A liquid storage tank, also known as a refrigerant storage tank, is an auxiliary equipment specifically used in refrigeration systems to store and regulate liquid refrigerant. It is known as the “liquid granary” of refrigeration systems. Its core function is to balance the supply and demand relationship of refrigerants in the system, cope with the problem of unstable liquid supply caused by load fluctuations, and avoid refrigerant waste and equipment failures. It is widely used in various refrigeration systems such as household air conditioning, commercial cold storage, industrial chillers, and cold chain logistics.
According to installation location and function, liquid reservoirs are mainly divided into two core types, suitable for different system scenarios:
High pressure accumulator: installed between the condenser and the throttling device (expansion valve, capillary tube), it belongs to the high-pressure side equipment, with a design pressure usually ranging from 2.1 MPa to 2.5 MPa, and a test pressure of 1.25 times the design pressure. The core function is to store the high-pressure liquid refrigerant discharged from the condenser, and to store excess refrigerant when the system load decreases; When the system load increases, timely replenish refrigerant to ensure stable liquid supply to the throttling device; At the same time, it can separate a small amount of gaseous refrigerant carried in the liquid refrigerant, improve the subcooling of the refrigerant, and enhance the refrigeration efficiency of the system.
Low pressure accumulator: also known as a low-pressure accumulator tank, installed between the evaporator and the compressor, belongs to the low-pressure side equipment, and the design pressure is usually 1.0MPa-1.6MPa. The core function is to store the gas-liquid mixture refrigerant discharged from the evaporator, achieve gas-liquid separation through gravity settling, and prevent liquid refrigerant from directly entering the compressor and causing “liquid impact” damage; At the same time, collect lubricating oil from the system and return it to the compressor through the bottom oil return interface to avoid oil shortage and wear of the compressor.
The core structure of the reservoir consists of a cylindrical shell, inlet pipe, outlet pipe, safety valve interface, pressure gauge interface, sight glass, and drain outlet. Among them, the sight glass is used to observe the liquid level of the refrigerant in the tank, ensuring that the liquid level is controlled at 30% -80% of the volume (too high can easily cause liquid refrigerant to be entrained, and too low cannot meet the liquid supply demand); Safety valves are used for overpressure protection. When the pressure inside the tank exceeds the design pressure, they automatically release pressure to avoid the risk of equipment explosion; The sewage outlet is used to regularly discharge impurities and accumulated water from the tank to prevent medium pollution.