On the modeling of absorption chillers with external and internal irreversibilities

In this paper, the authors present a comparison of the performance of absorption chillers by using the predictions from three types of semi-ideal or endoreversible models, the thermodynamic model and the actual performance data of a commercially available chiller. The study shows that at nominal cooling capacity, the endoreversible models fail to capture the key performance characteristics of chillers. The general thermodynamic model, which accounts for the internal and external irreversibilities, gives accurate predictions of real chiller performance.