Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

PID control for a single-stage transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle

M. Salazar, F. Mndez*
Facultad de Ingeniera, UNAM, Mxico, D.F. 04510, Mexico

h i g h l i g h t s

The PID control is used for a transcritical refrigeration cycle using CO2 as working uid.

We derive two lumped energy balance equations for the evaporator and gas cooler in order to apply control theory.

The non-linear control is more difcult to adopt for the present CO2 refrigeration system.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present work, we develop a closed-loop thermal control analysis of a transcritical refrigeration
Received 29 September 2013 cycle, operating with CO2 as working uid. A compressor, a gas cooler, a throttling valve and an evap-
Accepted 22 March 2014 orator compose the elements of the cycle. We propose a lumped energy balance model to derive a set of
Available online 2 April 2014
non-linear rst order differential equations for the gas cooler and the evaporator, which are the heat
exchangers where the output temperature controllability for each device is tested. The other compo-
Keywords:
nents, i.e., the compressor and the throttling valve are modeled by simplied relationships based on
CO2 transcritical cycle
simple considerations. The resulting governing equations are written in dimensionless form and subject
Lumped model
Thermal control
to two controls criteria. First, we reduce the governing equations to a linear system and the well-known
Refrigeration ProportionaleIntegral-Derivative (PID) control technique is used to nd the best scenarios of control.
Energy balance Second, the non-linear system is analyzed by using a commercial numerical code to improve the general
characteristics of the control. Comparing both methods, we conclude that is more difcult to reach stable
conditions with a linear technique because the overshoots of temperature are more pronounced. In
addition and even when it is easier to control the evaporator, the stable operation of this system can be
drastically modied by the thermal performance of the gas cooler.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Due to the favorable environmental characteristics of CO2 and
that, it is non-toxic, non-ammable and non-global-warming
component, nowadays, this working uid considered as one of
the most promising for replacing HCFCs and HFCs in some refrig-
eration systems. A rationale for exploring new working substances
must take into account the imposed restrictions at conventional
refrigerants due to their inuence on climate change [1e3]. In
addition, the use of carbon dioxide can reduce the pumping power
due to low viscosity. Considering supercritical conditions with high
compression rates, we can obtain smaller volumes conducting to
the design of components of more compact size. In the past decade,
important efforts have been developed for exploring multiple
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 52 55 56 22 81 03; fax: 52 55 56 22 81 06.
E-mail addresses: mendezlavielle@gmail.com, fmendez@unam.mx (F. Mndez).
aspects related with the operation and design of this type of tran-
scritical systems. However, the low efciency for commercial
refrigeration and heat pump applications even today is one of the
major drawbacks of use CO2. Therefore, special efforts are required
in order to improve the efciency of these systems including the
analysis of each component. In this manner, many fundamental
points and physical factors must be known to control the global
performance of these systems and some of them have been widely
discussed in the specialized literature. For instance, Pitla et al. [4]
developed a new analytical correlation based on previous studies
[5e7] to predict the Nusselt number during the in-tube cooling of
turbulent supercritical CO2 and Ge and Cropper [8] performed a
similar study. Snchez et al. [9] analyzed the inuence of the su-
perheated on the energy efciency of a transcritical CO2 refrigera-
tion plant. Pfafferott and Schmitz [10] and Rigola et al. [11] carried
out sophisticated modeling and transient simulation for refrigerant
carbon dioxide exploring a detailed numerical investigation. In
addition, the exergetic point of view for conventional and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.03.052
1359-4311/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
430 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438

Nomenclature x vapor quality [dimensionless]

Z compressibility factor [dimensionless]
A area [m2]
cp specic heat [J/kg K] Greek symbols
k isentropic index [dimensionless] a dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (5)
kp constant [dimensionless] b1 dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (14)
h specic enthalpy [kJ/kg] b2 dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (14)
m mass [kg] b3 dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (14)
m_ mass ux [kg/s] g dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (5)
N number of revolutions [rpm] g dimensionless parameter given in Eq. (5)
P pressure [bar] r working uid density [kg/m3]
Q_ Rej rejected heat ux at the gas cooler [W] p pressure ratio [dimensionless]
Q_ R removed heat ux from the refrigerated space [W] hv volumetric efciency [dimensionless]
R gas constant [J/kg K] q dimensionless temperature
s specic entropy [kJ/kg K] s dimensionless time
T temperature [K]
t time [s] Abbreviations
U Global convective heat transfer coefcient [W/m2 K] evap evaporator
V volume [m3] cool cooling
v specic volume [m3/kg] refri refrigerated space

