MECH-8070

Refrigeration and Air

Conditioning

Introduction to Refrigeration
Learning Outcome:
• Explain the terms and principles associated with the thermodynamics
and principles of refrigeration and refrigeration systems.
• Classifications and types of Refrigerants.

Objectives:
1. Explain the fundamentals of refrigeration
2. Describe the cycle of operations in a vapour compression refrigeration
system.
3. Explain how operating temperatures and pressures are selected and
related for a vapour compression refrigeration system.
 Let’s Start at the Begining
• Matter is a common study of the different
states a substance can adhere to
• Everyone knows that water can be found in
three different states (solid, liquid, and
vapour).
• The solid form of water is ice,
• the liquid form is water,
• and the vapour form is steam
Manipulating the Functionality
• Relationship of boiling points and pressure
for liquids
– Water boils at 212⁰F (100 ⁰C) at atmospheric
pressure at sea level (14.7 PSIA or 0 PSIG)
– If pressure is increased on any liquid, the
boiling point will rise (at 15 PSIG water will boil
at 250⁰F)
– If pressure is decreased on any liquid, the
boiling point will drop (at 6.87 PSIA water boils
at 176⁰F)
Refrigeration vs Air conditioning
• Refrigeration: Commercial or Industrial
– Process
– Parallel systems
– -70c (-94f) – 15c (60f)
– Manufacturing, Labs, storage, process
• Air conditioning: Residential
– Ductwork
– Ductless
 Let’s play with a substance
• If we add enough heat to a block of ice it
will melt into water at 32ºF, if we continue
to add heat to the water the temperature
will rise. If we heat the water to 212ºF and
continue to add heat, the water will boil
into steam.
• The term used to measure the amount of
heat required is called a BTU or British
Thermal Unit.
 Let’s play with a substance
• The BTU is defined as “the amount of
heat required to raise the temperature
of 1 lb of water 1ºF”
• If we had a 1 lb block of ice at 25ºF and
added 5 BTU’s of heat to the ice, we
would now have a 1 lb block of ice at 30ºF
• If we had 1 lb of water at 40ºF and wanted
to increase the temperature of the water to
100ºF we would add 60 BTU’s of heat
 Let’s play with a substance
• If we had 1 lb of steam at 220ºF and
wanted to raise the temperature to 230ºF,
we would add 10 BTU’s of heat
• In all of the above examples we added
heat to increase the temperature in each
state, but no change of state occurred
 Sensible Heat
• Sensible heat is defined as “a change
in temperature of a substance without a
change of state”
• Heat that “you feel” that is able to be
measured by a standard thermometer.
• Heat that is added or removed between
phase changes.
 Latent Heat
• Latent heat is defined as” the amount of heat
required to change the state of a substance
with no change in temperature”
• When latent heat (BTUs or Kj) is added to a liquid, it
boils, and when latent heat is removed from a liquid, it
condenses.
• While the phase change occurs, there is either a
rejection or absorption of heat.
• This is the principal behind refrigeration.
• If we wanted to add heat to a substance and
have a change of state occur, much more heat is
required.
• If we have 1 lb of ice at 32ºF and want to add
heat to completely turn the ice to water we
require 144 BTU’s of heat (latent heat of
fusion)
• If we have 1 lb of water at 212ºF and want to
add heat to completely turn the water to steam
we require 970 BTU’s of heat (latent heat of
vapourization)
 Latent heat of
Vapourization 300ºF
Sensible heat 1 lb of steam
970 btu 88 btu
Latent heat 212ºF

88
Latent heat of 970
180 btu 180
Fusion
1 lb of water 144
32
-------
144 btu
32ºF 1414 btu
32 btu

0ºF
1 lb of ice
 Latent Heat
• Heat that is added or removed while the
substance is changing state
– 144btu/lb (335 kj/kg) Fusion
– 970 btu/lb (2257 kj/kg) vaporization

Significantly more heat energy then just a

change in sensible heat.
– 1st law of thermodynamics- Heat cannot be
created nor destroyed, just moved from a
space and transferred to a different area.

