The aim of this work is at investigating the applicability of electronic expansion valves (EEVs) in domestic refrigerators. To this end, a valve with an orifice of 0.19 mm of hydraulic diameter was installed in a conventional refrigerator to correlate the flow restriction with the overall energy consumption spanning different operating conditions. Tests with the same refrigerator mounted with a capillary tube were also performed. Also, a mathematical model was devised to simulate the effect of the refrigerant charge and the expansion device restriction on the system performance. More than a thousand different conditions were simulated. The results revealed that zero superheating is not necessarily the best-case scenario in terms of energy consumption. In addition, it was noticed that the lowest energy consumptions were achieved for the highest refrigerant charges and expansion restrictions. Furthermore, it was observed that, when the surrounding temperature or the compressor speed were changed, the energy consumption could be reduced by varying the restriction of the expansion device. The system with the EEV, nonetheless, presented higher energy consumptions than the system with the capillary tube for most conditions, which was mostly related to the extra thermal load generated by the valve. Nevertheless, by increasing the internal heat exchanger length and mitigating the heat dissipated by the EEV, it was found that the system with the EEV consumed between 4 and 9% less energy than the system mounted with capillary tube under operating conditions different from that the capillary tube has been sized for.

这项工作的目的是调查家用冰箱中电子膨胀阀（EEV）的适用性。为此，在常规冰箱中安装了一个水力直径为0.19 mm的阀，以将流量限制与跨越不同工作条件的总能耗相关联。还对装有毛细管的同一台冰箱进行了测试。此外，设计了一个数学模型来模拟制冷剂充注和膨胀装置限制对系统性能的影响。模拟了上千种不同的条件。结果表明，就能耗而言，零过热不一定是最佳方案。此外，值得注意的是，对于最高的制冷剂量和膨胀限制，实现了最低的能耗。此外，观察到，当改变周围温度或压缩机速度时，可以通过改变膨胀装置的限制来减少能量消耗。尽管如此，在大多数情况下，带有EEV的系统比带有毛细管的系统具有更高的能耗，这主要与阀门产生的额外热负荷有关。尽管如此，通过增加内部热交换器的长度并减轻EEV散发的热量，发现在不同于毛细管的工作条件下，具有EEV的系统比装有毛细管的系统消耗的能量少4％至9％。管已调整大小。