Refrigeration and air conditioning systems consume 20% of the overall global electricity. Developing refrigeration systems using zeotropic refrigerants is an effective approach to save energy in air conditioning systems, because the temperature glide of zeotropic mixtures can improve the temperature matching between the refrigerant and airflow. However, in air conditioning systems, the temperature variation of the indoor airflow is considerably larger than that of the outdoor airflow. Thus, a simple zeotropic vapor compression system cannot simultaneously match the temperatures in the evaporator and condenser. This significantly compromises the benefits of adopting zeotropic refrigerants. In this study, four new relay-evaporation cycles are proposed. They can simultaneously improve the temperature matching in the condenser and evaporator. Thermodynamic models of the proposed cycles using R32/R1234ze(E) are established, and their performances are compared to that of the single-stage and two-stage compression cycles in terms of the coefficient of performance (COP), exergy destruction, and temperature match indicators. Under the basic condition, the relay-evaporation cycles can improve the COP by 6.8%–16.0% compared to the single-stage compression cycle. In particular, the relay-evaporation cycle with a recuperator and an economizer exhibits 3.4%–6.6% higher COPs than that of the two-stage compression cycle.

制冷和空调系统消耗全球总电力的 20%。开发使用共沸制冷剂的制冷系统是空调系统节能的有效途径，因为共沸混合物的温度滑移可以改善制冷剂和气流之间的温度匹配。然而，在空调系统中，室内气流的温度变化远大于室外气流的温度变化。因此，简单的共沸蒸汽压缩系统不能同时匹配蒸发器和冷凝器中的温度。这大大损害了采用非共沸制冷剂的好处。在这项研究中，提出了四个新的中继蒸发循环。它们可以同时改善冷凝器和蒸发器的温度匹配。建立了使用 R32/R1234ze(E) 的提议循环的热力学模型，并在性能系数 (COP)、火用破坏和温度方面将它们的性能与单级和两级压缩循环的性能进行了比较匹配指标。在基本条件下，中继蒸发循环比单级压缩循环可提高 COP 6.8%~16.0%。特别是，带有同流换热器和省煤器的中继蒸发循环的 COP 比两级压缩循环高 3.4%–6.6%。在基本条件下，中继蒸发循环比单级压缩循环可提高 COP 6.8%~16.0%。特别是，带有同流换热器和省煤器的中继蒸发循环的 COP 比两级压缩循环高 3.4%–6.6%。在基本条件下，中继蒸发循环比单级压缩循环可提高 COP 6.8%~16.0%。特别是，带有同流换热器和省煤器的中继蒸发循环的 COP 比两级压缩循环高 3.4%–6.6%。