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A study on the oil flow characteristics in the inverter rotary compressor

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2013 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 52 042004

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6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

A study on the oil flow characteristics in the inverter rotary

compressor

H J Kim and Y J Kim

School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University
300 Cheoncheon-dong, Suwon 440-746, Korea,

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. In order to secure the reliability of the oil in the inverter rotary compressor used in
the system multi-air conditioners in heating and cooling modes, it is necessary to study the oil
flow characteristics which affect to the compressor efficiency. In this study, sight glasses were
installed at the compressor and accumulator for oil flow measurements, and various
experiments were performed to measure the amount of discharged oil for different refrigerant
pipe lengths. On the basis of the experimental measurements, we compared the OCR (Oil
Circulation Rate) results of the system multi-air conditioner for various operating conditions.
The results are graphically depicted.

1. Introduction
With higher standards of living, the air conditioner has become a home appliance necessity, although
its use has raised concerns about the residential environment. In particular, the system multi-air
conditioner has become the solution to energy conservation and environmental issues, etc. It consists
of an outdoor unit with an inverter rotary compressor, refrigerant pipes connected to the outdoor unit,
and several indoor units. The indoor units are controlled through the variable inverter rotary
compressor according to the thermal load of each room. The installed refrigerant pipe length reflecting
the different distances between each room and the outdoor unit influences the compressor performance.
Many studies have been carried out about the indoor and outdoor units of the system multi-air
conditioner. However, only a few studies have been performed on the influence of the incremental
pipe length of an installed system multi-air conditioner [1, 2]. The oil discharged from the compressor
influences the system performance and the reliability of the compressor. Excessive discharged oil can
deteriorate the reliability of the compressor by reducing the efficiency of the compressor with rising
temperature and by over pressurizing the compressed oil [3, 4]. Cremaschi et al. [5] investigated oil
retention in air conditioning systems by experiments. They found that the oil retention volume is
proportional to the oil mass fraction and the ratio of the liquid film viscosity to the refrigerant vapor
viscosity.
In this study, the discharged oil from the inverter rotary compressor was measured for different
lengths of the refrigerant pipe. We compared the OCR (Oil Circulation Rate) results of the system
multi-air conditioner for various conditions, such as normal, overload and low temperature conditions,
in cooling and heating modes.

2. Experiments

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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

2.1. Experimental devices

Experiments were performed with a commercial system multi-air conditioner. The experimental
devices were configured to measure the amount of discharged oil from the inverter rotary compressor.
The Discharged Oil Measurement Device (DOMD) was installed to measure the amount of the
separated oil before the experiment. In particular, we investigated the effects of the refrigerant pipe
lengths of a short-line pipe (SLP: 5m) and a long-line pipe (LLP: 75m), which were installed between
the indoor unit and the outdoor unit. The schematic diagrams of the experimental devices are given in
Figs. 1 and 2. The major components of the experimental devices for the measurement of discharged
oil are shown in Fig. 3. The valves (v1, v2, v3, v4) change the path of discharged flow from the
compressor to the DOMD. As shown in Fig. 4, sight glasses were installed at compressor, accumulator
and DOMD to visualize oil flow behaviours. The experiments were performed in a chamber in the
calorimeter laboratory, which could set up the environmental conditions.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the commercial Figure 2. Revised schematic diagram for
system multi-air conditioner. experiments.

Figure 3. Photos of the discharged oil Figure 4. Installed sight glasses at the
measurement devices. compressor, accumulator and discharged oil
measurement devices.

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6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

Table 1. The experimental conditions (using the calorimeter laboratory).

Temperature [℃]
Mode Working condition Indoor Outdoor
Dry bulb / Wet bulb Dry bulb / Wet bulb
Normal 20 / 15 7/6
Heating [30℃] Overload 27 / 15 24 / 18
Low temp. 20 / 15 2/0
Normal 27 / 19.5 35 / 24
Cooling [18℃] Overload 32 / 27.5 43 / 33
Low temp. 21 / 15 21 / 15
Compressor Frequency 58Hz

Table 2. The amount of discharged oil at various operating conditions.

