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com

Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Simulation of operating characteristics of the silica gel–water

adsorption chiller powered by solar energy
G. Zhang, D.C. Wang ⇑, J.P. Zhang, Y.P. Han, Wanchao Sun
College of Electromechanical Engineering, Qingdao University, 308 Ningxia Road, Qingdao 266071, PR China

Received 22 October 2010; received in revised form 1 April 2011; accepted 5 April 2011
Available online 30 April 2011

Communicated by: Associate Editor Ruzhu Wang

Abstract

A lumped parameter model of a silica gel–water adsorption chiller driven by solar energy was introduced for the operating charac-
teristics investigation. Matlab–Simulink, as a high-performance computing and programming tool, was used to simulate the operating
characteristics of the chiller. Effects of the hot water tank capacity, the cycle time and the initial hot water temperature on the perfor-
mance of the chiller were analyzed when the chiller was driven by a stable heat source and solar energy respectively. The simulation
results indicated that when the chiller was driven by solar energy, the open circulation of the hot water with a short cycle time and
the closed circulation of hot water with a longer cycle time were better. A proposal was also provided for the chiller driven by solar
energy to work under the optimum working conditions, such as hot water circulation mode, cycle time and initial temperature.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adsorption refrigeration; Simulink; Silica gel–water; Solar energy; Simulation

1. Introduction adsorption refrigerator (Saha et al., 1995; Chua et al.,

As a good opportunity to replace the CFCs or HCFCs
refrigeration, the adsorption refrigeration has been paid
considerable attentions. Compared to two-stage absorp-
tion refrigeration, adsorption refrigeration has no distilla-
tion (ammonia–water system), corrosion or crystallization
(lithium bromide–water system) problem, lower equipment
cost and more effective when low grade thermal energy,
such as solar energy and the waste heat from an engine,
acts as the driving heat source.
In the past two decades, a large number of researches
about the adsorption refrigeration technology have been
done, which include the adsorption mechanism (Wang,
2001), the thermodynamic analysis of various adsorption
refrigeration cycles (Sumathy et al., 2003), simulations of
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 532 8595 0512.
E-mail address: wdechang@163.com (D.C. Wang).
1999) and heat pump and applications of adsorption sys-
tems in solar energy and waste heat utilization (Fan
et al., 2007). As one of the most influential parameters on
both refrigerating capacity and COP, the cycle time also
has been further studied. Both the experimental analysis
by Boelman et al. (1995) and the simulation models by
Saha et al. (1995) and Chua et al. (1999) showed that there
exists an optimum cycle time for the refrigerating capacity,
but the COP increases monotonically with increase of the
cycle time at a certain period of time. Alam et al. (2000,
2003) investigated effects of the heat exchanger design
parameters on the switching frequency, and the results
showed that the optimum switching frequency is very sen-
sitive to the heat exchanger’s design parameters, and
increases with the increase of adsorbent number of transfer
unit (NTU), heat exchanger thickness ratio (Hr) and with
the decrease of bed Biot number (Bi), the heat exchanger
aspect ratio (Ar). Miyazaki et al. (2009) proposed a new
cycle time allocation not only to improve the cooling

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2011.04.005
1470 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478

Nomenclature

A parameter of adsorption equation/area (m2) Subscript

B parameter of adsorption equation a adsorbent
c specific heat (kJ kg1 K1) ad adsorber
COP coefficient of performance ads adsorption
Dso pre-exponential term (m2 s1) al aluminum
Ea activation energy (J kg1) ave average
J every day solar radiation (kJ m2) b desorber/adsorber
KA performance coefficient of heat exchanger c condenser
(W K1) chill chilled water
L latent heat of vaporization (kJ kg1) cool cooling water
M mass (kg) collectors collectors
m_ mass flow rate (kg s1) cu cuprum
P pressure (Pa) des desorption
q heating power (kW) e evaporator
Q heat power (kW) h heat, hot
R gas constant (J kg1 K1) hwt hot water tank
Rp adsorbent particle radius (m) in inlet
T temperature (K) out outlet
x adsorption capacity (kg kg1) ref refrigeration
DH isosteric heat of adsorption (kJ kg1) s silica gel, saturation
s time (s) w water
d flag functions wv water vapor
g the average collection efficiency of solar
collectors

