MEC 3401 – THERMODYNAMICS

THE REFRIGERATION CYCLE

The basic purpose of refrigeration is to artificially cool items below the atmospheric and ambient temperatures for a
prolonged time period. The areas of application include the food and chemical industry (e.g hospitals and clinics),
railway and air transport, and households.

DEFINITION

Refrigeration may be defined as “that branch of science which deals with the process of reducing and maintaining
the temperature of a space or product below the temperature of its surroundings”.

The process involves four stages and makes use of a refrigerant which can be a gas or a volatile vapour.

The four stages are:

(i) Cooling the refrigerant to a suitable temperature below the surrounding temperature. This can either be
achieved by expanding it (so that part of its heat energy may be converted into mechanical work or by
throttling).

(ii) Heat transfer by conduction from the body to be cooled to the refrigerant.

(iii) Raising the temperature of the refrigerant by compression. (This involves the input of mechanical energy via a
compressor).

(iv) Heat transfer from the refrigerant by conduction to a condensing media (normally water or air).

UNITS OF REFRIGERATION

 The capacity of mechanical equipment is normally given in Horse Power (H.P.)

 The capacity of electrical equipment is normally given in Kilowatts (kW)
 The capacity of refrigeration is normally expressed as “Tonne of Refrigeration” (T.R.)

A tonne of refrigeration is defined as “the amount of refrigeration effect produced by melting one tonne of ice from
and at 0oC in 24hrs”.

Conversion: 1T.R = 210kJ/min = 3.5kJ/s or 3.5kW

COEFFICIENT OF PERFORMANCE (C.O.P.)

This parameter corresponds to the ‘efficiency” of a heat engine. It differs from the efficiency in that efficiency
always has a value less than unity, whereas the value of C.O.P. often exceeds this value.

THEORETICAL C.O.P = Q/W

Where:

Q= Amount of heat extracted in the refrigerator (or Amount of Refrigeration Produced, or Capacity of the
refrigerator). It is called the Refrigeration Effect.
W= Work Done

THE REFRIGERATOR AND THE HEAT PUMP

A REFRIGERATOR is equipment used to remove the heat continuously from a space (SOURCE) and maintain
the temperature below the atmospheric temperature, and reject the heat to the atmosphere (SINK). This is done by
increasing the temperature potential of the heat to be rejected with the help of mechanical work input (compressor).

A HEAT PUMP is equipment used to supply the heat continuously to a space (SINK) and maintain the temperature
above the atmospheric temperature by absorbing the heat from the atmosphere and increasing its temperature
potential with mechanical work input (compressor).

___________________________________MEC 3401 - Lecture Notes: The Refrigeration Cycle

Example: An air conditioner that has both cooling and heating functions works as a refrigerator in summer and as
a heat pump in winter.

THE VAPOUR COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION CYCLE

Most modern refrigerators work on the vapour compression cycle. The cycle consists of four elements:

 Compressor: Compresses the refrigerant

 Condenser: Condenses the refrigerant. (Fins behind the normal household fridge).
 Receiver: Stores liquid refrigerant from the condenser and supplies it to the throttle valve.
 Throttling Valve: Allows the liquid refrigerant under high temperature and pressure to pass at a controlled
rate to the evaporator after reducing its pressure and temperature.
 Evaporator: Extracts heat from the substance to be cooled and passes it on to the refrigerant. This is the
actual refrigerating compartment in a normal household refrigerator.

THE CYCLE

1. Vapour of a refrigerant is compressed from State 1 to a pressure whose saturation temperature is above the
temperature of a hot reservoir – State 2.
2. It is then condensed completely to a liquid (State 3) and throttled to a lower pressure (State 4) so that the
corresponding saturation temperature is lower than the temperature of the cold reservoir.
3. At the low pressure, the refrigeration enters the evaporator, where it evaporates and absorbs heat from the low
temperature reservoir.
4. The vapour that emerges from the evaporator (State 1) enters the compressor thus completing the cycle.

PROPERTIES OF A GOOD REFRIGERANT

A good refrigerant should have:

 A high latent heat of vaporisation, h fg.

 A vapour pressure above the atmospheric pressure at the lowest temperature of the cycle.
 Not a very high pressure in the condenser (a suitably low pressure in the condenser).
 Should be non-toxic, non-corrosive, and environmentally friendly.

