Compressor oil recovery in hybrid vcc pumped two phase loops
AssigneeHamilton Sundstrand Corporation
InventorsRaphael Mandel, Ram Ranjan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cooling system includes a liquid loop, a vapor compression loop, and a heat exchanger in fluid communication with each of the liquid loop and the vapor compression cycle loop. The liquid loop includes a cold sink for cooling a heat load. The vapor compression cycle loop is fluidly coupled to the liquid loop by a separator, which is configured to separate a two-phase form of a working fluid received from the cold sink into a vapor form of the working fluid and a liquid form of the working fluid.
Claims20
A cooling system comprising:
- a liquid loop comprising a cold sink for cooling a heat load;
- a vapor compression cycle loop fluidly coupled to the liquid loop by a separator, the separator configured to separate a two-phase form of a working fluid received from the cold sink into a vapor form of the working fluid and a liquid form of the working fluid;
- and
- a heat exchanger in fluid communication with each of the liquid loop and the vapor compression cycle loop.
A method of recovering a lubricant in a hybrid vapor compression cooling system, the method comprising:
- separating, by a separator, a vapor form of a working fluid from a liquid form of a working fluid, wherein the working fluid comprises the lubricant and wherein the lubricant is preferentially separated with the liquid form of the working fluid;
- delivering the liquid form of the working fluid from the separator to a liquid loop, the liquid loop comprising a pump and a cold sink fluidly coupled in flow series, the cold sink in fluid communication with a separator inlet;
- delivering the vapor form of the working fluid from the separator to a vapor compression cycle loop, the vapor compression cycle loop comprising a compressor, a condenser, and an expansion valve fluidly coupled in flow series, the expansion valve fluidly coupled to a separator inlet;
- delivering a first portion of the working fluid in the liquid loop to the cold sink;
- and
- delivering a second portion of the working fluid in the liquid loop to the vapor compression cycle loop.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.