Performance enhancement of air conditioning systems for agricultural vehicles by using an integrated condenser- receiver/filter/drier design

English (OpenAlex)

In agricultural tractors, the air conditioning system traditionally consists of a separate condenser and external receiver/filter/drier (RFD). This study proposes an innovative design that integrates these two components into a single unit to enhance system performance. The impact of this combined structure on air conditioning performance has been experimentally investigated. The results have been compared with those of conventional systems featuring separate condenser and RFD units. The performance evaluation used the coefficient of performance (COP) as a key metric. For the combined system with 1.1 kg of R-134a refrigerant, COP improvements of 8.8% at 1500 rpm and 10.8% at 2000 rpm have been achieved compared to the conventional system. In contrast, for the combined system, the COP changes are -0.5% at 1500 rpm and +1% at 2000 rpm relative to the traditional configuration. These findings suggest the proposed integrated condenser–RFD system can improve efficiency and sustainability in agricultural vehicle air conditioning systems.