Experimental Study on Refrigeration Characteristics of Absorption Chiller in Marine Environment

Absorption chillers are key installations for recovering waste heat on offshore oil platforms. However, experimental data remain insufficient regarding how marine-induced vibration and sway affect lithium bromide (LiBr) chiller performance, which limits reliable design and operation in offshore environments. In this work, we establish a comprehensive performance-testing system for a LiBr absorption chiller and experimentally investigate the effects of heat source temperature, cooling source temperature, and marine-induced vibration and sway on unit performance. The results show that cooling capacity and COP increase with heat source temperature and decrease with cooling source temperature. When the heat source temperature exceeds 120 °C, both cooling capacity and COP decrease abruptly. In addition, vibration and sway conditions resulted in a measurable reduction in the unit’s cooling capacity. This study provides practical experimental evidence and guidance for high-efficiency waste heat utilization on offshore oil platforms.