Fault Detection Algorithm for Multiple-Simultaneous Refrigerant Charge and Secondary Fluid Flow Rate Faults in Heat Pumps

• Main Authors: Samuel Boahen, Kwesi Mensah, Selorm Kwaku Anka, Kwang Ho Lee, Jong Min Choi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: heat pump; fault detection; fault diagnosis; cooling capacity; COP; refrigerant charge fault
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3877

The detection and diagnosis of faults is becoming necessary in ensuring energy savings in heat pump units. Faults can exist independently or simultaneously in heat pumps at the refrigerant side and secondary fluid flow loops. In this work, we discuss the effects that simultaneous refrigerant charge faults and faults associated with the flow rate of secondary fluids have on the performance of a heat pump operating in summer season and we developed a correlation to detect and diagnose these faults using multiple linear regression. The faults considered include simultaneous refrigerant charge and indoor heat exchanger secondary fluid flow rate faults (IFRFs), simultaneous refrigerant charge and outdoor heat exchanger secondary fluid flow rate faults (OFRFs) and simultaneous refrigerant charge, IFRF and OFRF. The occurrence of simultaneous refrigerant charge fault, IFRF and OFRF caused up to a 5.7% and 8% decrease in cooling capacity compared to simultaneous refrigerant charge and indoor heat exchanger secondary fluid flow rate faults, and simultaneous refrigerant charge and outdoor heat exchanger secondary fluid flow rate faults, respectively. Simultaneous refrigerant charge fault, IFRF and OFRF resulted in up to an 11.6% and 5.9% decrease in COP of the heat pump unit compared to simultaneous refrigerant charge fault and IFRF, and simultaneous refrigerant charge fault and OFRF, respectively. The developed FDD correlations accurately predicted the simultaneous refrigerant charge and faults in the flow rate of the secondary fluid within an error margin of 7.7%.