Silo - Tips - Refrigeration Pressure Vessel Basics

Refrigeration Pressure
Vessel Basics
Presented by
John Murdaugh
Apex Refrigeration & Boiler Co.
Phoenix Arizona
Pressure Vessel: A container
designed to hold liquid and or
vapor at a pressure greater
than the ambient pressure.
Refrigeration Pressure Vessels Purpose:
1. Storage of liquid refrigerant.

2. Separation of liquid and vapor.
3. Separation of oil and refrigerant (vapor or
liquid).
Page 3
Types of Refrigeration Pressure Vessels:
1. High Pressure Receivers including Thermosyphon Receivers,
Pilot Receivers, and Controlled Pressure Receivers.
2. Suction Accumulators including simple vessels for gas
separation, low pressure receivers, accumulator/subcoolers,
intercoolers, flash tanks, surge drums and liquid recirculation
units.
3. Heat Exchangers (which also separate liquid and vapor).
4. Oil separation such as oil pots and oil separators on
compressors.
Page 4
Design Standards:
•IMC-2006 with local edits
•ANSI/ASHRAE 15 2010
•ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code,
Section VIII, Division 1
•ANSI/IIAR 2008
Page 5
Materials:
Courtesy of Frick
Page 6
Manufacturing:
1. Plate steel for the shell is cut to the circumference length.
2. Plasma arc cutters remove all nozzle diameters in a computer controlled CNC station.
3. Plate is rolled into a circulator shape and seam welded to form the shell.
4. Cold formed heads are plasma arc cut for any nozzles on the heads.
5. The heads are welded onto the shell per a engineered weld spec.
6. Nozzles and pipe fittings added.
7. Vessel openings are plated off and filled with water or oil and hydro-static tested.
8. Vessel evacuated to be completely dry, then filled to a dry nitrogen charge to 5 PSIG.
Page 7
Summary of IIAR Design Guidelines:
9.1.1 Pressure vessel maximum allowable working pressure shall not
be less than:
9.1.1.1. High side service utilizing water cooled or
evaporative condensing: 250 PSIG (industry practices are moving to
300 PSIG).
9.1.1.2 High side service utilizing air cooled condensing:
300 PSIG (rarely used in low ambient climates).
9.1.1.3 Low side service: 150 PSIG (industry practices are
moving to 250 PSIG).
EXCEPTION: When ammonia liquid is to be transferred from
pressure vessels by pressurized ammonia gas, the pressure vessel
design pressure shall accommodate the maximum possible transfer
pressure and take into account the lowest possible coincident metal
temperature.
Page 8
Summary of IIAR Design Guidelines (continued):
9.1.2 Pressure vessels exceeding 6” in inside diameter shall comply
with the governing edition of Section VII, Division 1, ASME Boiler and
Pressure Vessel Code…
9.1.3 Pressure vessels shall be provided with adequate opening(s)
for the attachment of pressure relief device(s) as required in 11.2.
9.1.4 Heads of pressure vessels shall be hot formed or stress
relieved after cold forming. NOTE: It is recommended that high-side
vessels receive post-weld heat treatment per Appendix J.
9.1.5 A vessel shall be designed and stamped with a MDMT no higher
than its lowest expected operating temperature.
9.1.6 In applications where the vessels are subject to external
corrosion, the vessels shall be designed and specified with a
minimum of 1/16” corrosion allowance.
Page 9
Dynamics:
Tangential Stress
Longitudinal Stress
Page 10
High Side Vessels:
• High Pressure Receiver (HPR): Sized to accept the full
pumpdown volume of refrigerant in the entire system
at 80% full. On large systems, it is sized to supply ½
hour of liquid supply buffer to the low side (Stoecker).
• Thermosyphon Receiver (TSR): Sized to provide
enough liquid refrigerant to reject total oil cooler heat
for 5 minutes of running time if the condenser liquid
supply is interrupted.
• Pilot Receiver (PR): Provides a small storage vessel to
receive liquid from the condenser providing a liquid
only transfer with float controls to the CPR. Also may
provide a small liquid supply for LIOC.
• Controlled Pressure Receiver (CPR): Same purpose as
the HPR, but is maintained at a constant pressure that
does not float with SCP, providing a constant pressure
drop across the liquid metering device. Pressure Page 11
maintained by a suction and hot gas regulator.
Low Side Vessels:
• Suction Accumulator (SA): Sized to allow for the full
flow of the suction line capacity with a free area to
reduce the gas velocity to a point where any entrained
liquid droplets fall out of suspension. Can be coupled
with a liquid subcooling coil to aid in separation.
• Intercooler (IC): Maintains a liquid level or liquid flash
injection to accept the discharge from the low stage
compressors and desuperheats the gas prior to going
to the high stage suction. Often combined duty of
being the SA for the higher temp loads.
• Liquid Recirculators (Various): Maintains a liquid level
in the SA portion of the unit to provide a liquid head to
recirculator pumps. The pumps supply pressure
subcooled liquid to the evaporators.
Page 12
Low Side Vessels (continued):
• Transfer Drum (TD): Accepts liquid carryover from the
SA at a piped overflow point. When near full, hot gas
is injected to the drum stopping overflow and pushes
the liquid to a CPR or an HPR with a pump assist.
• Flash Subcooler/Subcooler (SC): Subcools a liquid
feed from a higher temp source by flashing a separate
liquid feed in an open vessel or into a heat exchanger.
• Surge Drums (SD): Maintains a liquid level to provide
a constant head of liquid to feed a heat exchanger
then accepts a wet suction and separates the vapor
from the liquid with a decrease in velocity. Simply a
specialized SA.
• Low Pressure Receiver (LPR): Provides a ballast
supply of liquid to the low side and provides storage
space for pump down in addition to the HPR. Often
combined with a pumping system being a defacto
Page 13
liquid recirculation unit.
Other Vessels:
 Oil Pots: Mounted at a low point (NH3) or
skim from a liquid level allows for the removal
of oil accumulations to minimize oil fouling.
 Oil Separators: Remove oil from the
discharge gas and returns it to the oil sump.
 Flash Economizers: Provide liquid
subcooling at an intermediate suction
pressure injected during the compression
cycle.
 Heat Exchangers: Endless variety of
purposes and configurations.
Page 14
Chiller/Transfer
Page 15
Chiller/Transfer
Page 16
Chiller/Transfer
Page 17
Chiller/Transfer
Page 18
Chiller/Transfer
Page 19
Thermosyphon
Page 20
Horizontal vs Vertical Separation
Cross area decreases/velocity
Increases as liquid level rises
Cross area stays the same, velocity

stays the same most of the height
of the vessel. Page 21
Pressure Relief
 All closed circuit ammonia refrigeration system shall be protected
by a pressure relief device per ASHRAE-15.
 All pressure vessels shall be protected per ASME B&PV Code.
 All relief valves must be installed at the highest point in the vessel
where possible and required to be above the highest anticipated
liquid level.
 Stop valves down stream of the relief device must the locked open
and the pressure drop associated with the valve must be calculated
into the to pressure drop of the piping system.
 Pressure vessel of 10cf or greater to have dual relief assemblies.
 Install PRV as close to the vessel being served as possible.
 The maximum length of pipe on a PRV discharge allowable
determined by the method in Appendix A (IIAR 2).
 Discharge of a PRV device to atmosphere must be at least 20’ away
from any window, ventilation intake, or personnel door.
 PRVs, currently, must be replaced or recertified every 5 years.
Page 22
Coolware Demo
Page 23
Questions?
Page 24

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Refrigeration Pressure

1. Storage of liquid refrigerant.

Cross area stays the same, velocity

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