JPH0733094Y2 - refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator that uses compressed air as a working fluid using a vortex tube.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a refrigerator, an electric refrigerator that uses electric power as a power source and uses a refrigerant such as CFC has been widely used. This is because a compressor driven by a motor adiabatically compresses a refrigerant, a high temperature and high pressure refrigerant exchanges heat with an outside air in a heat exchanger to cool, and this refrigerant is adiabatically expanded to obtain a low temperature refrigerant gas, It is configured to exchange heat with the internal atmosphere.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-6473 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-228 disclose refrigerators that use compressed air as a working fluid and utilize the energy separating action of a vortex tube. In the vortex tube, when compressed air is introduced into the tubular body having a circular cross-section from its tangential direction to form a high-energy vortex flow, a high-temperature high-pressure air flow is generated in the outer peripheral portion of the pipe and a low-temperature low-pressure air is generated in the central portion. Since a stream is formed, cold air or warm air can be obtained by separating these air streams from both ends of the pipe and taking them out.

However, since electric refrigerators use refrigerants such as CFCs, there is the problem of causing CFC pollution, which is a recent problem, and heat exchange between low-temperature refrigerant gas and the atmosphere in the refrigerator. There is also a problem that it takes time to return to a low temperature when warm outside air enters the inside of the refrigerator and the temperature rises because the inside of the refrigerator is cooled by the motor. Therefore, there is a problem that it cannot be used in a place where explosion proof is required.

Further, the refrigerator using the vortex tube disclosed in the above publication has no problem such as freon pollution, but since compressed air is obtained by a built-in motor-driven compressor, there is a similar problem regarding explosion proof. In addition, since it is configured to obtain compressed air with the built-in compressor, the low-temperature exhaust gas from the inside is sucked into the compressor again to improve the thermal efficiency, and the compressed air that has become hot after being compressed is used as the outside air. It is also disclosed that the heat efficiency is increased by exchanging heat and cooling, but if a compressor is not used, such means for improving the heat efficiency cannot be applied.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a refrigerator that does not cause problems such as CFC pollution, has a high cooling rate, is explosion proof, and has high thermal efficiency.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses compressed air as a working fluid, performs energy separation with a vortex tube, and sends the cool air to a refrigerating chamber via a freezing chamber and a freezing chamber. In a refrigerator designed to take care of heat, a heat exchange chamber is provided in the refrigerator adjacent to the refrigerating chamber, and in this heat exchange chamber, one end is provided with a connecting portion connectable to a compressed air source and the other end is vortexed. It is characterized in that the compressed air pipe line connected to the tube is arranged in the middle and the exhaust gas from the refrigerating chamber can be supplied to the heat exchange chamber through the exhaust port.

Action According to the above configuration, since no refrigerant is used, there is no risk of freon pollution, and the cooling rate is high because it is a cooling system that sends cold air generated in the vortex tube to the air in the refrigerator and replaces it. Furthermore, since compressed air is used as a power source and no electric power is used, explosion proof is maintained, and high heat efficiency is obtained because the compressed air before supplying it to the vortex tube is heat-exchanged by the cold exhaust from the inside. You can

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a refrigerator, a freezer compartment 2 is formed in the upper part and a refrigerating compartment 3 is formed in the lower part, and a heat exchange chamber 4 is formed on one side of these compartments.
Are formed. The partition wall 5 between the freezing compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3 has a vent hole 6, the bottom portion of the refrigerating compartment 3 has an exhaust port 7 communicating with the lower end portion of the heat exchanging compartment 4, and the upper end portion of the heat exchanging compartment 4 has an upper end portion. Each of the exhaust ports 8 to the atmosphere is formed. Reference numeral 9 is a connection portion with a compressed air source (not shown), and 10 is a vortex tube that is supplied with compressed air to generate cold air. The vortex tube 10 is arranged so that the generated cool air is sent into the freezing chamber 2 and the warm air is discharged into the atmosphere.

A flow meter 12, a solenoid valve 13, a flexible pipe portion 14 in the heat exchange chamber 4, and a header 15 are provided in a compressed air pipe line 11 from the connection part 9 with the compressed air source to the vortex tube 10. or,
The freezer compartment 2 and the refrigerator compartment 3 are provided with thermometers 16a and 16b, respectively, and the header 15 is provided with a thermometer 17 and a pressure gauge 18. Further, a temperature sensor 19 is arranged in the lower part of the refrigerating chamber 3 and is configured to control the opening / closing of the solenoid valve 13 based on the detection signal thereof.