capacity and the COP, but also to contribute in the reduc-
tion of delivered chilled water fluctuations.
As we known, an adsorption chiller is also sensitive to
the changes of heat source. The instability or intermittence
of heat source is an unavoidable problem when the adsorp-
tion refrigeration is applied to waste heat recovery or solar
energy utilization. Therefore, it is necessary to study the
operating characteristics of an adsorption refrigeration sys-
tem and then reduce the adverse effect of unstable heat
source on adsorption refrigeration system, while the
adsorption refrigeration is applied to the utilization of
solar energy or waste heat from an engine. Wang et al.
(2005a,b) have developed a novel silica gel–water adsorp-
tion chiller and Zhai et al. (2008) analyzed its operating
characteristics when powered by solar energy. The results
indicated that the longer cycle time is advantageous to
the system when the heat source temperature is the lower
(about 65 °C), otherwise the shorter cycle time should be
adopted. Di et al. (2007) theoretically and experimentally
investigated on the performance and characteristics of such
chiller driven by solar energy and gave the control strate-
gies of the adsorption chiller. The results showed that the
COP is significantly influenced by the variation rates of
the heat source temperatures. However, they did not con-
sider effects of the initial hot water temperature and the
hot water tank capacity on the performance of the chiller.
From this context, based on the model of Wang et al.
(2005a), a mathematical model to simulate the adsorption
chiller powered by solar energy was introduced. The per-
formance of this chiller is investigated when it operates
with different initial temperatures, different volume of hot
water tank and different cycle times. These results are com-
pared with those of the chiller powered by a stable heat
source, and then the operating strategies which optimize
operating performance of the chiller are proposed.
2. Adsorption chiller
Fig. 1 shows the structure of the silica gel–water adsorp-
tion chiller which is developed by Wang et al. (2005a,b) at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This silica gel–water
adsorption chiller is composed of three working vacuum
chambers, which include left, right desorption/adsorption
working chambers and one heat pipe working vacuum
chamber as the evaporator (indicated in Fig. 1). Each of
desorption/adsorption working chambers comprises one
condenser, one adsorber and one evaporator (including
half water-evaporating surface of the heat pipe evapora-
tor). The operating mode and the structure in detail are
described in literatures (Wang et al., 2005a). In order to
simplify the calculation, the operating mode without heat
and mass recovery was adopted in this study.
3. Mathematical model
In adsorber of the adsorption chiller showed in Fig. 1,
the radius of the granular silica gel is 0.5–0.75 mm and
the vapor flow speed is low except in the beginning of the
 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478 1471

Fig. 1. Structure of the silica gel–water adsorption chiller.

adsorption process, so the Biot number is smaller than 0.1 In the above Eqs. (3) and (4), the values of A0 . . . A3 and
for the simulated bed in the most operating time. The B0 . . . B3 are given in literature (Miyazaki et al., 2009). The
lumped-parameter method can be used. The main simplify- saturation vapor pressure and temperature are correlated
ing assumptions were as follows (Di et al., 2007): as follows:
3 2
(1) The temperature and the pressure were uniform P s ðT Þ ¼ 0:0000888ðT  273:15Þ  0:0013802ðT  273:15Þ
throughout the whole adsorber. þ 0:0857427ðT  273:15Þ þ 0:4709375 ð5Þ
(2) The pressure difference between the adsorber and the
condenser or the evaporator was neglected.
(3) The refrigerant was adsorbed uniformly in the adsor- 3.2. Energy balance for the adsorber/desorber
ber and was liquid in the adsorbent.
(4) No heat losses from the adsorption chiller were d
considered. f½M a ðca þ cp;w  xÞ þ ccu  M tube;ad þ cal  M fin;ad T b g
ds
dx
¼ M a  DH  þ m_ w  cp;w  ðT ad;in  T ad;out Þ
ds
3.1. Adsorption equation
dx
 dM a cwv  ðT b  T e Þ ð6Þ
Non-equilibrium adsorption rate equation (Saha et al., ds
 
