Application of thermal analysis for the absorption chiller

The performance of an absorption chiller may be affected by many factors and is therefore difficult to evaluate. In this paper, the methods of COP analysis, exergy analysis and thermo-economic analysis are used respectively to evaluate the performance of an absorption chiller. Features of the three analysis methods are discussed. The evaluation of the chiller performance by the COP analysis method is carried out on the basis of the first law of thermodynamics, yet the same work by the exergy analysis method is done based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The thermo-economic analysis is a combination of the exergy analysis and economic optimization.