Study of refrigeration Plant INTRODUCTION: Refrigeration

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is the technique of producing cold temperature at a low

temperature' reservoir by pumping heat from itself to a high temperature reservoir. As this heat transfer is against the law of nature, for achieving the same, some external. mechanical work is required. Air-conditioning is a technique of providing air at controlled temperature and humidity by means of cooling, heating, humidification or dehumidification processes. Hence, sometimes, refrigeration technique is useful for achieving the results at air conditioning. With such brief definition, let us get introduced to the basics of both techniques. REFRIGERATION : The process of refrigeration is pumping of heat from a low temperature heat reservoir, to a high temperature heat reservoir. The high temperature heat reservoir is generally the atmosphere which is normally available between 15 to 40 C. The low temperature heat reservoir is the thermally insulated space which is required to be kept cool at around - 10 C to + 5 C. The inside of a domestic refrigerator, the inside of a Icecream storage chambers, the inside ofthe food preservative-chambers, are some of the low temperature reservoirs. For achieving this effect, a Medium is required which shall flow through both reservoirs in continuous manner and which shallbe hotter than the atmosphere and cooler than the insulated space in cyclic manner. This medium is called as the Refrigerant. A refrigerant is generally a fluid which can be in liquid/gaseous state at the extreme operating temperatures.