Performance enhancement and optimization of residential air conditioning system in response to the novel FAl2O3-POE nanolubricant adoption

A Nugroho; R Mamat; J Xiaoxia; Z Bo; M F Jamlos; M F Ghazali

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20333

Performance enhancement and optimization of residential air conditioning system in response to the novel FAl₂O₃-POE nanolubricant adoption

Heliyon. 2023 Sep 26;9(10):e20333. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20333. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

A Nugroho^{1

2}, R Mamat^{1

2}, J Xiaoxia¹, Z Bo¹, M F Jamlos³, M F Ghazali⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Ningxia University, 750021, China.
² Centre for Automotive Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600, Malaysia.
³ Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia.
⁴ Centre for Research in Advanced Fluid and Processes, University Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia.

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate residential air conditioning systems' performance enhancement and optimization by adopting a novel functionalized Al₂O₃ (FAl₂O₃)-Polyolester (POE) nanolubricant. Comprehensive discussions were conducted on key performance parameters, including heat absorption, compressor work, cooling capacity, coefficient of performance (COP), and power consumption. Novel FAl₂O₃ nanoparticles were dispersed into the POE lubricant using a two-step method. The findings reveal that FAl₂O₃-POE nanolubricant exhibits superior heat absorption compared to pure POE. Heat absorption decreases with an increased initial refrigerant charge, while cooling capacity performance improves with an increased initial refrigerant charge. The COP shows an increasing trend at all concentrations of FAl₂O₃-POE nanolubricant when operating with R32. FAl₂O₃-POE/R32 demonstrates an enhanced range of 3.12%-32.26% for COP. The results suggest that applying novel FAl₂O₃-POE nanolubricant with R32 can reduce electrical power consumption by 13.79%-19.35%. The central composite design (CCD) offers an optimal condition for FAl₂O₃-POE nanolubricant with a concentration of 0.11 vol%, an initial refrigerant charge of 0.442 kg, resulting in a COP of 3.982, a standard error of 0.019, and a desirability of 1.0.

Keywords: Air conditioning systems; Central composite design optimization; FAl2O3–POE nanolubricant; Functionalized Al2O3; Response surface methodology (RSM).