Operating mode SLP [5m] LLP [75m]

Average level of Heating 3.5 4.5
discharged oil [cm] Cooling 2.6 4.6
Average the amount of Heating 6.0 3.6
discharged oil [kg/h] Cooling 4.7 3.2
Max. the amount of Heating 9.2 (Overload) 5.2 (Low temp.)
discharged oil [kg/h] Cooling 8.1 (Normal) 3.9 (Overload)
Min. the amount of Heating 4.1 (Normal) 1.0 (Low temp.)
discharged oil [kg/h] Cooling 2.1 (Low temp.) 0.9 (Low temp.)

2.2. Experimental methods

In this study, SLP and LLP experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of oil flow on the
performance of an inverter rotary compressor according to pipe length. The fixed frequency of 58Hz
was used for experimental reliability of the compressor. Also, the amount of discharged oil was
measured for various temperature conditions as given in Table 1 [6]. The operating fluids were R-410a
refrigerant and polyol ester oil.
The amount of discharged oil was measured by a 4-step procedure, which consists of discharge,
separation after sampling, measurement and return to accumulator. Ma and Seok [7] analyzed the
dynamic response behaviors of the valve system of the rotary compressor. At the discharge step, after
opening the valve 2, we operated the system multi-air conditioner until the surface of the oil stabilized,
which was observed by the naked eye through the sight glasses of the compressor and accumulator [8].
At the separation – after – sampling step, if the oil surface had stabilized, valve 2 was closed, and both
valve 1 and valve 3 were opened simultaneously. Hence, the mixture of refrigerant and oil was
circulated through the system via the DOMD. At the measurement step, valve 2 was opened at a
specified time, and then DOMD was isolated from the system after both valve 1 and valve 3 were
closed to measure the oil level. Finally, at the return – to – accumulator step, the valve 4 was opened

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6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

so that the compressor could recover the oil. The OCR that can be calculated by using the measured
amount of discharged oil can be expressed as follows:
System oil circulation rate ( g )
OCR (%)  (1)
System [oil  refrigerant ] circulation rate ( g )

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Pressure-enthalpy diagram

Experimental data of the SLP and LLP conditions were measured such as the temperatures and
pressures of the inlets and outlets of the compressor and condenser at the steady state condition. The
results are depicted in the p-h diagram for various operating modes of the SLP (see Fig. 5(a, b)) and
the LLP conditions (see Fig. 5(c, d)). And we confirmed the stable cycles of the systems with different
pipe lengths for all operating conditions.

3.2. The amount of discharged oil

The levels of discharged oil for various external conditions are plotted in Figs. 6 and 7 for the heating
and cooling modes, and the measured values are given in Table 2. It is noted that for the SLP
experiment, the amount of discharged oil was measured in a short time, less than 150 s. However, for
the LLP experiment, the measurement required 600 s. Results showed that the average discharge rate
of oil was 6 kg/h in the heating mode of the SLP, and 4.7 kg/h in the cooling mode of the SLP.
Results also confirmed that the average discharge rate of oil was 3.6 kg/h in heating mode of the
LLP, and 3.2 kg/h in cooling mode of the LLP. The discharge rate of oil was 0.9 kg/h at the low
temperature condition in the cooling mode of the LLP condition, which had the smallest thermal
loading. And the highest discharge rate of oil was 9.2 kg/h at the overload condition in the heating
mode of the SLP condition, which had the largest thermal load. In the cooling mode at the low
temperature LLP condition, the amount of discharged oil was 3.5 times less than the average amount
of discharged oil.

(a) short-line pipe of heating mode (b) short-line pipe of cooling mode

(c) long-line pipe of heating mode (d) long-line pipe of cooling mode

Figure 5. P-h diagram at the steady state.

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6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

However, in the heating mode of the overload SLP condition, it was twice the average value. The
amount of discharged oil increased as the thermal load of the system increased in the SLP condition.

