BMM3531 ENGINEERING

THERMODYNANICS LAB

SECTION 04

AIR CONDITIONING
LECTURE: HJ. AMIRRUDDIN BIN ABDUL KADIR

NAME
MUHAMMAD ASYRAF BIN SHAHROM
IRAMARIANA BINTI MASWAR
MUHAMMAD MAGHRIBI BIN SELAMAT
MUHAMMAD NAZIRUL MUBIN BIN MERZUKI
MUHAMMAD SHAHIRUDDIN BIN ALIAS

MATRIC NUM
MA13202
MA13179
MA13197
MA13203
MA13204

Table of Contents
1.0

Introduction....................................................................................................................1

2.0

Objectives.......................................................................................................................1

3.0

Literature review............................................................................................................2

4.0

Equipments.....................................................................................................................4

5.0

Experimental Procedures................................................................................................5

5.1 General startup procedure of air conditioning unit:.....................................................5

5.2 Procedures to take data:...............................................................................................5
5.3 General shut down procedure:.....................................................................................7
5.4 Dasylab set up..............................................................................................................7
6.0

Results & Discussion......................................................................................................9

6.1 Results..........................................................................................................................9
6.2 Discussion on Objective 1.........................................................................................11
6.3 Discussion on objective 2..........................................................................................13
7.0

Conclusion..................................................................................................................14

REFERENCES......................................................................................................................14

1.0

Introduction
Air conditioning system is a system which is used to maintain a living space or

an industrial facility at the desired temperature and humidity. In order to provide

human comfort an air conditioning are required to operate few process including
simple heating, simple cooling, humidifying and dehumidifying[1]. Obtaining a
desiring human comfort condition requires two or more of these processes to achieve
suitable relative humidity and air temperature[2].
Basically, an air conditioner mechanism consists of refrigerant system, fan and
filter. A refrigerant system is a system that operates through condenser, compressor,
evaporator and throttling valve. This is operating under refrigerant cycle which is
designed under four main process which are isentropic compression in a compressor,
constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser, throttling in an expansion device and
constant pressure heat absorption in an evaporator. In a basic refrigerant cycle,
refrigerant-134a is used as a working fluid[3].

2.0

Objectives
1 To investigate the relationship between the fan speed and the
air temperature, relative humidity for air conditioning unit.
2 To determine the coefficient of performances of the air
conditioning system by depending on the fan speed.
For both experiments, our group has been considered the same variables to be

fixed, manipulated and responded. The variables are as follows:

Fixed variable

Pre-heater, Re-heater, Running Time

Manipulated variable

Fan Speed (25, 50,75,100)

Responding variable

Pressure reading, Refrigerant reading, Air humidity reading, Air

Temperature reading and Coefficient of performance

For addition, the value of the pre-heater and re-heater at the controller were
been setting up only 50.00. Other than that, the power that be used up at the pre-heater
was 1.0 kW and at re-heater was 0.5 kW.
1

3.0

Literature review

The challenge in refrigeration and air conditioning is to remove heat from a low
temperature source and dump it at a higher temperature sink. Compression refrigeration
cycles in general take advantage of the idea that highly compressed fluids at one
temperature will tend to get colder when they are allowed to expand[4]. If the pressure
change is high enough, then the compressed gas will be hotter than our source of cooling
and the expanded gas will be cooler than our desired cold temperature. In this case, we can
use it to cool at a low temperature and reject the heat to a high temperature.

