yield: m2 m6 m5 m3 m2 h2 m6 h6 Qgt m5 h5 m3 h3 m2 m6 m14V m5 m14L m2 h2 m6 h6 m14V h14V Qrq m5 h5 m14L h14L For the absorber, the mass and energy balances yield: m1 m15 m4 m1 h1 m2 h2 Qat m15 h15 m4 h4 m17 h17 m13L m13V m4 m13L h13L Qav m13V h13V m4 h4 The mass ow rate of refrigerant is calculated as mr V p gv =vr The evaporator heat load is calculated as Qe mr h11 h10 10 9 5 6 1 2

W p P c P a vc mr =gp h17 h1 W p =mr Energy balances for the condenser yield Qc m7 h7 h8

17 18

19

The compression of refrigerant vapour is assumed a polytropic process. So the compression work can then be calculated as CW mr P e vr n=gv n 1 P a =P e
n1=n

20

The volumetric eciency can be expressed as gv 1 k kP a =P e

1=n

21 22

The coecient of performance of cycle is (COP) COP Qe =Qg W p CW 4. Validation of the model To validate the simulation model, the results and the parameter proles are compared with the simulation work presented in the literature [13]. From Fig. 5, it can be seen that at constant desorber and evaporator pressures (1790.3 and 516.87 kPa, respectively), the generator heat supply shows a fast decreasing trend, and the compressor work shows a gradually increasing trend with absorber pressure and, hence, cause an increase in the value of COP with increasing absorber pressure. Kang et al. [13] showed that at constant desorber and evaporator pressures (1900 and 460 kPa, respectively), the cooling COP of the hybrid GAX system increases with increasing absorber pressure. Thus, it is proved that the simulated COP proles in this work match well with the COP proles obtained from the OSU-ABSIM simulation work. Though the previous work claims that the COP increase that could be achieved is 24% higher than the standard GAX cycle, the present study predicts it as about 30% higher than the standard GAX cycle. This dierence is mainly due to the number of idealized

For the GAX desorber, the mass and energy balances yield: 3 4

For the GAX absorber, the mass and energy balances yield 7 8

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1.8 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.4 Tg = 170 oC Tg = 160 oC Tg = 150 oC Tg = 140 oC Tc = 40 oC Te = 5 oC Pa = 916.87 kPa

assumptions made in the model. Further, the simulation model for the conventional GAX cycle also is compared with the simulation work presented in literature [16]. For a given set of input parameters (Tg = 163.3 C, Tc = 40 C, Ta = 40 C, Te = 5 C, Pa = 1548.0 kPa, Pe = 478.4 kPa and n = 0.35), the simulation of Ref. [16] predicts the COP value of 1.10, and the present simulation model for the conventional GAX cycle predicts the COP value as 1.08. The heat duties of the components are also compared and excellent agreement is obtained. 5. Results and discussion The coecient of performance is the ratio between the cooling capacity of the refrigeration system to the heat load added to the generator and power supplied to the pump and compressor. The mathematical expression is given by Eq. (22). Fig. 2 shows the COP variation as a function of the degasing range for various generator temperatures. The pressures of the desorber, evaporator and absorber are kept constant as 1555.18 kPa, 516.87 kPa and 716.87 kPa, respectively. The degassing range at which the COP attains maximum value for each generator temperature is denoted as the optimum degassing range. Fig. 3 represents the COP variation at higher absorber pressure (916.87 kPa) keeping all the other parameters constant. It can be deduced from Figs. 2 and 3 that increasing the absorber pressure increases the COP for each degassing range, and the higher COP value occurs in the lower degassing range. Along the studied range of absorber pressure and evaporator temperature, the optimum degassing range varies in the amount of 0.05 about the mean value of 0.4. This result is most signicant in the context of designing and running the system. The circulation ratio is dened as the mass ow rate of the strong solution required to be circulated in the solution loop in order to circulate a unit mass ow rate in the refrigerant loop. The mathematical expression is given in

COP

1.3 1.2 Tg = 110 oC 1.1 1.0 Tg = 120 oC Tg = 130 oC 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 3. Variation of COP with various generator temperatures.

4.5
o o

Tc = 40 C Te = 5 C Pa = 916.87 kPa

4.0 Tg = 170 oC Tg = 160 oC Tg = 150 oC 3.0 Tg = 140 oC Tg = 130 oC

3.5

CIRCULATION RATIO

2.5

2.0

Tg = 120 oC Tg = 110 oC

1.5

1.0 0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 4. Variation of circulation ratio with various generator temperatures.

1.50 1.45 1.40 1.35 1.30 1.25 1.20

Tc = 40 oC Te = 5 oC Pa = 716.87 kPa Tg = 170 oC Tg = 160 oC Tg = 150 oC Tg = 140 oC

1.15 1.10 1.05 1.00 0.95 0.90 0.85 0.80 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 Tg = 110 oC Tg = 120 oC Tg = 130 oC

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 2. Variation of COP with various generator temperatures.