(a) short-line pipe (b) long-line pipe

Figure 6. The level of discharged oil in the heating mode.

(a) short-line pipe (b) long-line pipe

Figure 7. The level of discharged oil in the cooling mode.

Figure 8. Comparison of OCR results in the Figure 9. Comparison of the OCR results in the
heating mode. cooling mode.

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6th International Conference on Pumps and Fans with Compressors and Wind Turbines IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 52 (2013) 042004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/52/4/042004

3.3. Compressor oil reliability

Based on the calculated OCR results, the reliability of a compressor was evaluated for various external
conditions. Min and Hwang [9] reported that the OCR influences the reliability of a rotary compressor.
The comparison of the OCR results between the SLP and LLP conditions is shown in Figs. 8 and 9 for
various operating conditions, such as normal, overload and low temperature conditions, in heating and
cooling modes. The OCR of the SLP condition was higher than that of the LLP condition in both
heating and cooling modes. If the OCR is high, the amount of oil discharged from the compressor is
increased, creating an oil shortage that can decrease the reliability of a rotary compressor. In particular,
the OCR results of the SLP and LLP conditions showed the greatest difference up to 1.06% at the low
temperature condition in the heating mode, and a difference of 0.94% at the normal condition in the
cooling mode.

4. Conclusions
In order to secure the reliability of the inverter rotary compressor used in system multi-air conditioners,
the oil flow characteristics were experimentally investigated. In particular, the amount of discharged
oil from the compressor was measured. Also, p-h diagrams were prepared and the cycle was found to
have a stable formation at all specified geometrical and operational conditions. Therefore, the
operating reliability of the inverter rotary compressor can be secured in the system multi-air
conditioner. In the SLP condition, the average value of the OCR in the heating mode was 0.19%
higher than that in the cooling mode. However, in the LLP condition, the average value of the OCR in
the cooling mode is slightly higher than that in the heating mode. Based on OCR comparison, we may
conclude that the reliability of oil in the compressor is low at the low temperature condition in the
heating mode because of the big difference of OCR between SLP and LLP conditions.

References
[1] Song J S, Lee S I, Chung H J, Kim Y C and Kim S G 2006 Trans. of KSME 2486-91.
[2] Kim K R, Tae S J, Moon J M, Kim J Y, Kwon H J and Cho K N 2003 Study on the performance
and oil-return characteristics of system-multi air-conditioner under high head condition (in
Korean) Proc. of SAREK 103.
[3] Lee J B and Lee S K 2003 Correlation analysis between OCR and differential pressure of rotary
compressor (in Korean) Proc. of SAREK p 122.
[4] Kim Y S, Kim Y J, Lee S K, Youn Y and Ko H S 2004 Analysis of oil behavior and
development of quantification technique for rotary compressor (in Korean) Proc. of SAREK
p 141
[5] Cremaschi L, Hwang Y H and Radermacher R 2005 Experimental investigation of oil retention
in air conditioning systems Int. J. Refrigeration 28 1018-28
[6] Kang H, Lee S I, Joo Y J, Chung H J, Kim Y C and Choi J M 2007 Experimental study on the
performance characteristics of a simultaneous heating and cooling heat pump system at each
operating mode(in Korean) Proc. of SAREK 19(10), pp 679-86.
[7] Ma Y C and Seok J W 1996 Dynamic response behavior on rotary compressor valve system
Trans. of KSME pp 76-81
[8] Lee S C, Kim T A, Tae S J, Jung G H, Moon J M, Kim Y-J 2008 Evaluation of the operating
reliability on the concurrent heating-cooling system air conditioner for different refrigerant
flow rates with high-head and long-line conditions (in Korean) Proc. of SAREK pp 304-309.
[9] Min K K and Hwang I S 2000 Oil circulation rate in rotary compressor: Its measurement and
factors affecting the rate 15th Int. Compressor Engineering Conf. (Purdue, USA, July
2000)pp 269-274.