Experimental and numerical study of heat transfer characteristics using the heat balance in a linear compressor

A linear compressor was divided into several control volumes, and its thermal performance was analyzed by maintaining the whole energy balance throughout the heat transfer analysis for each control volume. During the steady state performance test of the compressor, basic measurements of the temperature and pressure were performed by using a calorimeter. First, the energy flow of each control volume was defined using the results of the measurements, and then heat transfer analysis was conducted. Next, the thermal network was defined by using a correlation for the energy balance. A software tool for compressor simulation was developed using a thermal network analysis in order to estimate the energy efficiency ratio (EER) according to the changes in thermal properties of the compressor. Experimental results show that the simulation tool is satisfied up to a 5% change in the EER according to variations in the ambient temperature and mixing ratio of the refrigerant.