A thermal-compression heat pump with four chambers separated by three regenerators

摘要

Vuilleumier heat pumps have hot and cold displacers that reciprocate within a cylinder and are crank-synchronized. In a more recent development, a thermal-compression heat pump has independently-actuated displacers that allow greater control over the actuation of the displacers and open up possibilities for rearrangement of the components in the heat pump. A thermal-compression heat pump is disclosed in which the warm chamber is separated into warm-hot and warm-cold chambers. The warm-hot chamber is fluidly coupled to a warm-hot heat exchanger; and the warm-cold chamber is fluidly coupled to a warm-cold heat exchanger. The warm-hot and warm-cold chambers are additionally fluidly coupled via a temperature barrier chamber. Such arrangement allows more control over operating temperature while maintaining high system COP.