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Refrigeration Lab
ENGR 463 Thermal Power Systems
2/22/16
Michael Cornish
Maqren alharbi
Faisal shaji
Faisal Alruwaished
Ethan Tseng
Abstract:
Refrigeration experiment was conducted to improve students’ analysis about some
thermodynamics properties under specific conditions. This Experiment presents some
results of two main tests. The test’s main objective is operating refrigeration cycle
under various loads of evaporator and condenser with a constant temperature and
pressure to analyze the relationship between different intensive properties that were
used in the cycle.
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Table of Contents Page Number
1. Cover Page 1
2. Abstract 2
3. Table of Contents 3
4. Introduction 4
5. Theoretical Background 5
6. Experimental Setup and Procedure 6
7. Results 7
8. Discussion 16
9. Conclusion 16
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Introduction:
The Refrigeration Cycle is one of the important cycles in thermodynamics, and
mechanical engineering in general. It has many useful industrial applications in human life,
such as food processing and food preservation. It consists of many steady flow devices
such compressors, expansion valves, condenser, and evaporator. Each one of the devices
has different operating conditions and tasks during the cycle. Moreover, there are different
types of refrigeration systems, such as vapor compression, vapor absorption and
thermoelectric. However, the experiment consists of a basic form of vapor compression
system. From the experiment, we accomplished learning a few objectives, such as
experimental calculation of Pressure and temperature at saturation conditions for R134,
and determining the heat transfer rate and coefficient for the evaporator and condenser.
Additionally, volumetric efficiency determination is one of the main objectives of the
experiment.
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Theoretical Background:
Naturally occurring heat flows in the direction of decreasing temperature. This
means that high temperatures will naturally decrease to lower temperatures. In order for
heat to flow from a low temperature region to a high temperature region, the process
requires the use of a refrigerator. The refrigerator used in this experiment undergoes a
Vapor Compression Cycle, which differs from the Carnot Cycle by vaporizing the refrigerant
before it enters the compressor. Starting from the compressor, the refrigerant will pass
through a condenser where the refrigerant releases the heat absorbed from an evaporator
to an Exp device. The refrigerant will reduce pressure from passing through Exp device,
and as the refrigerant passes through evaporator, it will absorb heat, which makes the
refrigerant become hindered percent gas. Finally, the compressor increases the pressure of
the gas refrigerant, and the refrigerant passes through the condenser to start a new cycle.
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Experimental Setup and Procedure:
In this lab we performed tests using a basic vapor compression type refrigeration system
manufactured by P.A. Hilton as shown in Fig 1.
Fig 1: Refrigeration Cycle
The R134A refrigerant exits the evaporator, which turns the refrigerant from liquid state
to gaseous state, and enters the compressor as a superheated vapor. The compressor
then constricts the refrigerant, which raises its pressure. The condenser then condenses
the compressed vapor, which is cooled using cold tap water. Water flow rate and
refrigerant flow rate are both controlled through two separate rotameters. The
refrigerant then enters the expansion valve which reduces pressure and generates
lowtemperature mixture of liquid and vapor. The refrigerant then enters the expansion
valve, heated by an electric heater, which simulates the refrigeration load. The vapor
from the evaporator is then transferred by to the compressor again so the cycle can start
over. During the lab we will be varying the evaporator load by 200 W at a time while
attempting to keep the pressure and temperature inside of the condenser constant. The
second part of the lab consists of holding the pressure inside the evaporator constant
while adjusting the water flow rate of the water cooling the refrigerant inside of the
condenser.
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Results
Part A:
Fig 1: Constant Condenser Pressure/Temp, Pressure vs Enthalpy
Fig 2: Constant Evaporator Pressure/Temp, Pressure vs Enthalpy
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Part B:
Fig 3: Refrigerant Temp vs Pressure
Part C:
Fig 4: Constant Condenser Pressure, Evaporator Load vs Evaporator Temp
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Fig 5: Constant Condenser Pressure, Evaporator Temp vs COP Refrigerant
Fig 6: Constant Condenser Pressure, Condenser Heat TRansfer Rate vs Evaporator Temp
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Fig 7: Constant Condenser Pressure, Evaporator Temp vs COP Heat Pump
Part D:
Fig 8: Constant Evaporator Pressure, Condenser Temp vs Condenser Heat Transfer Rate
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Fig 9: Constant Evaporator Pressure, Condenser Temp vs COP Refrigeration
Fig 10: Constant Evaporator Pressure, Condenser Temp vs COP Heat Pump
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Part E:
Run 1
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Part F:
Part G: (Table 1)
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Discussion:
During the first part of the experiment, we held the Condenser temperature and
pressure constant while increasing and decreasing the load carried by the evaporator.
From Fig. 1, we can see how the enthalpy and pressure of the refrigerant relate to the
constant condenser pressure and temperature process, and from Fig. 2 how it relates to the
constant evaporator pressure and temperature. When the load to the evaporator is
increased, the refrigeration system increases the amount of heat being removed from the
given area, as seen in Fig 4. This also increases the amount of heat being rejected from the
system into the surrounding air. The condenser temperature and pressure will change
because the flow rate of the refrigerant increases. Therefore, the condenser heat transfer
rate increases to attempt to keep the temperature from rising as seen in Fig 6. This
requires a higher flow rate of water through the condenser in order to keep the refrigerant
cooled to the required/set temperature. The pressure in the condenser is constant,
however the pressure of the refrigerant is changing throughout the system, proportionally
to the temperature as seen in Fig 3. During part two of the experiment, we held the
evaporator temperature and pressure constant while increasing the amount of water
flowing into the condenser. As the water flow increases, and the refrigerant flow rate stays
constant, the amount of heat being rejected by the condenser increases because the
refrigerant temperature is decreasing and cooling the refrigerator. The amount of warm
air being dispersed into the environment increases as the refrigerator attempts to increase
the cooling inside the evaporator. We can see from the data in Table 1 that as the flow rate
of the refrigerant increases throughout the system, the work done by the compressor
increases. When this occurs, the efficiency of the system drops.
Conclusion:
The results we collected from this experiment prove the success of this lab. All values
are presented as theoretically expected. For example, while we increase the load of the
evaporator, the amount of heat refrigeration cycle removed from the system also increased,
which matches with the normal refrigeration model we have. The most difficult part of this
experiment is operating the machine. Not only because there is too much data and control
options that require constant focus, but also to give the machine enough time to stabilize.
In fact, there are some discrepancies in the experiment data due to human operational
error. However, in overall the data match with expectation, therefore, the experiment can
seem as successful.
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