The present invention relates to an accumulator which is arranged at a suction side of a compressor in a refrigerant circuit, separates the gas and liquid of the refrigerant, and stores the liquid refrigerant.
As the above-mentioned accumulator, there is known one of a type which arranges a gas-liquid separating plate at the inside and makes the gas/liquid dual phase refrigerant strike it, as shown in for example FIG. 9 of PLT 1.
In this regard, in the accumulator of
PLT 1. JP 2000-356439 A
The accumulator according to the prior art which is shown in
The present invention is made in consideration of the above problem and has as its object the provision of an accumulator for refrigerant use with a small pressure loss.
To solve the above problem, the present invention provides an accumulator (1) arranged at a suction side of a compressor in,a refrigerant circuit, and adapted to separate a refrigerant into a gas and liquid and store the liquid refrigerant, the accumulator (1) comprising a pressure vessel (2) which forms an inside space (S), an inflow port (5) of the refrigerant and an outflow port (6) of the refrigerant which are provided at the pressure vessel (2), a conduit (8) which guides the refrigerant in the pressure vessel (2) to the outflow port (6), and a gas-liquid separating means (15) comprising a separating plate (16) which is arranged in the pressure vessel (2) facing the inflow port (5) and spreads out substantially perpendicular to a flow line at the inflow port (5), wherein the gas-liquid separating means (15) has a peak shaped protrusion (18) which has a single crest (18a) projecting out in the direction of the inflow port (5) and a slanted surface (18b) on the separating plate (16) at a region facing the inflow port (5).
Accordingly, due to the effect of the peak shaped protrusion (18), the inflow of the refrigerant from the inflow port (5) can be smoothly converted to the substantially vertical direction and the separating plate (16) can be arranged in relative proximity to the inflow port (5) and the change of the flow cross-sectional area becomes smaller, so that the pressure loss of the refrigerant which occurs inside of the accumulator (1) can be kept small.
In the present invention, the gas-liquid separating means (15) has a circumferential wall part (17) which runs around the separating plate (16) so as to define a space (S1) which opens at the opposite side to the inflow port (5) and wherein an inlet (11) of the conduit (8) is arranged preferably in the space (S1) defined by the gas-liquid separating means (15). By virtue of this arrangement, the liquid refrigerant is prevented from entering inside the conduit (8) from the inlet (11) of the conduit (8).
In the present invention, the peak shaped protrusion (18) may have the shape of a cone.
In the present invention, a slanted surface (18b) of the peak shaped protrusion (18) is preferably curved in a recessed shape.
In the present invention, the crest (18a) of the peak shaped protrusion (18) may be positioned on the center axis (5x) of the inflow port (5).
In the present invention, the outflow port (6) may be arranged substantially parallel to the inflow port (5) and the crest (18a) of the peak shaped protrusion (18) may be offset from the center axis (5x) of the inflow port (5) in a direction away from the outflow port (6). By virtue of this arrangement, the conduit (8) which is connected to the inside of the outflow port (6) or the ring-shaped protrusion which is formed in the pressure vessel (2) for connecting the conduit (8) eases the extent of obstruction to the fluid which enters from the inflow port (5) and flows along the separating plate (16).
In the present invention, an inside surface of the pressure vessel (2) which faces the separating plate (16) may extend in parallel to the separating plate (16) and the gap (g) between the separating plate (16) and the inside surface of the pressure vessel (2) may be ¼ times or more of the inside diameter (D) of the inflow port (5).
In the present invention, the crest (18a) of the peak shaped protrusion (18) may be of a height not more than the boundary surface of the inside space (S) of the pressure vessel (2) and the inflow port (5).
In the present invention, the conduit (8) is preferably configured as a double wall tube which is comprised of an inside tube (9) and an outside tube (10) which surrounds the inside tube (9), where one end of the inside tube (9) is connected to the outflow port (6) and the other end is opened at the inside of the outside tube (10), and the end of the outside tube (10) which has an inlet (11) for introducing a gaseous refrigerant flares out in a trumpet shape. By virtue of this arrangement, it is possible to suppress pressure loss of the gaseous refrigerant at the inlet (11) of the conduit (8).
An accumulator 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be explained while referring to the longitudinal cross-sectional view of
The accumulator 1 which is shown in
The accumulator 1 of
The top end of the inside tube 9 is connected to the outflow port 6 by inserting the top end of the inside tube 9 into the ring-shaped projecting part 7 of the lid member 4, then enlarging it in diameter. At this time, a recessed part 16a which is formed at a later explained separating plate 16 of the gas-liquid separating means 15 is fastened by sandwiching it between the end face of the ring-shaped projecting part 7 of the lid member 4 and the inside tube 9, so a ring-shaped bead 14 is formed at the inside tube 9 by, for example, beading.