1995) can be expressed: T ad;out  T b KAad
¼ exp ð7Þ
dx 15Dso exp½Ea =ðRT b Þ  T ad;in  T b m_ w  cp;w
¼ ðx  xÞ ð1Þ
ds R2P where
where x*is the equilibrium adsorption capacity, which is 
1; adsorption process
expressed by the adsorption-equilibrium equations. d¼ ð8Þ
0; desorption process
 BðT b Þ
 P s ðT w Þ
x ¼ AðT s Þ ð2Þ
P s ðT b Þ
3.3. Energy balance for the condenser
where Ps(Tw) and Ps(Tb) are the corresponding saturation
vapor pressures of the refrigerant at water temperature 
Tw and adsorbent temperature Tb respectively. dT c dx dx
ccu  M c  ¼ d L  M a þ cwv  M a  ðT c  T b Þ
ds ds ds
AðT b Þ ¼ A0 þ A1 T b þ A2 T 2b þ A3 T 3b ð3Þ 
þm_ cool  cp;w  ðT cool;in  T cool;out Þ ð9Þ
and  
T cool;out  T c KAc
¼ exp ð10Þ
BðT b Þ ¼ B0 þ B1 T b þ B2 T 2b þ B3 T 3b ð4Þ T cool;in  T c m_ cool  cp;w
1472 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478

3.4. Energy balance for the evaporator Qref

COP ¼ ð20Þ
Qh
The heat pipe evaporator is taken as one part, and the
heat and mass transfer process inside is not taken into Average COP in a day:
account. P
Qref
COPave ¼ P ð21Þ
d Qh
½ðcp;w  M e;w þ ccu  M e Þ  T e 
ds  
dx The values of all the parameters used in the mathemat-
¼ d L  M a þ m_ chill  cp;w  ðT chill;in  T chill;out Þ ical model are listed in Table 1.
ds
 
dx dx
þ ð1  dÞ d1  cp;w  ðT e  T c Þ  M a  ð1  d1 ÞL  M a ð11Þ 4. Model built in Simulink and simulations
ds ds
 
T chill;out  T c KAe Simulink as a dynamic and interactive system, which can
¼ exp ð12Þ
T chill;in  T c m_ chill cp;w establish model, simulate and analyze conveniently, is very
intuitionistic to solve coupled differential equations in the
where
thermal systems. The simulation system adopts variable-
dM e;w dx step ode23 (stiff/Mod. Rosenbrock) solver to solve the dif-
¼ M a ð13Þ
ds ds ferential equations (http://www.kxcad.net/cae_MATLAB/
and toolbox/simulink/csh/gui/d0e1018.html). Fig. 2 shows the
 simulation model of the silica gel–water adsorption chiller
1; T c 6 T e
d1 ¼ ð14Þ built in Simulink.
0; T c > T e Simulation conditions: hot water tank capacity is 0,
0.2 m3, 0.5 m3, 1 m3, respectively; the cooling water inlet
3.5. Energy balance for the hot water tank temperature is 30 °C and the chilled water inlet tempera-
ture is 15 °C; the initial hot water temperature is 40 °C,
55 °C, 65 °C, 75 °C, and 85 °C, respectively and the origi-
dT out nal temperature of hot water in hot water tank before being
cp;w  M hwt;w ¼ q þ m_ w  cp;w  ðT out  T in Þ ð15Þ
ds heated is 40 °C; the cycle time is 1800 s, 2400 s, and 3000 s,
where q is heating power of stable heat source or solar en- respectively; both the stable heating power and the average
ergy, kW. power of solar collector are 15 KW, and the intensity of
solar radiation in one typical summer (from July to
3.6. Solar energy August) day in Shanghai is adopted. The hot water temper-
ature is controlled at not higher than 100 °C in simulation
process in order to prevent degeneration of silica gel and
q ¼ g  Acollectors  J collectors ð16Þ
where g is the average collection efficiency of solar collec- Table 1
tors, Acollector is area of solar collectors, Jcollecters is every Physical property parameters used in the simulation.
day solar radiation. Symbol Value Unit
Acollector 65 m2
3.7. System performance equations cp,w 4.180 kJ kg1 K1
ca 0.924 kJ kg1 K1
cal 0.905 kJ kg1 K1
Heating power in every cycle:
ccu 0.386 kJ kg1 K1
R tcycle cwv 1.850 kJ kg1 K1
0
cp;w  m_ w  ðT h;in  T h;out Þds Dso 2.54  104 m2 s1
Qh ¼ ð17Þ Ea 4.2  104 J mol1
scycle
DH 2800 kJ kg1
Refrigerating capacity in every cycle: KAad 3800 W K1
KAc 6090 W K1
R tcycle KAe 3420 W K1
0
cp;w  m_ chill  ðT chill;in  T chill;out Þds L 2500 kJ kg1
Qref ¼ ð18Þ
scycle Ma 50.0 kg
Mtube,ad 21.8 kg
Average refrigerating capacity in a day: Mfin,ad 10.9 kg
Mc 15.2 kg
P Me 65.1 kg
Qref  scycle
Qref ;ave ¼ ð19Þ R 461.5 J kg1 K1
8  3600 Rp 7.1  104 m
g 0.35
COP in every cycle:
 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478 1473

