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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 31k research works in it since 1950. 17.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on refrigeration systems and technologies, with an emphasis on refrigerants, ejectors, CO2 heat pumps, vapor compression systems, low-GWP alternatives, thermodynamic analysis, energy efficiency, environmental impact, and heat pump technology. The papers cover a wide range of topics including experimental validation, numerical investigations, performance predictions, and environmental considerations in the field of refrigeration and heat pump systems.

  • Refrigerants
  • Ejectors
  • CO2 Heat Pumps
  • Vapor Compression Systems
  • Low-GWP Alternatives
  • Thermodynamic Analysis
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Environmental Impact
  • Heat Pump Technology
  • CFD Modeling
Research works
31k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
17.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+26%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (2.3k and 510 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 2.3k works
  2. 2 India 510 works
  3. 3 United States 461 works
  4. 4 Germany 221 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 207 works
  6. 6 Italy 200 works
  7. 7 South Korea 194 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 186 works
  9. 9 Iran 147 works
  10. 10 Russia 143 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 50.0%India: 11.2%United States: 10.2%Germany: 4.9%6 others listed: 23.7%50%largest
China2,271 · 50.0%India510 · 11.2%United States461 · 10.2%Germany221 · 4.9%6 others listed1,077 · 23.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Xi'an Jiaotong University publishes the most Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research, followed by Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Who are the leading researchers in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies include İbrahim Dinçer, R.Z. Wang and Marc A. Rosen.

  1. 1 İbrahim Dinçer Canada 5.9k citations
  2. 2 R.Z. Wang China 3.3k citations
  3. 3 Marc A. Rosen Canada 2.9k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Shanghai (China) and Tianjin (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Castellon and Oak Ridge.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 504 works
  2. 2 Xi'an China 237 works
  3. 3 Shanghai China 198 works
  4. 4 Tianjin China 99 works
  5. 5 Nanjing China 95 works
  6. 6 Wuhan China 92 works
  7. 7 Hangzhou China 77 works
  8. 8 Seoul South Korea 73 works
  9. 9 Tehran Iran 70 works
  10. 10 Qingdao China 69 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CastellonES · 24.8 works20×
  2. Oak RidgeUS · 25.1 works12×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies than the world average.

See Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology and Universitat Jaume I score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 28.51%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Xi'an Jiaotong University: 166, 24.1%Qingdao University of Science and Technology: 23, 31.2%Universitat Jaume I: 25, 27.1%Yeungnam University: 12, 35.0%Beihang University: 43, 34.6%Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 18, 33.6%City, University of London: 8, 24.4%Tsinghua University: 60, 25.1%Norwegian University of Science and Technology: 21, 21.4%University of Tehran: 15, 28.6%Yeungnam UniversityQingdao University o…Universitat Jaume IXi'an Jiaotong Unive…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 69.624.1%16.5×166 +63.1%
2 Qingdao University of Science and TechnologyChina 69.031.2%10.1×23 +266.1%
3 Universitat Jaume ISpain 64.527.1%25.7×25 +138.6%
4 Yeungnam UniversitySouth Korea 58.035.0%8.8×12 +24.1%
5 Beihang UniversityChina 52.434.6%6.1×43 -12.7%
6 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong 51.333.6%3.3×18 +92.4%
7 City, University of LondonUnited Kingdom 50.724.4%13.6×8 +16.3%
8 Tsinghua UniversityChina 50.225.1%4.8×60 +66.7%
9 Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 49.621.4%6.2×21 +101.1%
10 University of TehranIran 49.228.6%4.1×15 +178.1%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 26% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technologies.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.