De La Rosa, Daryl Paul B.

CE-3 2011107701

August 24, 2013

SIMPLE VAPOR-COMPRESSION SYSTEM RESEARCH WORK ME21

Practically all refrigeration systems today operate on the ''vapor compression'' principle. This term simply means that the heat being removed and transported to another location is accomplished by the alternate evaporation and condensation of a refrigerant usually a man made chemical commonly referred to as a Freon. The state of this refrigerant (i.e. whether it exists as a liquid or vapor) is controlled by a compressor, which varies the pressure on the refrigerant. To use a simple word picture, the Freon gas which transfers heat in a refrigerating machine or heat pump, has the ability to absorb heat when it changes state from a liquid to a gas much the same way a sponge soaks up water. Similarly, when the Freon changes back into a liquid (in the air coil inside your home) it releases its heat much like wringing out the sponge. It is this process that allows us to absorb heat from ground water, concentrate it through the heat pump system, and delivers it to the home in the form of warm air. A vapor compression refrigeration system is an improved type of air refrigeration system in which a suitable working substance, termed as refrigerant is used. It condensed and evaporates at temperatures and pressures close to the atmospheric conditions. The refrigerants usually used for this purpose are ammonia, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

Advantage: 1. It has smaller size for given capacity of refrigeration. 2. It has less running cost. 3. It can be employed over a large range of temperatures 4. The coefficient of performance is quite high. Disadvantages: 1. The initial cost is high 2. The prevention of leakage of refrigerant is the major problem in vapor compression system.

Here are two diagrams of the vapor compression cycle. The four processes are Vaporization (Evaporation), Compression, Condensation and Expansion.

The upper diagram shows the refrigeration circuit, and the lower one is the corresponding P-h diagram. The process starts with vaporization of the refrigerant in the evaporator. This is complete at point 2. Compression is used to raise the pressure of the refrigerant, point 3, so that it can condense at a higher temperature. When the entire vapor has condensed, point 4, the pressure is reduced in an expansion device, and the refrigerant is returned to its original condition 1.

Notice that Expansion is a constant enthalpy process. It is drawn as a vertical line on the P-h diagram. No heat is absorbed or rejected during this expansion; the liquid just passes through a valve, like water coming out of a tap. The difference is, that because the liquid is saturated at the start of expansion by the end of the process it is partly vapor. Point 1 is inside the curve and not on the curve as described in the Evaporation process. The refrigerant at the beginning of the vaporization is already partly evaporated! How much? This depends on the shape of the curve, and the start and end pressures. On the other hand the Compression process is shown as a curve. It is not a constant enthalpy process. The energy used to compress the vapor turns into heat, and increases its temperature. This tends to raise the temperature of the vapor, making point 3 move further and further into the superheated part of the diagram as compression progresses. Point3 is outside the curve and not on the curve as described in the Compression process. This means that before Condensation can start, the vapor has to be cooled down.

FOUR MAJOR COMPONENTS OF SIMPLE VAPORCOMPRESSION SYSTEM 1. Compressor.

It is heart of the refrigeration system as it circulates the refrigerant in the system like the heart of a human being circulating the blood in the body. The compressor does work on the system increasing the pressure from that existing in the evaporator (drawing in low- pressure, low-temperature saturated vapor) and to that existing in the condenser (i.e., delivering high pressure and high temperature vapor to the condenser. Two different pressures exist in the refrigeration cycle. The evaporator or low pressure, and the condenser, or high pressure. These pressure areas are divided by the other two components. On one end, is the metering device which controls the refrigerant flow, and on the other end, is the compressor. The compressor is the heart of the system. The compressor does just what its name is. It compresses the low pressure refrigerant vapor from the evaporator and compresses it into a high pressure vapor. The inlet to the compressor is called the Suction Line. It brings the low pressure vapor into the compressor. After the compressor compresses the refrigerant into a high pressure Vapor, and the outlet of the compressor is called the Discharge Line. There are three types of compressors namely reciprocating, rotary and centrifugal. The type of compressor depends on the pressure difference between the high pressure side (condenser) and low pressure side (evaporator) of the

refrigeration system. This further depends on the refrigerant selected for the application under consideration.

2. CONDENSER. The high pressure, high temperature

(superheated or saturated) vapor that enters the condenser has heat removed from it and as a results it is condensed back into a liquid phase. The Discharge Line leaves the compressor and runs to the inlet of the condenser because the refrigerant was compressed; it is a hot high pressure vapor. The hot vapor enters the condenser and starts to flow through the tubes. Cool air is blown across the outside of the finned tubes of the condenser (usually air by a fan or water with a pump). Since the air is cooler than the refrigerant, heat jumps from the tubing to the cooler air (energy goes from hot to cold latent heat). As the heat is removed from the refrigerant, it reaches its saturated temperature and starts to change state, into a high pressure liquid. The high pressure liquid leaves the condenser through the liquid line and travels to the metering device through a filter dryer to remove any dirt or foreign particles. The condenser can be free air cooled (domestic refrigerator), forced air cooled (window air conditioner), water cooled (Central air conditioning plant in a library, cinema house and evaporative cooled (ice plant unit or a cold storage unit).

3.EXPANSION VALVE.
The high pressure liquid from the condenser is expanded through this valve, allowing its pressure to drop to that existing in the evaporator. Metering devices regulate how much liquid refrigerant enters the evaporator as per heat load on evaporator.. Common used metering devices are, small thin copper tubes referred to as capillarytubes, thermally controller

diaphragm valves (thermostatic expansion valves, called TXVs. This valve has the capability of controlling the refrigerant flow.. The TXV has a sensing bulb attached to the outlet of the evaporator. This bulb senses the suction line temperature and sends a signal to the TXV allowing it to adjust the flow rate. This is important because, if not all, the refrigerant in the evaporator changes state into a gas, there could be liquid refrigerant content returning to the compressor. This can be fatal to the compressor. Liquid cannot be compressed and when a compressor tries to compress a liquid, mechanical failing can happen. The compressor can suffer mechanical damage in the valves and bearings. This is called liquid slugging. Normally TXV's are set to maintain 10 degrees of superheat. That means that the gas returning to the compressor is at least 10 degrees away from the risk of having any liquid. The metering device tries to maintain a preset degree of superheat at the outlet openings of the evaporator. As the metering devices regulates the amount of refrigerant going into the evaporator, the device lets small amounts of refrigerant out into the line and looses the high pressure to low pressure.

4. EVAPORATOR.
Heat is absorbed to boil the liquid at a low temperature; therefore a low pressure must be maintained in this section. The evaporator is where the heat is removed from your house, business or products to be cooled. Low pressure liquid leaves the metering device and enters the evaporator. Usually, a fan will move warm air from the conditioned space across the evaporator finned coils. The cooler refrigerant in the evaporator tubes, absorb the warm room air. The change of temperature causes the refrigerant to flash or boil, and changes from a low pressure liquid to a low pressure cold vapor. The low pressure vapor is pulled into

the compressor and the cycle starts over. Evaporators are two types i.e. flooded evaporators necessitating the use of accumulators to permit only vapors to the compressor and dry expansion type evaporators. Flooded types are used in industrial units whereas dry expansion types are used in domestic and commercial refrigeration units.