Figure: Schematic and T-s diagram for ideal vapor compression refrigeration cycle
There are 4 basic processes or changes in the state of the refrigerant occur in a VaporCompression Refrigeration Cycle. These 4 processes shall be illustrated in the most
simplistic way with the aid of above Schematic Sketch[5].
2

Compression Process (1 to 2)
The refrigerant enters the compressor at state 1 as saturated vapor and is compressed
isentropically to the condenser pressure. The temperature of the refrigerant increases
during this isentropic compression process to well above the temperature of the
surrounding medium.

ii

Condensing Process (2 to 3)
The refrigerant leaves the compressor as a gas at high temperature and high
pressure. The refrigerant then enters the condenser as superheated vapor in state 2.
In order to change it into a liquid, heat must be removed from it. This is
accomplished in a heat exchanger called the condenser. The refrigerant flows
through the air finned condenser and cooled down by surrounding air facilitate with
electrical fan. Heat is therefore removed from the refrigerant; the refrigerant
condenses to a liquid state at point 3.

iii

Expansion Process (3 to 4)
Refrigerant leaves as saturated liquid at state 3 as a result of heat rejection to
surroundings with a relatively high pressure and temperature which throttled to the
evaporator pressure by passing i through an expansion valve. The temperature if the
refrigerant drops below the temperature of the refrigerated space during this process.

iv

Evaporating Process (4 to 1)
The refrigerant flows through a heat exchanger called the evaporator at state 4 as
low quality saturated mixture, and its completely evaporates by absorbing heat
from the refrigerated space. The refrigerant leaves the evaporator as saturated vapor
and reenters the compressor, completing the cycle.
It should be noted that the above discussion is based on the ideal vapor-compression

refrigeration cycle which does not take into account real world items like frictional pressure
drop in the system, slight internal irreversibility during the compression of the refrigerant
vapor, or non-ideal gas behavior (if any)[6].

4.0

Equipments
SOLTEX Air conditioning unit
3

Figure 4.1: Unit construction for Air Conditioning system.

1. Control Panel Expansion Valve
2. Orifice
3. DP Transmitter
4. Heater
5. Pressure Switch
6. Refrigerant Condenser
7. Refrigerant Compressor
8. Refrigerant Flow Transmitter
9. Humidity/Temperature Sensor
10.
Fan
11.
Humidifier
12.
Sight Glass
13.
Refrigerant Pressure Transmitter
14.
Filter Dryer

5.0

Experimental Procedures

5.1 General startup procedure of air conditioning unit:

1. An inspection is performed on the air conditioning unit to ensure
it is in proper operating condition.
2. Make sure the humidifier unit is connected properly to a tap water
source.
3. Connect a drain hose to the condensate collector at the bottom of
the air duct.
4. The main of power supply is switched on.
5. The tap water source is turned on to provide a water source to the
humidifier.
6. The main switch, the radial fan, the refrigerant unit and the
preheater as well as the reheater are turned on.

5.2 Procedures to take data:

7. The computer is turned on for data acquisition.
8. The preheater and reheat is switched on at the heating power of
1.0KW and 0.5KW respectively.
9. The air flow is set to 25% of the fan speed.
10.

The refrigeration unit is switched on.

11. The system is allowed to run 15 minutes before the reading is

recorded so the preheat and reheat coil can reach steady state.
12.

The reading of the sensor listed below is recorded.

a) Refrigerant pressure: PT1 and PT2

b) Refrigerant temperature: TT1, TT2, TT3, and TT4
c) Relative humidity: AH1, AH2, AH3, AH4, and AH5
d) Air temperature: AT1, AT2, AT3 and AT4

Figure 5.1: Sensor position in air conditioning unit.

Figure 5.2: Sensor position in refrigeration unit.

13. Three readings were taken from each point and it was averaged
to minimize the reading error.
14.

Step 3 to 7 is repeated for the air flow of 50%, 75%, and

100%.

5.3 General shut down procedure:

15.

The preheater and reheater power is switched off and allow

the heaters to cool down with fan on.

16.

The speed control fan knob and then fan switch are turned
off.

17.
18.

The refrigerant switch and the main switch are turned off.
The main power supply of the air conditioning unit is
switched off.

19.

The water tap supply is close.

20.

The surrounding of the air conditioning unit is clean and the

leak water on the table is wiped off.

5.4 Dasylab set up:

21.

The national instrument is set up by using Mesurement &

Automation.

22.

Dasylab is synced with national instrument.

23.