Eq. (11). The degassing range aects the value of circulation ratio. As shown in Fig. 4, at the minimum value of degassing range, the circulation ratio starts with a large value. At a generator temperature of 110 C, 0.03826 kg/s of strong solution is circulated in order to evolve 0.01175 kg/s of refrigerant vapour. With rising degassing range, the concentration of the strong solution increases and the circulation ratio decreases. When Tg increases, the weak solution concentration decreases. At constant degassing range, this leads to a decrease in the strong solution concentration. Further, it increases the absorber temperature. In order to maintain the refrigerant ow rate constant, the mass ow rate of the strong solution is to be increased. However, the circulation ratio increases with the strong solution ow rate for a constant refrigerant ow rate. Increasing the absorber pressure at constant degassing range increases the absorber temperature. This increases the temperature glide in the absorber and desorber heat exchangers, resulting in the rise of heat availability in the absorber and the heat required in the desorber as shown in Fig. 5.

COP

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Qrq 18 16 14 Qav Tg = 150 oC Tc = 45 oC Te = 5 oC

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21 20 19 18 17 16
Qe Qc

Qrq Hybrid Pa = 916.87 kPa Qav Hybrid Pa = 916.87 kPa

Qrq conventional Pa = 516.87 kPa Qav conventional Pa = 516.87 kPa Tg = 150 oC Tc = 40 oC Te= 5 oC

HEAT DUTY (kW)

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 CW Pe = 516.87 kPa Pc = 1790.3 kPa Qa Qg

HEAT DUTY (kW)

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60

ABSORBER PRESSURE (kPa)

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 5. Variation of heat duty with various absorber pressures.

Fig. 6. Variation of heat duty with various degassing ranges.

Tg = 150 oC Tc = 40 oC Te = 5 oC

The heat availability is the rate of heat supplied to generate the refrigerant vapour in the GAX desorber from the GAX absorber. The mathematical expression is given in Eq. (8). The heat required is the rate of heat needed to generate the refrigerant vapour in the GAX desorber. The mathematical expression is given in Eq. (4). The increases of mass ow rate at state point 13v results in the increases of heat availability in the absorber, and the decreases of mass ow rate at state point 14v results in the increases of heat required in the desorber. The rate of the increment of heat availability is higher than the rate of the increment of heat requirement, causing the COP of the hybrid cycle to be high. Although the compression work required to run the compressor increases with absorber pressure, the internal heat recovered by the GAX cycle subdues the compressor eect, and the COP increases. The absorber pressure increment reduces the mass ow rate of refrigerant and, in turn, causes the reduction of evaporator capacity. This can also be deduced from Fig. 5. Within the assumed range of absorber pressure, the mass ow rate of refrigerant varies from 0.01116 kg/s to 0.01194 kg/s. The dependence of Qav and Qrq on the degassing ranges for the conventional and hybrid GAX cycles are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that at constant refrigerant ow rate, the Qav value in the hybrid GAX is 8.9 kW higher than that in the conventional GAX when the degassing range is 0.2. Despite the fact that Qrq also increases correspondingly, the total heat requirement in the generator (Eq. (4)) is the same for both the cycles. This results in the low COP in the conventional GAX cycle. If the concentration of X13L is less than the weak solution concentration, the mass ow rate of X13L becomes zero. It decides the lower degassing range in the cycle.

1.6 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.2

COP

1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.15 Hybrid GAX, Pa = 916.87 kPa Conventional GAX, Pa = 516.87 kPa

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 7. Variation of COP with various degassing ranges.

Fig. 7 compares the inuence of the degassing range on the COP for the conventional and hybrid GAX absorption cycles. Approximately 30% of the average increment in COP occurs within the degasing range of 0.20.55. It is also shown in Fig. 7 that the COP of the hybrid GAX starts decreasing when the degassing ratio crosses the value 0.4. It may be referred to the fact that the required mass ow rate at state point 13v in the cycle initially increases and then decrease with the rise of degassing range, and it, in turn, decreases the heat availability. Further, as shown in Table 1, the rate of decrease in mass ow rate is much higher at the higher degassing range. These two eects decrease the COP of the hybrid cycle at higher degassing ranges. In the conventional GAX cycle, the value of COP of 1.1492 is attained in the degassing range of 0.45. In

Table 1 Variation of mass ow rate at state point 13v with degassing range (Tg = 150 C, Tc = 40 C, Te = 5 C, Pa = 916.87 kPa) n m13V 0.2 0.0054 0.25 0.00603 0.3 0.00605 0.35 0.00603 0.4 0.00586 0.45 0.00554 0.5 0.0052 0.55 0.00458

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A. Ramesh Kumar, M. Udayakumar / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 26042610

Tg = 150 oC Tc = 40 oC Te = 5 oC Qg Conventional GAX, Pa = 516.87 kPa Qa Conventional GAX, Pa = 516.87 kPa Qg Hybrid GAX, Pa = 916.87 kPa Qa Hybrid GAX, Pa = 916.87 kPa