transcritical vapor compression refrigeration cycles was developed

by Srinivasan et al. [12] obtaining the maximum possible exergetic
efciencies for both cases. On the other hand, detailed studies for
estimating the optimum pressure of the compressor are very
important because the compressor discharge pressure affects
seriously the system performance [13,14]. The above point is critical
because the high values of the output pressure can conduct to
thermal and dynamic instabilities. It was illustrated by a CO2
refrigeration system composed by two thermodynamic cycles ar-
ranged in cascade, one of which is a CO2 transcritical cycle [15]. Just
for this reason, we conduct here a thermal control analysis of a CO2
transcritical system. However, we can note that the specialized
literature is scarce in this direction. There are some important
studies related with other specic applications. For example, Lin
[16] carried out a thermal control analysis for a one-dimensional
freeze-drying process, which has numerous applications in the
food, chemical and medical industries for heat-sensitive products.
In addition, in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)
applications, the control theory recently has played an important
role to obtain an efcient thermal comfort in residential and in-
dustrial areas [17e22]. For the knowledge of the authors, only the
works of Alyousef et al. [23], and Ge and Tassou [24] in some
manner describe the difculties associated with the thermal con-
trol in CO2 transcritical cycles. However, in the two previous
studies, the control theory is not rigorously applied. Other control
strategies and applications in refrigeration cycles can be found
elsewhere [25e28,31,32].
Recognizing then the importance of this area, we claim the main
purpose of this work: to analyze in detail, with linear and non-
linear control theory, the different options for that the gas cooler
and the evaporator reach an appropriate controllability in the
output temperatures for both devices.

2. Theory

In the present section, we derive the mathematical model based

on a lumped energy balance. However, we show rst as usual on
Fig. 1a and b, the Tes and Peh diagrams of the CO2 transcritical
refrigeration system because it permits us to use some simple hy- Fig. 1. a) Tes diagram of the transcritical refrigeration cycle using CO2. b) Peh diagram
pothesis given lines below. The trajectories of the transcritical cycle of the transcritical refrigeration cycle using CO2.
 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438 431

are given by an isentropic compression (1 / 2), an isobaric cooling 2.1. Lumped energy balance at the evaporator
(2 / 3), an irreversible isenthalpic throttling (3 / 4) and nally
the isothermal and isobaric heating of the working uid (4 / 1), State 4 on Fig. 1 denes the coolant ow coming from the
needed for reaching the refrigeration effect. In addition, we assume throttling valve. The valve reduces the pressure of the state 3 to the
that the superheat at the outlet of evaporator is neglected. The state 4, where begins the refrigeration effect up to reach the state of
proposed cycle is too idealized and a more realistic point of view saturated vapor given by the state 1. From Fig. 1, the lumped energy
must include a certain superheat at the outlet of evaporator as balance can write as,
occurs in practical cases. For this purpose, we can decompose the
term h4  h1 as h4  h1 h4  h4sv h4sv  h1 , where h4sv : dTevap
mh _ 1 rVcp
_ 4 Q R  mh ; (1)
would be the enthalpy of the saturated vapor and h1 the enthalpy of dt
the superheated vapor. In this manner, the rst term of the right-
hand side of the above difference h4  h1 is just the model alternatively, in terms of the global convective heat transfer coef-
derived in the present work, while the resting difference h4sv  h1 cient (Table 1), Eq. (1) can be rewritten as,
would be the part that would require an explicit thermodynamic
dTevap :

