Performance evaluation and optimal design of supermarket refrigeration systems with supermarket model "superSim", Part I: Model description and validation

Conventional supermarket refrigeration systems are responsible for considerable CO₂ emissions due to high energy consumption and large quantities of refrigerant leakage. In the effort to conserve energy and reduce environmental impacts, an efficient design tool for the analysis, evaluation and comparison of the performance of alternative system designs and controls is required. This paper provides a description of the modelling procedure employed in the supermarket simulation model 'SuperSim' for the simulation of the performance of centralised vapour compression refrigeration systems and their interaction with the building envelope and HVAC systems. The model which has been validated against data from a supermarket has been used for the comparison of R404A and CO₂ refrigeration systems and the optimisation of the performance of transcritical CO₂ systems. These results are presented in Part II of the paper.