The cooling capacity of a reciprocating compressor can be finely adjusted using the clearance volume. To study the influence of the clearance volume and the intermediate clearance volume on the performance of the reciprocating compressor

the clearance volume was taken as a single variable to investigate the relationship between parameters such as the cooling capacity and COP and clearance volume under the designated conditions (evaporation temperature of 23.3 ℃ and condensation temperature of 54.4 °C). The result shows that when the clearance volume or the intermediate clearance volume increases

the COP first increases and then decreases

and increasing the intermediate clearance volume is better than the clearance volume for increasing the COP. Among them

when the relative clearance is 0.56%–0.73%

the performance of the reciprocating compressor reaches the maximum value

and the COP can be increased by 0.62%. When the relative intermediate clearance is 18%

the cooling capacity can be reduced by 10%

and the COP increases by 1.31%. In addition

increasing the intermediate clearance volume also helps reduce the exhaust temperature of the compressor.