model. We can suggest, for instance, two simple linear regressions rcp Vevap _  1 L  GTevap
mx
for both enthalpies h4sv and h1 as function of the temperature of the dt   (2)
evaporator. In this manner, we can derive in a simple form an Uevap Aevap Trefri  Tevap ;
extension of the previous model. For this reason, the linear and
non-linear PID control method used in this work can still be used to where m _ represents the mass ux of the CO2 refrigerant and x is the
this new situation without difculty. vapor quality. Trefri and Tevap are the temperatures of the refriger-
In addition, we consider that the step (2 / 3) is carried out ated physical space and evaporator, respectively. Uevap and Aevap are
under transcritical conditions. Therefore, the thermal properties in the global convective heat transfer coefcient and the area of the
this region must be known to derive a realistic model [4]. In this evaporator, respectively. We use Table 1 for the correlation of the
region, the thermal properties have a strong dependence on tem- latent heat hfg. Introducing the following dimensionless variables,
perature and therefore, we can use the numerical and experimental
results of Pitla et al. [4e7] to dene, in our range of interest, the  .
above relationships. On Table 1 we show the density and specic
s Aevap aTrefri b t rcp V and
  . (3)
heat of the uid as a function of temperature, properties which are qevap Aevap aTrefri b Trefri  Tevap _
mL;
denoted by the symbols r and cp, respectively. In addition, we have
included the global convective heat transfer coefcient, Uevap, and Eq. (2) can be written in dimensionless form,
the latent heat, hfg for the trajectory (4 / 1), taken from Refs.
[35,36], respectively; together with the global convective heat dqevap

  
transfer coefcient, Ucool from Refs. [4e7]. It should be noted that 1  x 1  a 1  gqevap  1  g qevap qevap ; (4)
ds
the above relationships were derived for a compressible and tur-
bulent cooling ow circulating in a gas cooler [4e7]. The global where the dimensionless parameters are
convective heat transfer coefcients Uevap and Ucool for the trajec-
tories (4 / 1) and (2 / 3) depends linearly on the temperature. _
mL G
g   ; a Trefri and
We assume that the residence times, when ow passes through the aTrefri b Aevap Trefri L
evaporator and the gas cooler, are larger than the corresponding (5)
residence times in the throttling valve and the compressor. In this _
amL
g  2 :
manner, the last two devices operate in a quasi-stationary regime.
aTrefri b Aevap
We present the lumped energy balances for the evaporator and gas
cooler considering that the temperature of the evaporator and the Considering that the compressor operates in a quasi-stationary
output temperature of the gas cooler are subject to an adjustable regime, the mass ow rate of the cooling ow, with aid
control. of Table 1, is given by [33],


_ NVp rhv NVp r az bz Tevap ;
m (6)
Table 1 Here, we consider that the refrigerant density r is evaluated at
Physical correlations for CO2. Eqs. a), b), c), d)ee) and f) were taken from Refs. [35], the pressure p1 of the saturated vapor. The same mass ow ratem _
[4e7], [29,30], [4e7] and [36], respectively.
circulates by the throttling valve. Then, we can apply the Bernoulli
Equation Coefcient values equation for obtaining that the mass ow rate is,
a) Uevap b aTrefri a 258 W/m2 K2
b 61469.4 W/m2 K _ kr1=2 p1=2
m p
1  1
1=2
; (7)
2
b) Ucool cy by Tcool ay Tcool ay 6.4717 W/m2 K3
by 5069 W/m2 K2
cy 937,715 W/m2 K where the pressure ratio is pp2/p1p3/p4(p1 and p2 are the input
c) hv az bzTevap az 1.9811 and output pressures at the compressor). If equate Eqs. (6) and (7)
bz 0.004945 K1 yields,
d) rcool r0cool r01cool Tcool r0enf 7196.273 kg/m3
  r01enf 20.986 kg/m3 K
Tcool T0 2  2

e) cpcool cp0cool cp01cool e 2w2
cp0enf 3613 J/kg K r NVp
2
az bz Tevap p  1: (8)
cp01enf 4237 J/kg K p1 k
T0 318.139 K
w 4.016 K We can introduce in the above equation, the generalized
f) hfg L  GTevap L 926,860 J/kg compressibility factor Z p1 =rRTevap p1 =rRfTrefri 
G 2551.5 J/kg K
_
mL=A evap aTrefri bqevap g; in this manner, we obtain that
432 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438

 ! Table 2
1 NVp 2 a2z
 Physical parameters for the CO2 transcritical refrigeration cycle. The data were taken
p 1
 bz Trefri 1  gqevap
2 2
RZTrefri k 1  gqevap from Refs. [1,8,9,11,14,36].