HEAT DUTY (kW)

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60

3. The circulation ratio changes inversely with the degassing range. At constant degassing range, increasing the generator temperature increases the circulation ratio, and increasing the absorber pressure has no eect on the circulation ratio. 4. The required COP can be attained in lower degassing ranges in the hybrid cycle, and it can operate successfully utilizing low temperature energy sources. Acknowledgements The author thanks K.E. Herold, R. Radermacher and S.A. Klein, the authors of the book Absorption Chillers and Heat Pumps (CRC Press) for their kindness in supplying published papers and program relating to GAX absorption technology. References
[1] Priedeman DK, Christensen RN. GAX absorption cycle design process. ASHRAE Trans 1999:76979. [2] Staicovici MD. Polybranched regenerative GAX cooling cycles. Int J Refrig 1995;18(5):31829. [3] Keith Herold. Private communications. www.arameshkumar.blogspot. com. [4] Velazquez N, Best R. Methodology for the energy analysis of an air cooled GAX absorption heat pump operated by natural gas and solar energy. Appl Therm Eng 2002;22:1089103. [5] Garimella S, Christensen RN, Lacy D. Performance evaluation of a generatorabsorber heat exchange heat pump. Appl Therm Eng 1996;16(7):591604. [6] Grossman G, DeVault R, Creswick F. Simulation and performance analysis of an ammonia water absorption heat pump based on the generator absorber heat exchange (GAX) cycle. ASHRAE Trans 1995;101(1):131323. [7] Kang YT, Chen W, Christensen RN. Development for design model for a rectier in GAX absorption heat pump systems. ASHRAE Trans 1996;102(1):96372. [8] Hanna WT, Wilkinson WH, Saunders JH, Philips DB. Pinch-point analysis: an aid to understanding the GAX absorption cycle. ASHRAE Trans 1995;101(1):118998. [9] Scharfe J, Ziegler F, Radermacher R. Analysis of advantages and limitations of absorbergenerator heat exchange. Int J Refrig 1986;9:32633. [10] Kang YT, Akisawa A, Kashiwagi T. An advanced GAX cycle for waste heat recovery: WGAX cycle. Appl Therm Eng 1999;19: 93347. [11] Sabir HM, Chretienneau R, Elhag YBM. Analytical study of a novel GAX-R heat driven refrigeration cycle. Appl Therm Eng 2004;24:208399. [12] Kang YT, Kashiwagi T. An environmentally friendly GAX cycle for panel heating: PGAX cycle. Int J Refrig 2000;23:37887. [13] Kang YT, Hong H, Park KS. Performance analysis of advanced hybrid GAX cycles: HGAX. Int J Refrig 2004;27:4428. [14] Patek J, Klomfar J. Simple functions for fast calculations of selected thermodynamic properties of the ammoniawater system. Int J Refrig 1995;18(4):22834. [15] Da-Wen Sun. Comparison of the performances of NH3H2O, NH3 LiNO3 and NH3NaSCN absorption refrigeration systems. Energy Convers Manage 1998;39:35768. [16] Herold KE, Radermacher R, Klein SA. Absorption chillers and heat pumps. New York: CRC Press; 1995. pp. 21232.

DEGASING RANGE

Fig. 8. Variation of heat duty with various degassing ranges.

the hybrid cycle, almost the same COP of 1.143 is attained in the much lower degassing range of 0.2, which is a significant factor of the hybrid GAX absorption cycle. Fig. 8 presents the absorber and generator heat duty on the degassing range for the conventional and hybrid GAX absorption cycles. The rate of heat rejection in the absorber and the rate of heat supplied to the generator in the conventional GAX cycle is high when compared with the hybrid GAX cycle at all degassing ranges. From Fig. 8, it can also be deduced that the higher rate of rejection in the absorber at the higher degassing range causes the reduction in COP in the hybrid cycle. It obviously decides the higher operating degassing range of the hybrid GAX absorption cycle. For the assumed conditions of n = 0.3, Tc = 40 C, Te = 5 C, Tg = 110 C, Pa = 516.87 kPa, the conventional GAX cycle, which is unrealizable, can be accomplished by the hybrid GAX cycle by increasing the absorber pressure. This particular result makes the hybrid cycle suitable for utilizing renewable and waste heat energy sources. 6. Conclusions A hybrid GAX cycle for an aqua ammonia absorption air conditioning system has been introduced and theoretically analyzed, and the results are validated with published work. From the obtained theoretical results, the following conclusions are made: 1. Within the studied range of absorber pressure and generator temperature the maximum COP occurs at the mean value of the optimum degassing ratio of 0.4 with the variation of 0.05. 2. The COP increases with absorber pressure and generator temperature and initially increases then decreases with the degassing range. At the chosen operating parameters, a 30% increase in COP occurs in the hybrid GAX cycle.