An optimization method for gas refrigeration cycle based on the combination of both thermodynamics and entransy theory

A thermodynamic cycle usually consists of heat transfer processes in heat exchangers and heat-work conversion processes in compressors, expanders and/or turbines. This paper presents a new optimization method for effective improvement of thermodynamic cycle performance with the combination of entransy theory and thermodynamics. The heat transfer processes in a gas refrigeration cycle are analyzed by entransy theory and the heat-work conversion processes are analyzed by thermodynamics. The combination of these two analysis yields a mathematical relation directly connecting system requirements, e.g. cooling capacity rate and power consumption rate, with design parameters, e.g. heat transfer area of each heat exchanger and heat capacity rate of each working fluid, without introducing any intermediate variable. Based on this relation together with the conditional extremum method, we theoretically derive an optimization equation group. Simultaneously solving this equation group offers the optimal structural and operating parameters for every single gas refrigeration cycle and furthermore provides several useful optimization criteria for all the cycles. Finally, a practical gas refrigeration cycle is taken as an example to show the application and validity of the newly proposed optimization method.