Influence of liquid receiver on the performance of reversible heat pumps using refrigerant mixtures

A liquid receiver is normally included in reversible vapour compression heat pumps (RHPs) to temporarily store the excess refrigerant charge occurring due to change of operation mode. The presence of a liquid receiver influences the total amount of refrigerant charged into a system, and particularly when using refrigerant mixtures, could affect the system circulation composition. Using a computer simulation, this paper compares the performance of RHPs designed with and without a liquid receiver, when using R407C. It was shown that the presence of a receiver caused an increase in the positive shift in the circulating composition, resulting in improved capacity while reducing the system COP in both heating and cooling modes when compared to a system without a receiver.