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COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical Simulation of an Ejector Using the OpenFOAM® Solvers
Submission Author:
Wellorzzon Ronnan Ibide Novais , SP
Co-Authors:
Wellorzzon Ronnan Ibide Novais, Vicente Luiz Scalon
Presenter: Wellorzzon Ronnan Ibide Novais
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-0948
Abstract
A new researching technology can use the Sun heat energy to complete the refrigeration cycle without the compressor, the most power consumer device in an air conditioner. It can be achieved replacing the compressor by an ejector, however, it results in a lower performance of the system, which can be improved increasing the ejector’s performance using the CFD simulations. In this work the CFD software OpenFOAM was used to validate the model that will be used to perform a future performance analysis of an ejector. The solvers rhoCentralFoam, rhoPimpleFoam, sonicFoam and modFoam, a new solver created to enable Peng-Robinson gas equation, were analyzed with an initial mesh of about 11.000 quadrangular cells and the standard k − ε turbulence model. The lab conditions and results were based on a previous work performed with the R-134a refrigerant fluid. The solvers rhoPimpleFoam and rhoCentralFoam were unfeasible due to high time requirement or instability. The ratio between the input mass fluxes were better predicted by the sonicFoam, while the wall pressure in the mixing chamber had better results using the modFoam. The initial mesh presented good accuracy, but future analysis are required to understand why the mesh refinement influenced negatively on the accuracy.
Keywords
ejector, OpenFOAM, Air Conditioner, sonicFoam, rhoCentralFoam