Out1 Te
Tad Tchill,out
Tchill,in Te
Out2 >= 0
Tad,in,cool
signal 1
Signal
Tc dx/dt Tchill,out
Tad,in,hot Qh dx/dt

Te -Tc
singal signal Te -Tc
Tad,in,cool
dx/dt Tad 2
In6 Tcool,out
Tc Out4 Tcool,out
Tcool,in
bed1
condenser1 evaporator1
3
Tad,in,hot

Heat source
Te
Tchill,in
Tad
Tchill,in Te
In1
Tad,in,cool
Out1 4
dx/dt Tchill,out In3
In1 Tad,in,hot Qh Qref
Tad,in,hot
In2 signal
signal signal Te -Tc
Tc
dx/dt
dx/dt
In6
Te -Tc Tc Out4
bed2 tad
Tcool,out evaporator2 Qref
Tcool,in
Out1 5
Qh
condenser2 COP

Fig. 2. Simulation model of the silica gel–water adsorption chiller.

the operation environment deterioration of the hot water in a single cycle. For the simulated results, the time-aver-
pump. The working time is 8 h per day and the chiller does aged outlet temperatures of the hot water and chilled water
not work when the hot water temperature does not yet in one cycle. For the simulated results, the time-averaged
reach the initial hot water temperature. outlet temperatures of the hot water and chilled water in
one cycle are 71.3 °C and 12.98 °C, respectively; while for
5. Verification of the mathematical model and simulation the experimental data, those are 73.8 °C and 12.96 °C,
method respectively. The percentage deviations between the simu-
lated results and experimental data are 3.4% and 0.2%.
In order to verify the exactness of the mathematical The simulated results agree with the experimental data very
model and simulation method, the comparison of the sim- well.
ulation data with the data obtained from the former work
(Wang et al., 2005b) has been made. The same working 6. Results and discussions
conditions are that the inlet temperatures of hot water,
cooling water and chilled water are 75.6 °C, 31.1 °C and 6.1. Heat source
15.6 °C, respectively. Fig. 3 shows the variations of the
outlet temperatures of the hot water and the chilled water Based on the variations of solar radiant intensity under
both for the simulated results and the experimental data typical weather condition of Shanghai shown in literature

80

60
Outlet temperature/

40
hot water (exp) hot water (sim)
chilled water (exp) chilled water (sim)
20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Operating time/s

Fig. 3. Comparison of the outlet temperature between the simulation and the experiments (inlet temperature of hot water: 75.6 °C; inlet temperature of
cooling water: 31.1 °C; inlet temperature of chilled water: 15.6 °C).
1474 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478

20 20

stable heat source/kW

Heating power of solar

15 15

Heating power of

collector/kW
10 10

5 5

0 0
9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
Time

Fig. 4. Heating power variations of the stable heat source and from the solar collector.

(a) 7 0.50

6
0.45
capacity(RC)/kW
Refrigerating

COP
0.40
4 RC: initial temperature 40
RC: initial temperature 65 0.35
3 COP: initial temperature 40
COP: initial temperature 65
2 0.30
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Hot water tank capacity/m³

(b) 7 0.50

6
capacity(RC)/kW

0.45
Refrigerating

5
COP

4
RC: initial temperature 40 0.40
RC: initial temperature 65
3 COP: initial temperature 40
COP: initial temperature 65
2 0.35
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Hot water tank capacity/m³

Fig. 5. The average refrigerating capacity in a day and the average COP in a day variations with hot water tank capacity (cycle time: 2400 s). (a) Stable
heat source and (b) solar energy.

