Refrigeration and Air

Conditioning
By
Dr. Sukanta Roy
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Mizoram
Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Curtin University Malaysia
PhD (IIT Guwahati), MTech (NIT Silchar), BEng (NIT Agartala) , MASME, MIE CEng (India), SFHEA (UK)
Erasmus Mundus Post-Doctoral Fellow (ECN, France)
Post-Doctoral Fellow (IRPHE/AMU, France)

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 SYLLABUS

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning introduces you to the concept of History, Methods of refrigeration, Ice
production, Units of refrigeration, Review of thermodynamics, Difference between heat engine refrigerator and
heat pump.
Air Refrigeration System: Carnot and Brayton cycles, Air – craft refrigeration systems- Simple, Bootstrap,
Regenerative and reduced ambient system, Advantages and disadvantages. Analysis of simple cycles,
Representation on T-s and p-h plan and its use, Methods of improving COP, Actual cycle, Introduction to
compound compression and multiple evaporator system, Expression for COP and power required.
Vapour Absorption System: Theoretical analysis of VAR. system, Advantages and disadvantages, Practical VAR
system, Aqua- ammonia and Lithium- Bromide- Water VAR systems.
Nomenclature, Classification, Desirable properties, Environmental regulations of refrigerants. Domestic,
commercial, industrial and medical refrigeration, Cold storage, etc.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 LEARNING OUTCOME

• Explain the principle of refrigeration, cycles, properties and its environment effects.
• Explain vapor compression systems and different processes, equipment.
• Describe the working principle of various types of refrigeration systems.
• Discuss psychrometric properties and processes, and air conditioning process.
• Estimate cooling load factor, winter and summer air conditioning load and human comfort
condition.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 Text & Reference Books:

• C. P. Arora: Refrigeration and Air conditioning

• R.K. Rajput: Refrigeration and Air conditioning

• M. Prasad: Refrigeration and Air conditioning

• M. Prasad: Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Data Book

• Stocker & Jones: Refrigeration and Air conditioning

• Khurmi & Gupta: Refrigeration and Air conditioning

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
Assessments:

Class Tests + Assignment: 20 Marks

Mid Semester Exam: 30 Marks
End Semester/Final Exam: 50 Marks

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 Prior learning:

Evaporation vs Condensation
Phase Change: Solid Liquid, Liquid Gas, Gas Liquid, Liquid Gas, Gas Solid, Solid Gas

Phase Change processes: Evaporation, Condensation, Freezing, Melting (Fusion), Sublimation & Deposition

Evaporation is a process where liquid

changes into vapour (gas). It is an
endothermic process.

Condensation is the change of

physical state of matter from gas
phase to liquid phase. It is an
exothermic process.
Source:
[Link]
ther_Climate/[Link]

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 Refrigeration
Refrigeration may be defined as a process of removing heat from a substance and
pumping it to the surroundings. It also includes the process of maintaining and
reducing the temperature of a body below the general temperature of its
surroundings. Thus in a refrigerator heat is transferred from low temperature to high
temperature.

Refrigeration Vs Cooling
Cooling is the process of bringing down the temperature of some object. On the other hand,
the refrigeration process brings the temperature of the object down to a lower temperature
than its surroundings. Hence it maintains this temperature throughout.

Air-conditioning
Air-conditioning is the control of temperature, humidity, purity, and motion of air in an
enclosed space, independent of outside conditions.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
Application of Refrigeration

The applications of Refrigeration System are as follows.

Refrigeration is extensively used for increasing the storage life of perishable items
especially food products, vegetables, fruits, milk, beverages, chilling of water, ice
formation, etc.
Industrial applications include chemical manufacturing, petroleum refinery,
petrochemical plants, paper, and pulp industry, etc.

• Ice making
• Manufacturing and treatment of metals
• Industrial air-conditioning
• Transportation of food
• Chemical and related industries
• Freezing food products
• Medical and surgical aids
• Central air-conditioning
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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
Applications of Air conditioning:
[Link]: to make precise measurements

2. Printing Industry: Specific temperature and humidity are maintained in the printing industry. Paper
becomes too dry in low humidity and improper stamping takes place. Paper swell in high humidity and ink
spreads as well as taken time to dry causing non-uniform printing.

[Link] Industry: Relative humidity and temperature are the key factors of the textile industry. Humidity
has an effect on strength, quality of fabric to make them soft and reliable instead of brittle and weak.

[Link]: industry needs refrigeration to reduce air borne bacteria and dirt to preserve products

5. Photographic- Industry Provides accurate control of temperature, humidity for manufacturing as well as
processing in photographic films.

6. Machine tools Industry – The Same machining processes requires accurate temperature and humidity.
Ex. Processing in manufacturing of bearing, scientific instruments, electronic devices test gauges, and
precision gears, etc. where close tolerance of dimensions is required.

7. Farm Animals

8. Computer Rooms.
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 History of Refrigeration

People tried to keep food fresh by keeping it at lower temperatures for thousands of years. Before
mechanical refrigeration systems were introduced, ice harvesting, using ice and snow to cool food, was
the only method of food refrigeration.

In the olden days around 2500 years B.C. Indians, Egyptians etc., were producing ice by keeping water in
the porous pots open to cold atmosphere during the night period. The evaporation of water in almost
cool dry air accompanied with radiative heat transfer in the clear night caused the formation of ice even
when the ambient temperature was above the freezing temperature.

