Refrigerator

Abstract

A refrigerator provided with a refrigerant circuit in which a compressor, a condenser, a liquid container, a supercooling heat exchange portion, a throttle valve, and an evaporator connected in this order by piping, a return circuit that branches from a downstream position in a refrigerant flowing direction of the supercooling heat exchange portion in the refrigerant circuit and leads to an intermediate-pressure chamber of the compressor via the supercooling heat exchange portion, a supercooling throttle valve with a variable valve opening-degree that is disposed on a refrigerant inlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in the return circuit, and operation state detecting means that detects operation state data in the refrigerant circuit, in which dryness-degree calculating means that calculates a dryness-degree of the refrigerant on the outlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in the return circuit on the basis of the detected operation state data and supercooling throttle valve control means that controls the valve opening-degree of the supercooling throttle valve so that the calculated dryness-degree gets close to the value of 1.

1 . A refrigerator that has
 a refrigerant circuit in which a compressor, a condenser, a liquid container, a supercooling heat exchange portion, a throttle valve, and an evaporator are connected in this order by piping,   a return circuit that branches from a downstream position in a refrigerant flowing direction of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said refrigerant circuit and leads to an intermediate-pressure chamber of the compressor via said supercooling heat exchange portion,   a supercooling throttle valve with a variable valve opening-degree that is disposed on a refrigerant inlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said return circuit, and   operation state detecting means that detects operation state data in said refrigerant circuit, comprising:   dryness-degree calculating means that calculates a dryness-degree of the refrigerant on the outlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said return circuit on the basis of the operation state data detected by said operation state detecting means; and   supercooling throttle valve control means that controls the valve opening-degree of said supercooling throttle valve so that the dryness-degree calculated by said dryness-degree calculating means gets close to the value of 1 (a predetermined value).   
     
     
         2 . The refrigerator of  claim 1 , wherein
 the operation state detecting means includes:   operation capacity detecting means that detects an operation capacity of the compressor with variable capacity;   condensation temperature detecting means that detects a refrigerant condensation temperature in the condenser;   evaporation temperature detecting means that detects a refrigerant evaporation temperature in the evaporator; and   liquid-refrigerant temperature detecting means that detects a refrigerant temperature on the refrigerant outlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said refrigerant circuit.   
     
     
         3 . The refrigerator of  claim 1 , wherein
 the operation state detecting means includes:   supercooling-inlet-side refrigerant temperature detecting means that detects a refrigerant temperature on the refrigerant inlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said return circuit; and   supercooling-outlet-side refrigerant temperature detecting means that detects a refrigerant temperature on the refrigerant outlet side of the supercooling heat exchange portion in said return circuit.   
     
     
         4 . The refrigerator of  claim 1 , comprising:
 a plurality of common compressor-side modules in which the compressor and the condenser are disposed;   a liquid-collection-side module in which a liquid container to which each of said plurality of compressor-side modules is connected and which contains a liquid refrigerant from the condenser of said plurality of compressor-side modules is disposed;   a plurality of parallel pipelines in which the liquid refrigerant from said liquid container is distributed in parallel into the number corresponding to said compressor-side modules;   a common set composed of a return circuit, a supercooling heat exchange portion, and a supercooling throttle valve disposed in each of said parallel pipelines;   a throttle valve that throttles the refrigerant merged from said plurality of parallel pipelines; and   an evaporator that evaporates the refrigerant from said throttle valve, connected in this order by piping so as to constitute a refrigerant circuit.