S6AR
AR 17 64 (2017) BUILDING SERVICES III
(HVAC & MECHANICAL SERVICES)
MODULE II PART 1
REFRIGERATION
Refrigeration is the process of removing unwanted heat from an
enclosed space or from a substance for the purpose of lowering
the temperature.
Removal of heat lowers the temperature and may be accomplished
by use of ice, snow, chilled water or by mechanical refrigeration.
Mechanical refrigeration is the utilization of mechanical
components arranged in a "refrigeration system" for the purpose
of transferring heat.
Any differences between a refrigerator and a fridge?
A refrigerator consists of both a cooling device as well as a freezer,
and it is probably referred to as a fridge to avoid confusion with a
deep freezer that keeps temperatures below freezing point. One
can keep both ice creams and vegetables inside a refrigerator,
though in separate compartments, while a freezer is suitable only
for items such as meats and medicines that need sub freezing
temperatures. A refrigerator is in reality a refrigerator/freezer
combo as one gets the facility of a cooling device as well as a small
freezer with a refrigerator. Refrigerators are an upgraded
version of the fridge, and they usually come with a built-in freezer
and are typically more powerful than the ordinary fridge.
Refrigeration is the science of providing and maintaining
temperature below the surrounding temperature.
•Removal of heat from a body at lower temperature is
possible only with the aid of external agency according to
the Second law of thermodynamics.
(Second law of thermodynamics : Heat doesn’t flow from a body at lower
temperature to a body at higher temperature without any external agency-
Claussius statement.)
•Refrigerator absorbs heat from the cold body at a low
temperature with the aid of work input to the compressor of
the refrigerator, and rejects heat to the surrounding at a
higher temperature.
Refrigeration basic principle is that with the aid of a heat
pump, the refrigerant is being compressed to the condenser
and capillary tube thus increasing its temperature (50-60°C)
and pressure (750 kPa) in the refrigerator being cooled
down by the condensing unit to 32°C depending the existing
ambient temperature. Upon entering the evaporator unit the
gas expanded and vaporized due to sudden enlargement
of the evaporator tube cross-section eventually dropping its
pressure to almost atmospheric value (120 kPa) and
temperature from 32°C to -24°C. Heat absorption takes
place from the evaporator and being pump-out by a heat
pump to the condenser where being transformed from cool
vapour to liquid state with higher temperature and pressure
thus completing the heat transfer cycle.
Applications of refrigeration
[Link] air conditioning of residential buildings,
hospitals, hotels, auditoriums, offices, tool rooms, etc.
[Link] of food and beverages.
[Link] and preserving of medicines.
[Link] of blood and human tissues.
[Link] of ice.
[Link] of photographic materials.
[Link] of concrete for dams.
[Link] refining and synthetic rubber manufacturing.
Working of a refrigerator
A refrigerator is, basically, a heat engine in which work
is done on a refrigerant substance so it could collect energy
from a cold region; deliver it in a higher temperature region
and with that cooling the cold region even more. Basic
elements of a refrigerator are compressor which is
connected to the outer, pipe system (called condenser
coils) that is connected to the expansion valve which is
connected to the inner pipe system (evaporator coils) which
is connected back to the compressor. They all hold
refrigerant substance and evaporator coils are placed in a
thermally isolated ”box” whose role is to keep its inside cold.
Refrigerant “starts” as a gas (remember - it’s a cycle),
at a compressor which rises the pressure, which heats the
gas. Compressed gas passes through the condenser coils
(outer ones), on the back of refrigerator, which are made so
the gas will lose the high temperature in them and start
turning into a liquid because it is under high pressure. Liquid
refrigerant comes to an expansion valve. Because it’s a
cycle, between the valve and the compressor is a low-
pressure area - compressor is pulling the liquid refrigerant
out of expansion valve into the evaporator coils. Because
of the low pressure, liquid refrigerant starts boiling and
evaporating. Refrigerant, now a gas, goes through
evaporator coils and as it absorbs heat from the
surrounding area to be cooled. From evaporator coils
refrigerant gas goes into compressor and cycle repeats.
Following are the various methods of refrigeration
[Link] refrigeration
[Link] ice refrigeration
[Link] expansion refrigeration
[Link] refrigeration
[Link] gas refrigeration
[Link] jet refrigeration
[Link] compression refrigeration
[Link] absorption refrigeration.
Unit of Refrigeration
•The rating of refrigerating machine is the refrigerating effect or
amount of heat extracted in a given time from a body.
•Unit of refrigeration is known as standard commercial ton of
refrigeration.
•It is defined as the refrigerating effect produced by the melting
of 1 tonne(1000kg) of ice from 0°C to water at 0°C in 24 hours.
•Since the latent heat of fusion of ice is 336 kJ/kg,
Ton of refrigeration (TR) = (336×1000)/24 = 14000 kJ/hr.
In SI units, its value is rounded off to 3.5 kW
Coefficient Of Performance(C.O.P) of a refrigerator
•The performance of a refrigeration system is expressed in terms
of Coefficient Of Performance.
•It is defined as the ratio of heat absorbed by the refrigerant while
passing through the evaporator to the work input required to the
compressor.
C.O.P = Rn/W Where, Rn–net refrigerating effect(kJ/min).
W–work input to the refrigerator(kJ/min)
Relative C. O. P = Actual C. O. P / Theoretical C. O. P
C. O. P will be always greater than 1.