 CO2 mass ow rate 0.0286 kg/s

2az bz NVp 2 Area ratio, Acool/Aevap 1.3
;
RZ k Number of revolutions, N 350 rpm
Displacement volume at the compressor, V 6.194  105 m3/rev
(9) Characteristic expansion constant, K 1.636  105 m2
or Density at the evaporator zone, r 983.76 kg/m3
Compressibility factor, Z 0.5
2

p
 3 1  gqevap 4 ; (10) CO2 gas constant, R 0.1889 kJ/kg K
1  gqevap Average specic heat at subcritical region, cp Gas: 0.846 kJ/kg K
Liquid: 2.43 kJ/kg K
Constant for CO2, k 1.289
where the dimensionless parameters 2, 3 and 4 are given by
 
a2z NVp 2 b2 T NVp 2
2 ; 3 z refri and h  . i
RZTrefri k RZ k 2
e01 exp  TN  2T0 TN T02 2w2 ;
 (11)
2az bz NVp 2
4 1 : DTC TN  T0 DTC2 revap cpevap
RZ k y03 ; y04 ; y05 ;
w2 2w2 r01cool DTC cp0cool


The pressure ratio, Eq. (9), is used in the next subsection to cp0cool r0cool r01cool TN cp01cool
derive the lumped energy equation for the gas cooler. y06 ; y07 ;
r01cool DTC cp0cool cp0cool
cp T cp T
y08 0 refri and y09 01 refri :
2.2. Lumped energy balance for the gas cooler L L
(14)
In the transcritical region, the cooling process for the working
On Tables 2 and 3, we show some physical parameters and
uid (trajectory 2 / 3) is carried out with the aid of the gas cooler.
typical operation conditions for the refrigeration cycle.
The global convective heat transfer coefcient is taken from Table 1,
In the present analysis, we must distinguish between two
considering that the physical properties are functions of the tem-
classes of parameters: those which are directly associated with the
perature. The lumped energy balance is similar to that used to
method and use of the partial-integrative-derivative control and
derive Eq. (4) for the evaporator. Therefore, we obtain that,
given by kp, ki and kd and those dimensionless parameters which
dTcool are related with the thermodynamic states and trajectories of the
rcool cpcool V _ 2  Ucool Acool Tcool  TN  mh
mh _ 3; (12) present refrigeration cycle and given by the set x, g, a, g, 2, 3, 4,
dt
b1, b2, b3, e01, y03, y04, y05, y06, y07, y08 and y09. Taking into account
or in terms of the s Aevap(aTrefri b)t/rcpV and the considerable number of these last parameters, we arbitrarily
qcool Aevap aTrefri bTcool  TN =mL
_ and using the specic heat select as key parameters those that are related with the temperature
and density from Table 1 for the transcritical region, we obtain a of the refrigerated space, with the vapor quality, with the charac-
nonlinear equation to predict the temperature of the gas cooler teristic area of the evaporator, with the global convective coef-
given by, cient of the evaporator, etc. because they can seriously affect the

0 1
B  !k  1
! C
B 2
 k
C
B
 3 1  gqevap 4  1 1  gqevap C
B C
dqcool B 1  gqevap C
h
y05 B
iB  C
 
 C (13)
ds y q 2
B
y06 qcool 1 y07 e01 ey03 qcool e 04 cool B  y08 y09 e01 ey03 qcool ey04 qcool 1  x 1  a 1  gqevap C
2
C
B C
B   C
@ 2 A
 b1 b2 qcool b3 qcool qcool

From Eq. (13) the temperature of the gas cooler depends on the stability and control of the system. Adopting the above criterion, we
evaporator temperature. Therefore, the control for the cooler is choose basically to x, g, a and b1 as key parameters and Figs. 5e14
even more sensible to small variations of the evaporator. In Eq. (13), given in Section 4 were plotted taking into account the inuence of
the dimensionless parameters are these key parameters. Occasionally in some gures, we show also
the inuence of the parameter g. In addition, these key parameters
  :   are independently between them and therefore the inuence of
2 b T c A
ay TN mL 2ay TN 2 b A each one can be predicted without difculty.
y N y cool y cool
b1   ; b2  2 ;
aTrefri b Aevap aTrefri b A2evap
3. PID thermal control
:
a A m2 L2
b3  y cool 3 In this section, we present rst the linear control analysis. In
aTrefri b A3evap general, there are many control techniques to analyze the stability
of dynamic systems. Here, we apply the well-known Proportionale
 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438 433

