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Direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pumps (DX-SAHP) have been used widely to heat the consuming water of buildings and industrial facilities, domestic and industrial space heating and also, air conditioning. These systems transfer energy from lower temperature source to a higher temperature source. In DX-SAHP systems, In order to optimize the heat transfer of solar radiation to the refrigerant, the flat plate solar collector is used as the evaporator. In this paper, the thermal performance of a DX-SAHP has been studied using numerical simulation for heating the water of a house in Kermanshah. The system mainly employs a bare flat-plate solar collector with a surface area of 4 m2, a hot water tank with the volume of 150 L, a rotary-type hermetic compressor, a thermostatic expansion valve and R-134a is also used as working fluid in the system. The results show that the hours of system operation, during different months in the climate of Kermanshah, vary between 37 to 130 hours and the monthly average COP and the solar collector efficiency vary between 3.96 to 6.71 and 68 to 99 percent respectively. The effect of various parameters, including solar radiation, ambient temperature, collector area, compressor speed, number of collector cover and wind speed have been analyzed on the thermal performance of the system.

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In this study, optimization of a solar cooling system assisted ground source Heat Pump system (GSHP) is performed. The optimization process was carried out using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. Three optimization scenarios, including thermodynamic single objective, thermoeconomic single objective, and multi-objective optimizations, are performed. In the case of multi-objective optimization, an example of a decision-making process for selection of the final solution from the Pareto optimal frontier is presented. It was concluded that the multi-objective optimization considers two objectives of thermodynamic and economic, simultaneously. The results obtained using the various optimization approaches are compared and discussed. It is shown that the thermodynamic optimization is focused on provision for the limited source of energy, whereas the thermoeconomic optimization only focuses on monetary resources. In contrast, the multi-objective optimization considers both energy and monetary. The results showd that percentages of deviation from ideal values of thermodynamic and economic criteria for the thermodynamic optimized system were 0% and 905% respectively. These percentages for the economic optimized system were 104% and 0%, respectively. Deviation values from minimum ideal point for the multi-objective optimized design were obtained 10% and 88% for thermodynamic and economic criteria, respectively. It was concluded that the multi-objective design satisfies the thermodynamic and economic criteria better than two single-objective thermodynamic and economic optimized designs.

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In the recent decades, due to environmental sustainability, abundance, availability and appropriate thermo-physical properties, natural refrigerants are being considered with potential of substitute refrigerants. In this study, Propylene (R1270), Propane (R290), Isobutane (R600a), R407c, R410a, R12, R22 and R134a have been investigated as refrigerant in common refrigeration systems. In the case studies, the thermodynamic and technical parameters of the cycle, using above mentioned refrigerants, have been investigated for common refrigeration systems in temperature range of -30°C to 10°C in the evaporator, and also for heat pump systems with a temperature range of 45°C to 60°C in the condenser. Finally, Propylene was introduced as a refrigerant to replace with synthetic refrigerants in the above mentioned temperature ranges in common refrigeration cycles.

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This paper presents a steady state simulation model to analyze a direct expansion ground source heat pump that uses carbon dioxide as refrigerant in a transcritical cycle. The analysis considers pressure drop characteristic in heat exchangers of the system. The present numerical model has been developed to examine the system in different operating conditions in two discrete cases. These cases include constant evaporator loop length and specified heating capacity. Then model evaluate the system based on COP and heating capacity in the first case and COP and evaporator loop length in the second case. To evaluate the performance of the system, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of different parameters such as difference between soil temperature and evaporator outlet temperature, compressor speed, water inlet temperature, water mass flow rate, area ratio heat exchanger and soil temperature. In both studies, It can be concluded that in a specific temperature difference of the difference between soil temperature and the outlet temperature of the evaporator, there is a maximum value for COP. Also, increasing the compressor speed and the temperature of inlet water to the gas cooler is accompanied with the diminution of COP. Increasing the mass flow rate of inlet water to the gas cooler leads to surge in COP. The results of this study include heat capacity, coefficient of performance and ground heat exchanger loop length can be used for design and optimization of a direct expansion geothermal heat pump.