(Zhai et al., 2008), the heating power curve is fitted, as
shown in Fig. 4. The time-averaged heating power of the
solar collector is 15 kW, so the heating power of the stable
heat source is also 15 kW.
6.2. Effects of hot water tank capacity
Fig. 5a and b shows variations of the average refrigerat-
ing capacity in a day and the average COP in a day with the
hot water tank capacity when the hot water is heated by a
stable heat source and solar energy respectively. From
these two figures, the average refrigerating capacity will
reach its maximum value with the hot water tank capacity
at 0 m3 and the average COP value in a day will decrease
generally with increase of the hot water tank capacity,
regardless of the chiller powered by a stable heat source
or solar energy. And the impact of the initial hot water
temperature on the performance also enlarges with the
 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478
(a) 8
capacity(RC)/kW
Refrigerating
4
2
0 2400s
-2
0 5000
(b) 8
6
capacity(RC)/kW
Refrigerating
-2
-4
0 5000
Fig. 6. The refrigerating capacity in every cycle variation with operating time (cycle time: 1800 s, 2400 s, 3000 s; initial temperature: 40 °C; hot water tank
capacity: 0 m3). (a) Stable heat source and (b) solar energy.
increase of the hot water tank capacity. A smaller hot
water tank capacity will make the temperature of hot water
rise quickly and cause a higher hot water inlet temperature
of adsorber, so that the desorption capacity increases and
then so does the refrigerating capacity. Both the average
refrigerating capacity in a day and the average COP in a
day will reach their maximum values with the closed circu-
lation of hot water (the hot water tank capacity is 0 m3).
6.3. Effects of the cycle time
The refrigerating capacity each cycle of the chiller pow-
ered by the stable heat source is steady, as shown in
Fig. 6a. Fig. 6a also reveals that during the first cycle time,
the refrigerating capacity is very small and even negative.
The main reason is that the adsorbent is in adsorption sat-
uration state when the chiller turns on. At this moment, the
low hot water temperature will cause little water desorbed
from adsorbent. The adsorption capacity of adsorbent will
be small in the coming adsorption process and then the
refrigerating capacity will be low. Meanwhile, the chilled
water, whose inlet temperature is constant in simulation,
is heated during the first cycle because its inlet temperature
is lower than the temperature of the evaporator. Compared
with the variations indicated in Fig. 6a, the refrigerating
capacity in each cycle obviously changes with the variations
of the solar radiation, as shown in Fig. 6b. And the shorter
the cycle time is, the more obvious the effects of the varia-
1475
1800s
3000s
10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Operating time/s
1200s 1800
2400 3000s
10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Operating time/s
tions of heating power on the refrigerating capacity in each
cycle is. In addition, the refrigerating capacity in last cycle
with 3000 s cycle time shown in both Fig. 6a and b drops
sharply because of the incompletion of the last cycle.
The variations of the average refrigerating capacity and
the average COP in a day with the cycle time for initial
temperature at 40 °C are shown in Fig. 7. The average
refrigerating capacity in a day first increases and then
decreases with the cycle time because of heat transfer resis-
tance and limited adsorption capacity (Wang et al.,
2005a,b), regardless of the chiller driven by a stable heat
source or solar energy. The excessively short cycle time
causes a lower adsorption capacity of the silica gel, and
then the lower average refrigerating capacity will yield.
The excessively long cycle time makes the operating time
with low refrigerating capacity take a greater proportion
in one cycle. So there exists an optimal cycle time for the
refrigerating capacity, and the optimal cycle time is about
2400 s, as shown in Fig. 7. From Fig. 7b, it also can be seen
that the corresponding optimum cycle time for the maxi-
mum refrigerating capacity is different when the hot water
tank capacity is different.
Fig. 8 shows the hot water inlet temperature of the
adsorbers versus operating time when the hot water tank
capacity is 0.2 m3 and the chiller is powered by solar
energy. From Fig. 8, the hot water inlet temperature of
the adsorber increases with the increase of the cycle time.
The hot water inlet temperature of the adsorber will be
1476 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478

(a) 7 0.50

capacity (RC)/kW
0.45

Refrigerating
6

COP
0.40

5
RC 0.35

COP
4 0.30
1800 2400 3000 3600
Cycle time/s

(b) 7 0.55

6
capacity (RC)/kW

0.45
Refrigerating

COP
5
RC: hot wate tank 0m³
RC: hot wate tank 0.2m³
0.35
COP: hot wate tank 0m³
4
COP: hot wate tank 0.2m³

3 0.25
1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Cycle time/s

Fig. 7. The average refrigerating capacity in a day and the average COP in a day versus the cycle time (initial temperature: 40 °C). (a) Stable heat source
(hot water tank capacity: 0 m3) and (b) solar energy (hot water tank capacity: 0 m3, 0.2 m3).

