Development of Refrigerant Monitoring System for Automotive Air-Conditioning System

The effect of the amount of refrigerant on automotive air conditioning system behavior was clarified through simulations and experiments. It has been revealed that the best way to measure the amount of refrigerant in an air-conditioning system is to measure the liquid-gas flow ratio in the liquid line. In order to measure the liquid-gas flow ratio, a mechanical sensor for fluids was developed and applied to a refrigerant monitoring system which can identify when the amount of refrigerant drops to 60% of the regular level.