Table 3 following: for the linearized version of Eqs. (4) and (13), we can
Values of the thermodynamic states for the specic volume, enthalpy, entropy and apply the Laplace transform technique for obtaining the corre-
vapor quality taken from Ref. [37].
sponding transfer functions for the evaporator and cooler. For the
States T (K) P (bar) v (m3/kg) h (kJ/kg) s (kJ/kg K) X (L) evaporator we have that,
1 263 26.4 0.014115 435.18 1.8992 1
2 370.88 100 0.005219 500.59 1.9206 VSC dqevap0
agx  1 1qevap0 1  x1  a; (15)
3 313 100 0.001582 312.20 1.3536 e ds
4 263 26.4 0.007895 312.20 1.4316 0.525
and applying the Laplace transform to the above equation, we
obtain the transfer function is given by,

sqevap0 s qevap0 0 x  1ag 1qevap0 s

1  x1  a=s; (16)

moreover, taking into account the initial condition qevap0 0 0,

the transfer function for the evaporator is reduced to,

1  x1  a
qevap0 s : (17)
ss x  1ag 1
Fig. 2. Block diagram for the evaporator for the present refrigeration cycle.
In the above Eqs. (16) and (17), the variable s denotes the
complex variable for the Laplace transform. We can obtain based on
Integral-Derivative (PID) technique. This method evaluates the
Control Theory, a relationship between the input and output vari-
solution of the linear differential equation with the aid of Laplace
ables. For the case of the evaporator, we propose as input signal a
transform technique. We obtain the solution of Eqs. (4) and (13) in
unitary step, given by
the domain of the complex variable s. We anticipate that the
transfer functions or solutions by the evaporator and gas cooler are 
1
denoted by qevap0 s and qcool0 s, respectively. After, we apply PID G0 s kp 1 td s qevap0 s; (18)
ti s
control. A PID controller calculates an error value as the difference
between a process variable and a desired set point. The controller and the inputeoutput function for the evaporator as,
attempts to minimize the error by adjusting the inputs for the
control process. The algorithm for the PID controller involves the Us G0 s
use of three separate constant parameters, called three-term con-
Es 1 G0 s
trol. These constants are kp, ki and kd; whose subscripts p, i and t s 1 t t s2 1  x1  a
d denote proportionality, integrative and derivative control, kp i i d  
respectively. The above constants are evaluated by using the pole ti s s2 x  1ag 1s
t s 1 t t s2 ; (19)
assignment method to guarantee the stability of the control. 1  x1  a
1 kp i i d  
Therefore, we can assure that the roots of the transfer functions are ti s s2 x  1ag 1s
found in a stability region. Specic details can be found
elsewhere [34]. and represents the ratio between the input signal U(s), which acts
Therefore, we use linearized versions of Eqs. (4) and (13) on the parameters of the same signal, and the response E(s). This
considering that gE  1 for the evaporator equation, Eq. (4) and relationship denes the feedback of the system. Following the
b2  1, b3  1 and e01  1 for Eq. (13). The procedure is the RoutheHurwitz criterion [34], the polynomial of the denominator

Fig. 3. Block diagram for the PID non-linear control of the evaporator.
434 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438

Fig. 4. Block diagram for the PID non-linear control of the gas cooler.

of the above equation is equal to the polynomial with negative Therefore, the pole assignment of the transfer function for the
roots that yields the stability zone to nd the constants kp, ki and kd. evaporator is written as,
In this manner, the above constants together with the transfer


function for the evaporator are evaluated to closed loop control or s3 x  1ag 1 kp 1  x1  atd s2
feedback PID control system for the control diagram (Fig. 2). The
kp 1  x1  a
above procedure is generated with Simulink subroutine from kp 1  x1  as
ti
MATLAB software. In this form, the proposed input signal is a unit-
step function and easy to generate. Fig. 2 is also used for the gas s3 3s2 3s 1; (20)
cooler.

Fig. 5. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the evaporator for Fig. 6. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the evaporator for
different values of the constants kp, ki and kd. different CO2 vapor qualities x and kp 25.47, ki 8.49 and kd 17.02.
 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438 435

Fig. 9. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler for
Fig. 7. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the evaporator with
different CO2 vapor qualities x and kp 30.87, ki 10.29 and kd 23.57.
different values of the parameter a and kp 25.47, ki 8.49 and kd 17.02.