120
3000s
100
inlet temperature/
Hot water

80

60
1800s 2400s

40
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Operating time/s

Fig. 8. Hot water inlet temperature of the adsorbers versus operating time (heat source: solar energy; initial temperature: 40 °C; hot water tank capacity:
0.2 m3; cycle time: 1800 s, 2400 s, 3000 s).

up to 100 °C in the operating time range from 1100 s to
1800 s which lies near the peak value of the solar radiation
if the cycle time is 2400 s. In this time rang, a large amount
of heat energy is waste because the hot water is boiling at
atmospheric pressure. In order not to waste heat energy
in hot water tank, different hot water tank capacity can
be considered when the chiller is powered by solar energy.
The hot water inlet temperature of the adsorber with 1800 s
cycle time is always lower than 100 °C, and then the solar
energy is used enough.
6.4. Effects of the initial hot water temperature
Fig. 9a indicates the variations of average refrigerating
capacity and the average COP in a day with the initial tem-
perature when the chiller is powered by stable heat source.
And Fig. 9b shows those when the chiller is powered by
solar energy. As shown in Fig. 9a, the average refrigerating
capacity and the average COP in a day are little influenced
by the initial temperature, and the maximum change rates
are 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. Similar to that shown in
 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478 1477

(a) 7.0 0.55

capacity (RC)/kW
Refrigerating
6.0 0.50

COP
5.0 0.45

RC: cycle time 2400s RC: cycle time 3000s

COP: cycle time 2400s COP: cycle time 3000s
4.0 0.40
40 50 60 70 80
Initial temperature/

(b) 6.5 0.55

RC: hot water tank 0m³
RC: hot water tank 0.2m³
COP: hot water tank 0m³
capacity (RC)/kW

COP: hot water tank 0.2m³

Refrigerating

0.50

COP
6.0

0.45

5.5 0.40
40 50 60 70 80
Initial temperature/

Fig. 9. The average refrigerating capacity in a day and the average COP in a day variations with initial temperature. (a) Stable heat source (hot water tank
capacity: 0 m3) and (b) solar energy (cycle time: 2400 s).

Fig. 8a, the average refrigerating capacity and the average
COP in a day with closed circulation of hot water whose
maximal change rates are both about 0.2%, are less affected
by the initial temperature, as shown in Fig. 8b. But the
change rates of these two parameters will enlarge if the
hot water tank capacity is not equal to 0 m3. For example,
the maximum change rates are 4.1% and 1.8% respectively
with the hot water tank capacity at 0.2 m3. For the chiller
powered by solar energy, when the closed circulation of hot
water is adopted (that is, the hot water capacity in hot
water tank is 0 m3), the optimum performance is achieved
at the initial temperature of 55 °C. The average refrigerat-
ing capacity and the average COP in a day are about
6.04 kW and 0.458 respectively. When open circulation of
hot water is adopted (that is, the hot water capacity in
hot water tank is not 0 m3, such as 0.2 m3), the optimal ini-
tial temperature will increase.
7. Conclusions
Dynamic characteristics of the chiller driven by a stable
heat source and solar energy were simulated by a model
built in Simulink. And the effects of different working con-
ditions on performance of the chiller were investigated.
Based on the analysis of the simulated results, the conclu-
sions could be drawn as follows:
(1) When the chiller was driven by a stable heat source
and the closed circulation of hot water was adopted,
the optimum performance was achieved. When the
chiller was driven by solar energy, the open circulation
of hot water was better for improving the perfor-
mance of the chiller with a short cycle time, and the
closed circulation of hot water was helpful to improve
the performance of the chiller with a longer cycle time.
(2) Driven by either a stable heat source or solar energy,
the chiller gained its optimum performance with the
same cycle time. When the chiller was powered by
solar energy, different hot water tank capacity should
be considered in order to more effectively utilize heat
energy from solar collectors.
(3) For a closed circulation of hot water, the average
refrigerating capacity and the average COP in a day
were slightly influenced by the initial temperature.
The effects of the initial temperature on the average
refrigerating capacity and the average COP in a day
would become larger when the hot water tank capacity
increased, and there existed an optimum initial temper-
ature for an optimal performance of the chiller.
1478 G. Zhang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1469–1478
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Contract No. 50806035 and
the Science Foundation of Shandong Province under Con-
tract No. 2009zra02050.
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