Experimental investigation on the steady-state performance and piston stroke length control of a variable displacement wobble plate compressor

Abstract The aim of this paper is to find out the steady-state performance and piston-stroke-length control behaviour of a variable displacement wobble-plate compressor for an automotive air-conditioning system by experimental investigation. First, a new method and device to measure the piston stroke length of the variable displacement compressor has been developed, with which the test bench for the variable displacement compressor has been set up. Second, the steady-state performance of the variable displacement compressor, such as the relative volumetric efficiency and the relative isentropic efficiency at partial piston stroke length, has been obtained. The influence of the work condition and compressor rotary speed on the relative volumetric efficiency can be neglected according to the test data. Finally, the critical wobble-plate case pressure is proposed in this paper to judge whether the piston stroke length will change or not. The critical wobble-plate case pressure when the piston stroke length decreases is greater than that when the piston stroke length increases, which is less influenced by the piston stroke length itself from the test data. The higher the compressor discharge pressure or rotary speed, the greater the critical wobble-plate case pressure. The piston stroke length can be adjusted automatically along with the air-conditioning load when the compressor rotary speed or air conditioning load changes.