dqcool
from which we can obtain easily that kp, ki and kd are given by, A1  A2 qevap  A3 qcool ; (24)
ds
3 In the above equation, the constants A1, A2 andA3 are dened
kp ; (21)
1  x1  a respectively by,
h iy
kp 1 A1 2 3 4 k1=k  1 1  x1  a 05 ;
ki (22) y06
ti 1  x1  a
"(
and
A2 2 3 4 k1=k  1
1 3x  1ag 1 ) #
kd td kp  : (23)
1  x1  a 1  x1  a k  1 2  3 y05
 y 08  a1  x g (25)
In the Results and discussion section, for the numerical tests, i.e.,
k 2 3 4 1=k y06
for each triad kp, ki and kd, the values of x, a and g correspond to
values which are not deviate very much from those values used on and
Table 4. The above procedure can also apply to the gas cooler and h iy
the main results are given lines below. Considering then that for the A3 2 3 4 k1=k  1 1  x1  a y06 b1 05 :
y206
gas cooler b2  1, b3  1 and e01  1 , the linearized version of Eq.
(13) for the temperature qcool can be written as, (26)

Fig. 8. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler for Fig. 10. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler for
different values of the constants kp, ki and kd. different values of the parameter a and kp 30.87, ki 10.29 and kd 23.57.
436 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438

Fig. 13. Non-linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler
for different values of the constants kp, ki and kd.
Fig. 11. Linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler for
different values of the parameter b1 and kp 30.87, ki 10.29 and kd 23.57.

For this case and omitting the details, the transfer function for
the cooler can be written as,

A1 x  1ag 1 A2 x  11  a A1 s
qcool s : (27)
ss A3 s x  1ag 1
In addition, the constants for the gas cooler are

A1
4
A1 x  1ag 1 A2 x  11  a
kp ; (28)
A1 x  1ag 1 A2 x  11  a

1
ki (29)
A1 x  1ag 1 A2 x  11  a

and

4  1  xag 1 A3
kd : (30)
A1 Fig. 14. Non-linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the gas cooler
for different values of the parameter b1.

The above linear control can be completed with a nonlinear

analysis, taking into account the presence of non-linear terms of
Eqs. (4) and (13). For this, we use the PID feed forward compen-
sation technique [34]. We use the same kp, ki and kd in order to
compare non-linear with linear results. We propose for the evap-
orator Eq. (4), the following PID feed forward compensation,

Table 4
Dimensionless parameters.

Parameter Value Parameter y04 Value 0.306

x 0.52 y05 10.032

a 0.752 y06 12.332
g 0.011 y07 0.866
g 0.103 y08 1.065
b1 0.89 y09 1.248
b2 0.59 2 0.0742
b3 0.01 3 0.0344
e01 0.002 4 0.8988
Fig. 12. Non-linear responses of the PID control for the temperature of the evaporator
y03 2.72 y04 0.306
for different values of the constants kp, ki and kd.
 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438 437

dqevap 2
respect to the reference state. According with data provided by
 g qevap x  1ag 1qevap x  11  a Tables 2 and 3, the vapor quality to the entrance of the evaporator
ds
Z (31) must be x 0.52. For this value of x and others, on Fig. 6 we show
dqevap
 kp qevap  kd  ki qevap ds 0 the response of the PID control for the temperature of the evapo-
ds
rator taking into account the best values of Fig. 7, i.e., kp 25.47,
moreover, for the gas cooler, we suggest: ki 8.49 and kd 17.02. Here, for increasing values of the vapor

0 1
B  ! !k  1 C
B 2

k C
B
 3 1  gqevap 4  1 1  gqevap C
B C
B 1  gqevap C
dqenf y05 B C
 h iB
B  


C  kp qenf
C
ds y q
y06 qenf 1 y07 e01 e 03 enf ey04 q 2
B y08 y09 e01 e 03 enf e 04 enf 1  x 1  a 1  gqevap
y q y q2
C
enf
B C (32)
B C
B   C
@ 2 A
 bx1 bx2 qenf bx3 qenf qenf
Z
dqenf
 kd  ki qenf ds 0
ds