In the above configuration, the compressed air sent from the compressed air source passes from the connection portion 9 through the flowmeter 12 and the solenoid valve 13 and enters the flexible tube portion 14 in the heat exchange chamber 4. Since the inside of the heat exchange chamber 4 is filled with the low-temperature cold air exhausted from the exhaust port 7 of the refrigerating chamber 3, the compressed air is heat-exchanged here to lower the temperature,
Flow toward the inlet of vortex tube 10. The compressed air introduced into the vortex tube 10 forms a high-energy vortex, energy separation is performed, and the generated cool air is injected into the freezer compartment 2.

The relationship between the flow rate and the temperature of the inlet air in the vortex tube 10, the generated cool air, and the warm air is expressed by the following equation.

Gc ＝ ξGo Gh ＝ (1-ξ) Go To ＝ ξTc ＋ (1-ξ) Th Where, To: Inlet air temperature Tc: Cold air temperature Th: Warm air temperature Go: Inlet air amount Gc: Cold air flow rate Gh: Warm air flow rate ξ : Flow distribution ratio Cold air in the freezer compartment 2 flows into the refrigerating compartment 3 through the ventilation holes 6. The residual air in the refrigerating chamber 3 flows into the heat exchange chamber 4 through the exhaust port 7 at the bottom. As is clear from the above equation, if the inlet air temperature To of the vortex tube 10 is lowered, the cold air temperature Tc also falls. Therefore, the compressed air is cooled by the cold air discharged from the refrigerating chamber 3 in the heat exchange chamber 4 and then sent to the vortex tube 10 to lower the inlet air temperature to increase the cooling capacity and improve the thermal efficiency.

The temperature inside the refrigerator compartment 3 is detected by the temperature sensor 19, and the solenoid valve 13 is opened / closed according to the detected temperature. That is, the refrigerator compartment 3
When the temperature inside becomes higher than the set value, the solenoid valve 13 opens, compressed air is supplied to the vortex tube 10, the generated cool air is sent in, and when it becomes lower than the set value, the supply of compressed air is stopped.

In FIG. 2, the air flow rate and its pressure when the supply of compressed air is controlled so that the temperature of the aluminum container arranged at the lower part of the freezing room 2 and the refrigerating room 3 is 0 ° C. with the doors closed, and the refrigerating room 3
The change in the temperature of each part and the supply air is shown.

For comparison, FIG. 3 shows changes in the current and the temperature of each part in the refrigerator when the temperature in the refrigerator is controlled to be 0 ° C. with the door closed in the conventional electric refrigerator.

It is apparent from FIGS. 2 and 3 that the refrigerator according to the present invention has a significantly higher cooling rate than the electric refrigerator.

Effect of the Invention According to the refrigerator of the present invention, since the refrigerant is not used as described above, there is no risk of CFC pollution, and the cooling method that cool air is sent to the inside of the refrigerator to replace the air in the inside is the cooling rate. It is fast, and because it uses compressed air as a power source and does not use electric power, it maintains explosion-proof properties, and because the compressed air before it is supplied to the vortex tube is heat-exchanged by cold exhaust from the inside, it has high thermal efficiency. The great effect of being able to obtain is demonstrated. Further, since the heat exchange chamber for cooling the compressed air in the compressed air pipe by the exhaust from the refrigerating chamber is provided in the refrigerator, for example, as compared with the heat exchange chamber provided separately from the refrigerator. The configuration can be simplified and the size can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional front view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 (a) to (c) are time charts of air flow rate, pressure, and temperature change of various parts in the refrigerator in the embodiment, 3 (a) and 3 (b) are time charts of current changes in the electric refrigerator and temperature changes of various parts in the refrigerator. 1 ... Refrigerator, 2 ... Freezer, 3 ... Refrigerator, 4 ... Heat exchange room,
7 ... Exhaust port, 8 ... Exhaust port, 9 ... Connection part with compressed air source,
10… Vortex tube, 11… Compressed air pipeline, 14… Meandering tube.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Takeshi Kato 1-6-14 Edobori, Nishi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture Hitachi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (56) 56-228 (JP, Y2)

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A refrigerator adjacent to the refrigerating chamber, wherein compressed air is used as a working fluid, energy is separated by a vortex tube, and the cold air is sent to the refrigerating chamber through the freezing chamber and the freezing chamber. A heat exchange chamber is provided inside, and in this heat exchange chamber, a connection portion that can be connected to a compressed air source is provided at one end and the other end is arranged in the middle of a compressed air pipeline connected to a vortex tube, A refrigerator characterized in that exhaust gas from the refrigerating chamber can be supplied to the heat exchange chamber through an exhaust port.