Dynamic Modeling of Energy, Exergy, Exergoeconomic, Economic and Environmental Indices of a CO2 Transcritical Vapor Compression Refrigeration System with Hybrid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Heat Exchangers

Thermodynamic equipment efficiency continues to be a topical area of research, especially at the advent of 3D printing of compact heat exchangers (HX). The innovative equipment should address wholistic efficiency concerns (thermodynamic, sustainable, economic). This study dynamically simulated a CO2 (R744) transcritical vapor compression refrigeration system fitted with novel hy-brid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface heat exchangers and compared with it to a tubular HX system on energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, economic and environmental performance. The models were run in MATLAB, which called their Simulink dynamic simulations. Key findings were; improved heat transfer effectiveness due to the material’s intricate shape, exergy efficiency is 5.79% better, initial investment savings is 16.49%, CO2 penalty cost rate reduction of 15.04%, and overall exergy cost rate reduction of 40.83%. The implications of these findings are that the proposed HX achieves more surface area and less material volume for heat transfer equivalent to a bigger pipe HX, hence more economic at less environmental impact and reduced irreversibilities.