On Fig. 3, we show the non-linear control diagram for the
evaporator, generated with Simulink. The block ODE represents the
sum of terms included in Eq. (31) together with the PID compen-
sation, this last is given by the last three terms of the left-hand side
of Eq. (31). The term u2 is the order of the non-linear terms. On the
other hand, Fig. 4 shows the non-linear control diagram for the gas
cooler. The terms of Eq. (32) is a ratio of two functions, which are
dened in the diagram of Fig. 4 as u(1) and u(2). In addition, the
cubic term is represented by the function u * u * u and the expo-
nential terms are grouped in the blocks f(u). The PID control stands
on the superior part of Fig. 4. With the aid of the above Figs. 3 and 4,
we can appreciate that Eq. (32) is transformed to a second ordinary
differential equation due to the fact that two integrators act on the
variables qevap and qcool. In this manner, the increment of order for
the ordinary differential equation generates an additional acceler-
ation effect on the response.
4. Results and discussion
The present numerical simulations and thermal responses for the
evaporator and gas cooler were carried out by considering the data
given on Tables 2e4. It should be noted that the control of temper-
ature for the gas cooler is performed on the output temperature of
this equipment. Therefore, the temperature for the reference state
corresponds just to this temperature. Meanwhile, the control of the
temperature for the reference state for the evaporator is not
restricted to a specic site of the evaporator, recognizing that the
thermodynamic trajectory 4 / 1 is isothermal. The set of Figs. 5e11
correspond to the PID linear control, while the remaining Figs. 12e14
correspond to the PID non-linear control analysis.
On Fig. 5, we appreciate that the better response of the evapo-
rator temperature, qevap is reached with the control set parameters
kp 25.47, ki 8.49 and kd 17.02. The corresponding curve is
obtained with an overshoot about 20% with respect to the reference
state and a settling time of s w 12, for which the oscillations are
completely attenuated. In the above Fig. 5, we use x 0.52,
a 0.752 and g 0.011. On the other hand, for the extreme case of
kp 8.49, ki 8.49 and kd 8.49, the system is more unstable with
an overshoot of 48% larger than the best response. The intermediate
curve for the parametric set kp 8.49, ki 2.83 and kd 5.67,
values that represent a third part of the corresponding values for
the extreme case, reaches a stable condition for larger times
(practically for s w 15). In this case, the overshoot is 40% larger with
quality x, the responses are more unstable. The above is mainly due
to the decrease in cooling capacity of the evaporator. On Fig. 7, we
present now the inuence of the dimensionless parameter a.
Selecting again the values kp 25.47, ki 8.49 and kd 17.02, we
show the PID response of the evaporator temperature. Under the
operation conditions given on Tables 2 and 3, the most represen-
tative value of a is just a 0.752. For larger or smaller values than
this one, the response of the temperature is slightly lengthened or
shortened with the time. The above is an expected result because
the dimensionless parameter a is directly related with the tem-
perature of the refrigerated space.
The next four gures correspond to the dynamic responses of
the output temperature of the gas cooler. On Fig. 8, we show the
responses of the temperature of the gas cooler for three different
sets of control parameters kp, ki and kd. The best response of the
system is obtained with kp 30.87, ki 10.29 and kd 23.57. We
appreciate in comparison with the control of the evaporator that
the control constants for the gas cooler are drastically increased.
The above implies a major control effort because in all cases, the
settling times are larger than for the evaporator cases; however, we
obtain similar behaviors.
On Fig. 9, we show the PID linear control for the gas cooler
temperature with four different vapor qualities and kp 30.87,
ki 10.29 and kd 23.57. The results show a similar behavior with
the evaporator (see Fig. 8). The above result is a direct consequence
of that the variations of the vapor quality is determined by the
operation temperature of the gas cooler. Additionally, Fig. 10 shows
the inuence of three different values of dimensionless parameter
a for the case of kp 30.87, ki 10.29 and kd 23.57. For decreasing
values of a, the overshoot of the temperature is decreased; how-
ever, the settling times are practically the same. On the other hand,
the inuence of the dimensionless parameter b1 on the response of
the cooler temperature is direct: in Fig. 11, the overshoot of the
temperature and the settling times remain practically unaltered.
Finally, on Figs. 12e14, we show the PID non-linear control analysis
for the temperatures of the evaporator and gas cooler.
5. Conclusions
From the above results, we can conclude that the evaporator has
better stability conditions due to its operation characteristics;
however, the thermal control of the evaporator depends also on the
control of the gas cooler. The comparison between the linear and
438 M. Salazar, F. Mndez / Applied Thermal Engineering 67 (2014) 429e438
non-linear cases shows a similar behavior; however, it is easier to
reach stable conditions with the second method because the
overshoots of temperature are less pronounced. In addition, the
comparison between both techniques shows that settling times are
increased by around 20%. On the other hand, the inclusion of
transient terms in governing Eqs. (15), (24), (31) and (32) offer an
opportunity to establish a trade-off between system stability and
performance. However, in the present work, we have not explicitly
evaluated the coefcient of performance (COP). We presume to
make it for the near future.
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