REFRIGERATOR

Refrigerator

Refrigeration is defined as a process of removing heat from a substance and releases

it to the surroundings. It also includes the process of maintaining and reducing the
temperature of a body below the general temperature of its surroundings.

Refrigeration cycle

An equipment that is used for removing the heat continuously for maintaining a low
temperature in a space is called 'refrigerator' and the Cycle on which it operates is
called the refrigeration cycle.

The working fluids used for carrying away heat are called 'refrigerants' which are
used in both refrigeration and air conditioning

Types of refrigeration's

There are many types of refrigeration's, but we use most two types as following

1 Vapor absorption refrigeration

2 Vapor compression refrigeration

Vapor absorption refrigeration

Components of the vapor absorption technique :

Generator
Condenser
Expansion valve
Evaporator
Absorber

Working of vapor Absorption Refrigeration

The low-pressure ammonia vapour leaving the evaporator enters the absorber,
where it is absorbed by cold water, forming a strong solution of ammonia. This
solution is known as aqua ammonia. The strong solution from the absorber is
pumped by a liquid pump to generator through a heat Exchanger
Here in the generator , by heating the strong ammonia solution high pressure vapor
is produces, then the high pressure vapor is applied to the condenser.

In the condenser High pressure vapor converts into liquid then the liquid is passed
through the expansion valve. The pressure reduces with the help of expansion valve.

The liquid with low pressure is passed through the Evaporator.Evaporator absorbs
the heat and converts the liquid to vapor with low pressure. And the cycle repeats.

Vapor compression refrigeration

In these refrigeration system we can use compressor instead of generator

Here the refrigerant vapor gets compressed by the compressor .As a result of
compression high pressure vapor is produced. And the temperature of vapor gets
increases as pressure increases .

High pressure and temperature vapor is applied to condenser the the condenser
Ejects the heat into surroundings by using coolant and converts the vapor to liquid
with high pressure and low .
The high pressure liquid passes through the expansion valve.expansion valve reduces
the pressure and as a result the liquid with low temperature and low pressure (cold
region) .Then it passes through the evaporator.

Evaporator absorbs the heat from low temperature liquid and converts the liquid to
vapor . subsequently it vapor is given as input to compressor

Advantages of compression system

The main advantage of compressor refrigerator system is , it is uses as cooling in

summer and heating in winter

 It has a smaller size for the given capacity of refrigeration.

 It has less running cost.
 It can be employed over a large range of temperatures.
 The coefficient of performance is quite high.
 Less time required to produce refrigerant effects.

Peltier module

Peltier effect defines that when we apply a certain voltage to two different
conducting materials joined together, one of the junction heats up and the other
junction cools down.

we can see the Cu-Fe thermocouple in the below figure. Current flows from Cu to
Fe, at junction 1. Here heat is absorbed. Thus, this junction becomes hot.

Similarly, current flows from Fe to Cu, at junction 2. Hear heat is released. Thus, this
becomes cold.

If we reverse the direction of voltage, then junction 1 becomes cold and vice versa.
This shows that it is a reversible process.
Block diagram of Refrigerator using peltier module

RTD & Wheatstone

bridge Op-Amp circuit
Peltier Module
3.3v/0.5A 3.3V/0.5A

Transistor circuit Voltage regulator

12v - 3.3 v
3.3v/0.5A

Micro controller unit

3.3v/0.5A
Relay Transistor circuit
0
12v/0.5A 3.3v/0.5A

SMPS
12v/0.5A
Working of a peltier refrigerator

When a power supply is applied to peltier module , it starts cooling on one side and
heating on one side.We can control the peltier module by relay.The temperature
sensor called pt100 placed near the peltier module .It senses the temperature and
gives the temperature output in the form to the wheatstone bridge.

Then the wheatstone bridge produces the output in the milli volts.we need to
amplify the voltage by the op Amp.As the output of the wheatstone bridge applied
as input to the opamp amplifier, OpAmp produces the output as the required
voltage to the microcontroller through an ADC converters .

Micro controller is used to controll the temperature .The power received by the
microcontroller will be driven to the relay through a transistor. Here transistor acts
as switch to relay.Relay is the Switch which controls the heating and cooling
conditions by switching the voltages of peltier module through a transistor.Here also
transistor acts as a switch to the peltier module.The peltier module is applied with
relay voltage.And cycle repeats.