Dasylab layout is set up as below figure.

Figure 5.3: Dasylab layout circuit.

24.

At the analog input, 4 channel are set as show in below:

Channel 0 ABS Pressure (Refrigerant Pressure, Bar)
0

Channel 1 REF Temperature (Refrigerant Temperature, C)

Channel 2 HUMIDITY (Relative Humidity, %)
0

Channel 3 AIR temperature (Air Temperature, C)

25. Before set up the scaling, a linear function graph is plotted on
Microsoft Excel software so that the value a and b can be
input.
7

26.

Next, the line equation is obtain from the plot as listed below;

Refrigerant Pressure
: = . .
Refrigerant Temperature
: = . .
Relative Humidity
: = . + .
Air Temperature
: = . .

27. Based on the general linear equation = + the value

of a and b is inserted for each respective channel on the
option Linear function available on the Scaling module as
shown in the figure below.

Figure 5.4: Scaling

28.

After set up the Dasylab, click OK and RUN the program to

obtain the results.

6.0

Results & Discussion

6.1 Results
Below show the results that obtain from experiment

Fan Speed, %

Refrigerant Pressure(bar)
PT1
PT2
25
2.16
8.96
50
3.03
10.24
75
3.11
10.52
100
3.16
10.60
Figure 6.0 : Refrigerant Pressure Reading(bar)

Fan Speed, %
25
50
75
100

Refrigerant Temperature ( )
TT1
TT2
TT3
31.83
15.87
65.14
36.73
23.08
68.59
38.10
24.05
69.79
37.61
24.03
69.67
Table 6.1 : Refrigerant temperature readings

Fan Speed, %
25
50
75
100

AH1
57.81
57.48
58.21
57.56

Air Humidity (%)

AH2
AH3
99.74
74.13
99.74
69.91
99.74
67.70
99.74
64.19
Table 6.2 : Air humidity readings

AH4
85.51
88.91
84.11
82.06

AH5
43.05
70.23
70.61
60.06

AT1
22.08
21.21
22.03
22.00

Air Temperature ()
AT2
AT3
0.08
25.40
0.08
24.59
0.08
24.90
0.08
24.77
Table 6.3 : Air temperature readings

AT4
7.65
17.50
18.47
18.24

AT5
14.70
20.28
20.71
20.32

Fan Speed, %
25
50
75
100

TT4
2.32
12.82
13.76
13.56

Fan Speed, %
25
50
75
100

Refrigerant Pressure
kPa
Bar
216.00
8.96
303.00
10.24
311.00
10.52
316.00
10.60

Bar
2.16
3.03
3.11
3.16

kPa
896.00
1024.00
1052.00
1060.00

Table 6.4 : Changing Bar to kPa

To calculate the Coefficient Of Performance (COP) enthalpy values are obtained from Table
A-11 and Table A-13 by refering to the temperature recorded in the results table 6.1 and table
6.4 to calculate with the formula of;
COP=

qL( Evaporator)
Wnet ,(Compressor ) =

h1h 4
h 2h1

1 = enthalpy of R-134a saturated vapor (Table A-11)

2 = enthalpy of R-134a superheated vapor (Table A-13)
3 = enthalpy of R-134a saturated liquid (Table A-11)
4 = enthalpy or R-134a saturated mixture (Table A-11)

Fan Speed, %
25
50
75
100

h1
259.51
263.23
263.75
263.74

Enthalpy, h (KJ/Kg)
h2
h3
302.90
93.33
302.39
103.42
303.65
105.45
303.52
104.72

h4
196.89
188.48
187.69
187.86

Table 6.5: Enthalpy of refrigerant 134a

Fan Speed, %
COPR

25
1.443

50
1.908

75
1.906

Table 6.6: Coefficient of Performance Refrigerant (COPR)

10

100
1.907

6.2 Discussion on Objective 1

Figure 6.1: Fan speeds against refrigerant temperature

From figure 6.1, when at 25% fan speed, TT1 at 15.87 and increase to 65.14 at
TT2, but decrease to 31.83, TT3 and 2.32, TT4. From here we know at that the
temperature at TT2 is higher than the other because it have gone to preheat process and the
TT4 is the lowest because from TT3 the air have passed through the refrigerant and the TT4
is an effect of surrounding air temperature.

