Vortex Tube Expansion Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump Cycle

The application of natural refrigerant CO2 is of great significance to reduce the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. Transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle is presently an important aspect of natural refrigerant alternatives research. In this paper, a vortex tube expansion transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle is established and compared to that of the transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with throttle valve. Thermodynamic analysis results indicate that the system performance of vortex tube expansion transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle is better than the transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle with throttle valve, and the COPh improvement is 5.8%similar to 13.9% at given conditions. The gas-cooler outlet temperature has a great impact on the system performance, there is a higher COPh improvement when the cycle at lower evaporation temperature or higher gas-cooler outlet temperature.