Assessing site performance of large mine water chilling machines using refrigerant-circuit measurements and machine modelling

• Main Author: Bailey-McEwan, Michael
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Refrigerants; Mining engineering; Refrigeration and refrigerating machinery
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20441

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johat.nesburq, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 1998 === This thesis contributes to accurate, practicable techniques of ascertaining and assessing site performance of large refrigerating machines chilling water 'for cooling deep South African mines. It applies to all vapourcompression machines cooling fluids in steady, continuous processes. To assess whether a water chilling machine is performing satisfactorily, both its actual performance, and the corresponding normal or optimal performance of which it is capable, must be ascertained. Both requirements r esent difficulties on site. in particular, the traditional "heat balance" method of verifying the apparent performance obtained from measurements in the water circuits does not prove that such performance is accurate. The calibration of typical site instrumentation is not assured, so an "acceptable" heat imbalance may conceal large but similar errors - which thus also balance out - in the apparent constituents of the heat balance. Three methods of independently ascertaining actual performance, so verifying apparent performance, are presented, The first is an enhanced method, applicable to custom-built machines as well as conventional ones, of ascertaining the efficiency of the actual refrigerating process from measurements in the refrigerant circuit. This detects errors concealed in an "acceptable" heat balance. Where some refrigerant-circuit measurements are unavailable, an inexact version of this method still indicates the relative likelihood of the apparent performance being acceptably accurate. The third method, where these two are inadequate, is ascertaining actual performance using available measurements and fundamental machine modelling. Such modelling is also the most versatile method of predicting corresponding normal or optimal performance. A computer program simulating complete mine water chilling installations is used here. Actual performance can then be meaningfully assessed and appropriate remedial action justified, as shown in seven case studies. An outcorr.e for conventional water chillinq machines with a centrifugal compressor is that keeping heat exchangers clean may prejudice efficiency under part-duties lf a machine has been designed for optimum efficiency at full duty. An alternative control philosophy of maximising the machine load may then yield better performance. If these techniques are included ill an automated system of fault diagnosis, they will be of most use to burdened mine staff, who are generally not refrigeration experts.