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In this article the effect of using ejector on the thermodynamic performance of the hybrid heat pump is evaluated. With simulation of the new hybrid-ejector heat pump in the EES software, first the effect of the ejector mixing section diameter on the results is analyzed and it is concluded that a diameter of about 15mm makes the primary energy ratio (PER, the ratio of useful thermal energy output to the total initial heat energy input) and second law efficiency of the heat pump to be maximum and the exit temperature of the compressor to be minimum. Next, PER, second law efficiency and the compressor exit temperature of new heat pump are compared with those of the conventional hybrid heat pump at the same amount and temperature of the input heat. The results showed that the PER and second law efficiency of the new layout is maximum 10 percent and about 18 percent higher than those of the hybrid cycle respectively. It is also observed that with considering the restriction in compressor exit temperature, in new system, it is possible to increase the temperature of input heat 35C more compared to the increase that can be occurred in the hybrid system. Finally, the analysis of the relative exergy losses in the components of the systems revealed that in the new layout, the relative exergy losses of throttling valve, desorber, compressor and absorber were reduced and improved the performance of this cycle.

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In variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps facing variable environmental conditions, the required load is achieved by means of compressor speed and expansion valve opening. Thus, this type of heat pumps is under transient conditions in addition to steady state conditions. Thus a detailed modeling is essential for an appropriate heat pump analysis and strategy. In the present paper, dynamic modeling of a VRF heat pump is conducted. For this purpose, dynamic modeling of heat exchangers is done via modified moving boundary method. Compressor and expansion valve are modeled in steady state as their thermal transient conditions are much faster compared to heat exchangers. Finally components models are coupled in MATLAB software. Validations indicate the present model with 5.3 percent error is more accurate than the previous studies (10 percent error). By investigating of compressor speed and expansion valve opening variations effect by the present model, it is concluded that transient conditions on system performance such as COP and generation are very effective compared to steady state conditions and these effects depend on the type and size of variation and in this article 15 percent difference is achieved. These conditions must be considered in system strategy, otherwise system real generation and model prediction will be different and consequently thermal comfort will be disturbed. Thus an accurate dynamic model is necessary for all steady and transient conditions and the present model can be utilized.

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In this paper, the effect of expander and the internal heat exchanger is investigated in transcritical carbon dioxide direct-expansion geothermal heat pump. In this regard, a comparison is performed between four cycles. The four cycles are: (1) the cycle with expansion valve, (2) the cycle with expander, (3) the cycle with expansion valve and internal heat exchanger, (4) the cycle with expander and internal heat exchanger. The present numerical model has been investigated performance analysis of the four cycles under study in different operating conditions in two district cases. The first study includes a specific heating load, and the second study is a constant evaporator loop length (ELL). Then model evaluates characteristics including coefficient of performance (COP), evaporator loop length and heating capacity of the four cycles under study. To examine the performance of the four cycles, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of different parameters such as difference between soil temperature and evaporator outlet temperature, water inlet temperature, water mass flow rate, gas cooler length. The results indicate that COP associated with the expander cycle is always higher than the values related to the expansion valve cycle. The use of internal heat exchanger in a cycle including an expansion valve always leads to a slight increase in COP. An internal heat exchanger has negligible effect on COP in the cycle with an expander but reduces the evaporator loop length.

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The concept of Zero Energy Building [5] has been introduced globally to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in the building sector. Renewable energy systems such as Solar Thermal collectors, Photovoltaic collectors, and Heat Pumps are used to implement ZEBs. This study proposes a Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal-Air Source Heat Pump (BIPVT-ASHP) to realize ZEB in a small-scale building. To evaluate the performance of the system, a BIPVT-ASHP hybrid system model was designed, and also the building load model was defined based on the actual building conditions. Then, the heating and cooling performance of the BIPVT-ASHP system was dynamically simulated for one year using TRNSYS software. Then the system was numerically evaluated from energy, economic and environmental perspectives. According to the results of this study, for this system, the initial non-renewable energy consumption was 1.29 kWh/m² per year, which was less than the heating energy threshold for the ZEB, and the proposed system met well the ZEB conditions. In addition, it was shown that for a given area, photovoltaic/thermal technology leads to a further reduction in non-renewable primary energy consumption but less solar thermal energy production compared to traditional separate production using photovoltaic [2] collectors.