Simulation of an ammoniaewater compressioneabsorption refrigeration system for water chilling application A.K. Pratihar a, *, S.C. Kaushik b , R.S. Agarwal c a Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Technology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263145, India b Centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016, India c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016, India article info Article history: Received 22 December 2009 Received in revised form 12 May 2010 Accepted 19 May 2010 Available online 26 May 2010 Keywords: Absorption system Ammoniaewater Hybrid cycle Modeling Simulation Performance abstract A detailed simulation of a 400 kW ammoniaewater compressioneabsorption refrigeration system has been carried out for water chilling application for summer air conditioning. Simulation has been performed for three different configurations of system having 17%, 23%, and 30% relative solution heat exchanger areas. The effect of relative solution heat exchanger area and mass flow rate of weak solution on the COP, cooling capacity and absorber heat load has been studied. The results show that the COP of the system can be increased by maintaining low mass flow rate of weak solution and large relative solution heat exchanger area. Increase in the relative solution heat exchanger area from 10 to 30% resulted in an increase in COP by about 16%. Further increase in relative SHX area revealed that there exists an optimum area at which COP becomes maximum. The performance of this system has been compared with that of a conventional R 22 vapor compression type chiller. ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved. Simulation d’un syste ` me frigorifique a ` ammoniac-eau a ` compression a ` absorption pour une application refroidissement d’eau Mots cle ´s : Syste `me a ` absorption ; Ammoniac-eau ; Cycle hybride ; Additif ; Compresseur ; Mode ´ lisation ; Simulation ; Performance * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 5944 233258, þ91 94570 12225 (mobile); fax: þ91 5944 233338. E-mail address: akpratihar@gmail.com (A.K. Pratihar). www.iifiir.org available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 1386 e1394 0140-7007/$ e see front matter ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2010.05.011