‘Screw Chillers A screw chiller or a helical rotary chiller is a refrigeration machine using a screw compressor to Produce chilled water. A factory-fabricated and assembled screw chiller itself is also a screw vapor ‘compression refrigeration system. ‘Twin-screw chillers are more widely used than single-screw chillers. A twin-screw chiller consists of mainly a twin-screw compressor, a flooded shell-and-tube liquid cooler as evaporator, a water- cooled condenser, throttling devices, an oil separator. an oil cooler, piping, and controls as shown in Figure 11.4(a). The construction of twin-screw compressors has already been covered. For evaporator, condenser, and throttling devices, they are similar to those in centrifugal chillers. Most twin-screw chillers have a refrigeration capacity of 100 to 1000 tons. Following are the systems characteristics of screw chillers. Variable Volume Ratio. ‘The ratio of vapor refrigerant trapped within the interlobe space during the intake process V,, to the volume of trapped hot gas discharged V,, is called the built-in volume ratio of the twin-screw compressor V, = V/V. oF simply volume ratio, all in ft. “There are two types of twin-screw chiller: fixed and variable volume ratio, For a twin-screw chiller of fixed volume ratio, the isentropic efficiency Taq becomes maximum when the system req compression ratio Ryeuw = Ve Here Recon = Pa/Por W Pa > Pome OVErCOMpression Occurs, as shown in Figure 11.4(b). The discharged hot gas reexpands to match the condensing pressure. If Pi, < Poser undercompression occurs (Figure |1.4{c]).A volume of gas at condensing pressure renters the trapped volume at the beginning of the discharge process. Both over- and undercompression cause a reduction Of Now For a twin-screw chiller of variable volume ratio, there are two slides: a sliding valve used for ‘capacity control and a second slide. By moving the second slide back and forth, the radial discharge port can be relocated. This allows variation of suction and discharge pressure levels and stil maintains» “fe o FIGURE 11.4 A typical twin-serew chiller: (a) schema compression. wgram., (b) over-compression, and (c) under-The hermetic motor shell is connected to an intermediate point of the compression process and maintains an intermediate pressure p, between Po» and p.. Liquid refrigerant at condensing pressure Powis throttled to p, and a portion of the liquid is lashed into vapor. This causes a drop in the temperature Of the remaining liquid refrigerant down to the saturated temperature corresponding to p,. Although the ‘compression in a twin-screw compressor is in continuous progression, the mixing of flashed gas with the compressed gas at the intermediate point actually divides the compression process into two stages. ‘The resulting economizing effect is similar to that of a two-stage compound refrigeration system with a flash cooler: an increase of the refrigeration effect and a saving of the compression power from (Pig = Pow) 10 (Peon = Pids Oil Separation, Oil Cooling, and Oil Injection. Oil entrained in the discharged hot gas enters an oil separator. In the separator, oil impinges on an internal perforated surface and is collected because of its inertia. Oil drops to an oil sump through perforation. It is then cooled by condenser water in a heat exchanger. A heater is often used to vaporize the liquid refrigerant in the oil sump to prevent dilution Of the oil. Since the oil sump is on the high-pressure side of the refrigeration system, oil is forced to the rotor bearings and injected to the rotors for lubrication. Oil slugging is not a problem for twin-screw compressors. When suction vapor contains a small ‘amount of liquid refrigerant that carries over from the oil separator, often called wet suction, it often thas the benefit of scavenging the oil from the evaporator, ‘Twin-screw compressors are positive displacement compressors. They are critical in oil lubrication, sealing, and cooling. They are also more energy efficient than rec compressors. chillers are gaining more applications, especially for ice-storage systems with cold air distribution