In this study, a new combined power and refrigeration cycle is proposed,
which combines the Rankine and absorption refrigeration cycles. Using a
binary ammonia-water mixture as the working fluid, this combined cycle
produces both power and refrigeration output simultaneously by employing only
one external heat source. In order to achieve the highest possible exergy
efficiency, a secondary turbine is inserted to expand the hot weak solution
leaving the boiler. Moreover, an artificial neural network (ANN) is used to
simulate the thermodynamic properties and the relationship between the input
thermodynamic variables on the cycle performance. It is shown that turbine
inlet pressure, as well as heat source and refrigeration temperatures have
significant effects on the net power output, refrigeration output and exergy
efficiency of the combined cycle. In addition, the results of ANN are in
excellent agreement with the mathematical simulation and cover a wider range
for evaluation of cycle performance.