Chinese harvested ice from rivers and lakes as early as 1000 BC. They even had religious ceremonies for
filling and emptying ice cellars. Around 400 BC Persians stored food was stored in structures called
Yakhchal. These were domed buildings made from mud brick and were insulated by walls up to six feet
thick to keep ice frozen during even the warmest summer months. Many of these structures still stand
today. Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans used pits as well by placing large amounts of snow into the pits and
covering them with insulating material like grass, chaff, or branches of trees. Egyptians and ancient
people of India would moisten the outside of the jars and the resulting evaporation would cool the water
that was inside of the jars.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
History of Refrigeration

The Yakhchāl from 400 BC was an

ancient Persian “refrigerator”

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 History of Refrigeration…cont..

In the 1800s natural refrigeration was a vibrant part of the economy. In England, servants collected ice in
the winter and put it into icehouses. Icehouses were places where the sheets of ice were packed in salt,
wrapped in flannel, and stored underground to keep them frozen until summer. In the United States,
natural ice harvested from the pristine rivers and lakes of the northern states, particularly those in New
England, was in demand. Harvested ice was stored in large quantities in ice houses and covered with
sawdust for insulation.

Artificial Refrigeration: Harvesting of ice was difficult and dangerous so people tried to invent artificial
ways of refrigeration. With the introduction of artificial refrigeration, it is the process of removing heat
from an enclosed space, or from a substance, to lower its temperature. To cool foods, a refrigerator uses
the evaporation of a liquid to absorb heat. The liquid or refrigerant evaporates at an extremely low
temperature, creating cool temperatures inside the refrigerator.

In more technical terms, a refrigerator produces cool temperatures by rapidly vaporizing a liquid through
compression. The quickly expanding vapor requires kinetic energy and draws the energy it needs from
the immediate area, which then loses energy and becomes cooler. Cooling generated by the rapid
expansion of gases is the primary means of refrigeration today.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 History of Refrigeration…cont..

The advent of modern refrigerators changed everything, eliminating the need for ice houses and other
crude means of keeping food cool. The first one to make a breakthrough was Scottish professor William
Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748 who designed a small refrigerating machine using the cooling
effect of rapidly evaporating a liquid into gas. Cullen's invention, though ingenious, was not suitable for
any practical purpose. Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley experimented with refrigeration in 1758 by
using a bulb of a mercury thermometer and concluded that the evaporation of liquids such as alcohol
and ether could be used to lower the temperature of an object below the freezing point of water.

The modern mechanical refrigeration process we know today grew from the work of numerous inventors
in the 1800s. In 1805, an American inventor, Oliver Evans, designed a blueprint for the first refrigeration
machine, but he never built a concept. It wasn’t until 1834 that the first practical refrigerating machine
was built by Jacob Perkins based on Oliver Evans' design to cool temperatures using a vapor compression
cycle. In 1851, an American physician named John Gorrie patented a compressed air refrigerator to cool
the air for his yellow fever patients. And in 1876, German engineer Carl von Linden patented the process
of liquefying gas that has become part of basic refrigeration technology.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 History of Refrigeration…cont..

In 1913, American Fred W. Wolf invented the first home electric refrigerator, which featured a
refrigeration unit on top of an icebox.

Mass production of domestic refrigerators began in 1918 when William C. Durant introduced the first
home refrigerator with a self-contained compressor, but they were still considered a luxury item because
of their price.

Refrigerators developed up through the 1920s from inventors like Ferdinand Carre used foul smelling,
toxic gases such as ammonia, methyl chloride, and sulfur dioxide as refrigerants. This led to several fatal
accidents from leaks in the 1920s. In response, synthetic alternatives were developed for a safer
alternative to toxic gases previously used in the vapor compression process. refrigeration - one of them
was Freon. Its low boiling point, surface tension, and viscosity makes it an ideal refrigerant, and it being a
safer refrigerant helped home refrigerators increase in popularity. By the 1940s refrigerators became
even more widespread in private homes and compressor refrigerators using Freon would become the
standard for almost all home kitchens.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
History of Refrigeration…cont..

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 Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics states that when two bodies are in thermal equilibrium with
another third body than the two bodies are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram
 First Law of Thermodynamics adaptation of the Law of Conservation of Energy
differentiates between three types of energy transfer: Heat, Thermodynamic Work, and Energy
associated with matter transfer.

Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can not be created or destroyed; it can only
be redistributed or changed from one form to another.

From the first law of thermodynamics,

Q is positive when it is added to the system

and negative if it is taken out of the system.

W, Output Work (done on other systems) is

negative, Input Work (done on the system) is
positive.
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Second Law of Thermodynamics:
According to the second law of thermodynamics,
any naturally occurring process will always cause
the universe’s entropy (S) to increase. The law
simply states that the entropy of an isolated system
will never diminish over time.

The second law of thermodynamics states

that the heat energy cannot transfer from a
body at a lower temperature to a body at a
higher temperature without the addition of
energy.

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 Working Principle of Refrigerator
Processes Involved
Compression

Condensation

Expansion

Evaporation

Source: [Link]

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 Thank you

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning| Dr. Sukanta Roy | National Institute of Technology Mizoram