11

Figure 6.2: Fan speed against Air Humidity

From figure 6.2, the process of humidification, the steam is injected through the
humidifier into the air in the air conditioning unit. Based on the result, the process of
humidification had increase the air relative humidity at AH1 to AH2 into 99.74% of relative
humidity. But when the air is pre-heated again, it shows that the preheating process increases
the temperature of air, AT3 from AT2 while the air humidity of AH2 to AH3 was decreased.
This phenomenon is due to the heat absorption done by air from the heater. However, the
relative humidity of the air also decreases his value due to the theory that has been proved.

Figure 6.3: Fan speed against Air Temperature

From figure 6.2, this experiment, our group has been recorded the data that the air
temperature at point AT2 is higher compared to air temperature at point AT1. This was
happened because of several effects. For example, the increment is affected by the centrifugal
fan air speed. The higher the fan speed, the lower the air heat absorption from steam. After
the preheating process, the air will undergo cooling and dehumidification to lower downs the
temperature as well as to deposit some of the moisture.

12

6.3 Discussion on objective 2

1. Does the fan speed vary the Coefficient Of Performance (COP) of the air conditioning
system?
As shown in the Table 5.6 the results of the calculated COP, it is proven that the fan speed
varies the COP of the air conditioner system. For both 25% and 75% of fan speed produces
lower COP than the both 50 % and 100%.

2. What are the differences between the air conditioning system and the refrigerator system?
Air Conditioning System

Definition

Maintain
temperature
from 7C to -26C.
Extracts the heat from a
body and maintains the
temperature of the body
below the surrounding
temperature.

Refrigerant
Yes

Refrigerant
Yes

Closed system

Open system

Vapor absorption system

Cooling Medium
Ability to convert into a heat
pump
Type of cycle used

Refrigerator System

13

Mainly used for human

comfort and provides
cooling effect in hot
weather.
Conditions the air by
maintaining
the
temperature as well as
purifies and humidifies
the air in a confined
space.

Open
cycle

air

compression

7.0

Conclusion

From the result and calculations that we had made, at the different fan speed we can
get the different value. Besides, the reasons we take the same running time which is 15
minutes for each fan speed to be changed was we want to recorded the value that will be
obtained from DasyLab at a steady state and at constant time allocate.
Then, during this experiment, we also got some errors that we difficult to avoid. The
actual result does not same with the theoretical result because some errors. First and foremost
is the lost of energy to the surrounding through the piping line system. Secondly the fast
changes in the reading of the humidity reading and temperature reading. This is because the
value at the DasyLab and in the air conditioning system always not is same and changing.
Besides, it also causes from the changing of the fan speed during the experiment. Next is the
change in pressure reading that give the inconsistence reading value. These all are the
problems because of the lost energy during gain and release heat from the compressor,
condenser and evaporator. Then, the coefficient of performance we calculated manually as we
not set up the calculation for finding the COP at the DasyLab Software. Hence, the both
objectives that we have stated have been succeed to get the main focus.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]

N. Otsuka, P. Thompson, J. Larry, and P. E. B. Tanner, Thermodynamic Conceptual

1990.
Journal Thermo and Fluid, 1945.
F. P. Documents, Air Conditioning System Fundemental 1989.
engel, Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, J. Chem. Inf. Model.,
vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 16891699, 2013.
I. Dincer and Y. A. Cengel, Energy, entropy and exergy concepts and their roles in
thermal engineering, vol. 3, no. 3. 2001.
R. Yumruta, M. Kunduz, and M. Kanolu, Exergy analysis of vapor compression
refrigeration systems, Exergy, An Int. J., vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 266272, 2002.

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