Examples of refrigerants:

Amonia – This refrigerant is used in large refrigerator plants.

Chlorinated and Flourinated Hydrocarbons – known as Freons – for smaller units

It has been noticed that most Freons e.g. R – 12 used in household refrigerators and car air conditioners have drastic
effects on the ozone layer. Efforts are being made to replace these with environmentally friendly refrigerants.

ACTIVITY
Describe the main components of a normal household refrigerator, the manner in which they are connected, their functions and materials used
that they are made of. You are required to submit a written report.

Read Chapter 17, page 703 on Refrigeration from your text book by Rayner Joel. Go through the Analysis for Vapour Compression refrigeration
cycle. (Pay particular attention to Sections 17.4, 17.5 and 17.6). Go through all examples.

___________________________________MEC 3401 - Lecture Notes: The Refrigeration Cycle

 The University of Zambia
School of Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC 3401 Thermodynamics

ASSIGNMENT: REFRIGERATION and HEAT PUMP CYCLES

Q1. The capacity of a refrigerator is 210 T.R when working between -7oC and 26oC. Assuming that the cycle
operates on a reversed Carnot cycle and that the latent heat of ice is 335kJ/kg Determine the:

(i) Amount if ice produced per day from water at 22oC.

(ii) Power required to drive the unit.

Q2. A cold storage plant is required to store 25 tonnes of meat. The meat is supplied at a temperature of 25 oC. The
freezing point of the meat is -4oC and the meat is stored in a cold storage which is maintained at -9oC. The specific
heat of the meat above freezing point is 2.96kJ/kgK while the specific heat of the meat below the freezing point is
1.23kJ/kgK. The latent heat of the meat is 237kJ/kg. If the plant requires 78kW to drive it, and the C.O.P. of the
plant is 0.35 of the Carnot C.O.P. determine:

(i) The plant capacity.

(ii) The time taken to achieve the cooling.

Q3. A vapour compression refrigerator uses R-12 as refrigerant and liquid evaporates in the evaporator at -20oC.
The temperature of the refrigerant at the delivery from the compressor is 15 oC when the vapour is condensed at
10oC. Find the C.O.P. if:

(i) there is no under-cooling

(ii) the liquid is cooled by 7oC before expansion by throttling.

Take: Specific heats: cpv = 0.64kJ/kgK; cpl = 0.94kJ/kgK for superheated vapour at constant pressure.

Q4. A vapour compression refrigerator uses methyl chloride and operates between the pressure limits of 146kN/m 2
and 967kN/m2. At the entry to the compressor, the methyl chloride is dry saturated and after compression has a
temperature of 103oC. The compressor has a bore and stroke of 78mm and runs at 8 rev/s with a volumetric
efficiency of 80%. The temperature of the liquid refrigerant as it leaves the condenser is 33 oC and its specific heat
capacity is 1.62kJ/kgK. The specific heat capacity of superheated vapours may be assumed constant. Determine:

(i) C.O.P. of the refrigerator

(ii) Mass flow of refrigerant in kg/hr
(iii) Cooling water required by the condenser in kg/hr if cooling water temperature rise is limited to 11oC

Take Specific Heat Capacity of water = 4.187kJ/kgK

Q5. A simple heat pump is used for space heating. It consists of an evaporator, compressor, condenser and a throttle
regulator. The heat pump uses Freon-12 and works between pressure limits of 0.423 MN/m2 and 1.219 MN/m2. The
heat transfer required from the condenser unit is 120 MJ/h.

At the beginning of compression, the Freon-12 is assumed dry saturated and after compression, it has a temperature
of 58oC. At the end of the condensation process, the refrigerant is liquid but not under-cooled. Assuming the
specific heat capacity of the superheated vapour to be constant, determine:

(i) The mass flow rate of the Freon-12 in kg/h assuming no energy loss.
(ii) The dryness fraction of the Freon-12 at entry to the evaporator
(iii) The power of the driving motor assuming that only 74% of the power of the driving motor is available
in the Freon-12.
(iv) The ratio of the heat transferred from the condenser to the power required to drive the motor in the
same time.

Duration: 1 Week Submit Q3 and Q5 as Assignment

___________________________________MEC 3401 - Lecture Notes: The Refrigeration Cycle