The gas-liquid separating means 15 of the present embodiment has a separating plate 16 which spreads out substantially horizontally, as shown in
The inside surface of the lid member 4 of the pressure vessel 2 extends flat and horizontally, except at the ring-shaped projecting part 7 at the inside of the outflow port 6. As a result, with the separating plate 16 of the gas-liquid separating means 15, a space S2 which has a substantially uniform height “g”, except at the region of the peak shaped protrusion 18 is formed. It should be noted that the space S2 will hereinafter be referred to as an “upper separating plate space S2”. In the accumulator shown in
The “inside diameter D of the inflow port” in the terms in this Description means the inside diameter D of the flow channel at the inflow side contiguous with the inside space S of the pressure vessel 2. As a result, in the case of the embodiment which is shown in
Next, how an accumulator 1 of the embodiment of
The gas/liquid dual phase refrigerant which is discharged from the evaporator (not shown) is introduced from the inflow port 5 of the accumulator 1 substantially vertically downward such as shown by the arrow in
In the accumulator 1 of the present embodiment, the liquid refrigerant which is stored close to the bottom part of the pressure vessel 2 and contains a large amount of oil is also sucked into the double wall tube 8 through the small oil return hole 12 which is provided at the bottom part of the outside tube 10 and returned to the compressor together with the gaseous refrigerant.
In the accumulator 1 of the present embodiment, the refrigerant which flows in from the inflow port 5 is smoothly converted in flow from a vertical to a horizontal direction by the action of the peak shaped protrusion 18 which is provided on that separating plate 16 facing the inflow port 5, so that pressure loss is reduced compared with when there is no peak shaped protrusion 18. Furthermore, since the height “g” of the upper separating plate space S2 is set to relatively less in the present embodiment, i.e. to ¼ of the inside diameter D of the inflow port 5, the change in cross-sectional area of the flow is smaller. More specifically, the rate of increase of the flow cross-sectional area of the upper separating plate space S2 to the flow cross-sectional area of the inflow port 5 and the rate of decrease of the flow cross-sectional area of the circumferential wall part gap S3 to the flow cross-sectional area of the upper separating plate space S2 is relatively smaller, and thus pressure loss of the refrigerant gas is kept small.
Further, the inlet 11 of the double wall tube 8 into which the separated gas refrigerant flows flares out in a trumpet shape, whereby pressure loss at this part is also kept small.
While the peak shaped protrusion 18 is shaped similar to a conical shape having a circular bottom in the above embodiment, and thus the slanted surface 18b is shaped curved in a recessed shape, an embodiment wherein the peak shaped protrusion 18 is a conical shape or a prismatic shape which has a straight slanted surface or surfaces 18b (not shown) is also possible.
In the peak shaped protrusion 18 of the above embodiment, the tip of the crest 18a reaches exactly the inside open surface of the inflow port 5. However, the optimal value of the height of the peak shaped protrusion 18 differs, for example, depending on the height “g” of the upper separating plate space S2 as well. Therefore, the pressure loss sometimes falls more in an embodiment wherein the height is lower than that of the embodiment of
Since the outflow port 6 must be joined with the inside tube 9, the ring-shaped projecting part 7 is formed at the inside of the lid member 4. However, the ring-shaped projecting part 7 becomes an obstruction to the fluid which flows in from the inflow port 5 and flows toward the circumferential wall part 17. For this reason, to ease the effects of this obstacle and therefore the pressure loss, an embodiment is also possible wherein the horizontal direction position of the crest 18a of the peak shaped protrusion 18, as shown in
In the embodiment of
The gas-liquid separating means 15 of the above embodiment has a circumferential wall part 17. However, an embodiment wherein the gas-liquid separating means 15 does not have a circumferential wall part 17 (not shown) is also possible.
The conduit 8 in the above embodiment is comprised of a double wall tube. However, an embodiment wherein the conduit 8 is a tubular structure other than a double wall tube, for example, wherein it is comprised of a single U-shaped tube which is bent in a U-shape, has one end connected to the outflow port 6, and has the other end opened inside of the inside space S of the pressure vessel 2 (not shown) is also possible.
While the present invention is explained in detail based on specific embodiments, it should be apparent that a person skilled in the art could make various changes, corrections, etc. without departing from the scope of the claims and overall concept of the present invention.
1 accumulator
2 pressure vessel
3 vessel body
4 lid member
5 inflow port
6 outflow port
8 conduit
9 inside tube
10 outside tube
11 inlet
15 gas-liquid separating means
16 separating plate
17 circumferential wall part
18 peak shaped protrusion
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2011-260889 | Nov 2011 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2012/072633 | 9/5/2012 | WO | 00 | 5/27/2014 |