Numerical modeling of droplets injection in the secondary flow of the wet steam ejector in the refrigeration cycle

Steam ejector plays a key role in the refrigeration system. The water has been used as a working fluid because water is more economical and non-toxic. The operating fluid often enters the evaporator as a water liquid and droplets evaporate by absorbing heat. Cooling load changing causes the vapor in the outlet of the evaporator to be accompanied by droplets. Therefore, there are droplets at the inlet of secondary nozzle and flow should be simulated as a wet steam flow with injection droplets at the secondary flow. In this paper, the effects of droplets injection at secondary flow have been investigated on the performance of the refrigeration cycle. For this purpose, the Eulerian-Eulerian method has been used and the results have been validated with experimental data. Six cases are considered with different wetness and number of droplets in the secondary flow. The results of case 6 show COP, T-outlet, and ER decrease about 22.93%, 15.66%, and 22.93%, respectively. In addition, the steam accompanies by droplets at the outlet of ejector. Therefore, it is essential for designers and operators to model and consider the effects of the droplets on the wall erosion to optimize the wet steam ejector and refrigeration cycle performance.