The sole irreversibility considered in an endoreversible Carnot refrigerator model is the loss of heat resistance between the refrigerator and its surrounding heat reservoirs. This paper presents a generalized irreversible Carnot refrigerator model by taking into account several additional internal irreversibilities of the refrigerator, such as heat leakage, friction, turbulence and other undesirable factors. This is done by means of a constant parameter and a constant coefficient, together with the loss of heat resistance. The relation between optimal cooling load and coefficient of performance (COP) is derived based on a generalized heat transfer law Q ? ?(Tn). The effect of heat leakage, internal irreversibility, and heat transfer law on the optimal performance of the generalized irreversible Carnot refrigerator is investigated.
Print ISSN: 0340-0204
Volume: 26, 09/2001
Pages: 291 - 304