– 2nd law of thermodynamics-

Heat will always travel towards
cold
• Refrigeration is defined as a
thermodynamic process of lowering the
temperature of a substance below the
temperature of its surroundings and
maintaining this substance at the lower
temperature
• First applications of refrigeration used ice
in an icebox
• Ice block is in the top of ice box, products to be cooled are stored

in the lower compartment, as warm air builds up in the lower

compartment it raises the air temperature in the icebox, as a

result the air expands, rises and then enters the ice compartment,

when the air passes over the ice it is cooled as its sensible heat is

transferred to the ice. On cooling the air becomes denser and

sinks back into the lower storage compartment where it picks up

more heat, starting the cycle over again, the cycle continues as

long as there is sufficient ice to absorb the heat

 A Refrigerant is:
• A liquid that is capable of boiling at a much
lower temperature than water
• We adjust the pressure of the liquid to
effect its boiling point.
• This is the pressure/temperature
relationship.
Fundamental Principals of Refrigeration
• A substance must absorb or reject heat in order to
change state
• The pressure exerted on the surface of a boiling liquid
effects the temperature at which the liquid boils
• For every saturation pressure, there is a corresponding
saturation temperature
• One of the physical properties of every pure liquid is a
characteristic set of saturation pressures and
temperatures
 Saturation
• Saturation: when a liquid and vapor exist
simultaneously in a vessel and there is
equilibrium of temperature and pressure
• If the saturation temperature is known, the
pressure can be determined, and if the
pressure is known, a saturation
temperature can be determined
 Fundamentals of Refrigeration
• 1KG of boiling water at 101.3kPa (14.7
PSI or 1 ATM) will absorb 2257 kJ of heat
when changing state from a liquid to a
vapor. (Latent Change of state)
• The standard constant value used for
atmospheric pressure at sea level is
1 atm (standard atmosphere) which
equals 101325 pascals(P) in SI units,
and is equivalent to 29.9213 inches
 Gauge vs Absolute
• Absolute = 14.7 psi, 1 Bar, 101.325 kPa

• Gauge is “adjusted” difference between a

pressure and atmosphere
Effect of pressure on boiling point
• At 101.3 kPa, water boils at 100C (212F)
• As pressure is increased, the boiling point
increases:
– At 200kPa water boils at 120.21C
ASHRAE Classification of Refrigerant
• All refrigerants are classified with R
followed by a number:
– R-718 water
– R-717 ammonia
– R-744 CO2
– R290 Propane
– R12, R22, R134a – Pure refrigerants
– R404a, R410a, R448a - Blends
 Refrigerants
Classifications

Group A1 – Nontoxic and Nonflammable

Group A2 – Low toxicity and Flammable

Group A3 – Low toxicity and Highly Flammable

Group B1 – Highly toxic and Nonflammable

Group B2 – Highly toxic and flammable

Group B3 – Highly toxic and Highly flammable

 Common Refrigerant Saturation
Temperatures and Pressures
• R-134a 27.7C at
101.3kPa
• R-717 Ammonia -33.3C at
101.3kPa
• R-290 Propane -41.9C at
101.3kPa
These refrigerants have been discontinued:

R-12 – 1992-1994
R-22 – 2004

Quickly find out the replacements and the newer

Refrigerants

R-12 has been replaced mostly with R-134a

R-22 has been replaced with R-410a

R-12 is now classified as a banned substance in Canada.

 Refrigerants
Identification
They are identified by various ways:

Trichlorofluoromethane
Dichlorodifluoromethane
Chlorodifluoromethane
• Refrigerants only change between liquid and
vapour states
• When heat is removed from vapourized refrigerant
at the proper pressure the refrigerant condenses
• When heat is added to liquid refrigerant at the
proper pressure the refrigerant evaporates
• The magic of refrigeration happens when
refrigerant changes state
The liquid refrigerant, when
subject to atmospheric pressure
boils at -29.8°C.

Thus the latent heat required for

evaporation is drawn from the
surrounding area in which the
container occupies, causing the
surrounding area to cool.
Install a valve on the vent.

Thus we can control the

evaporation speed and
control the area
temperature with the valve.

We control the speed by

increasing the pressure in
the container.
 To maintain a cooler temperature than the
refrigerant.

We put a vacuum on the container, creating a lower pressure, making

the refrigerant boil at much lower temperature.
– 1st law of thermodynamics- Heat cannot be
created nor destroyed, just moved from a
space and transferred to a different area.
– A refrigeration system is a “closed loop” with a
fluid (refrigerant) traveling in one direction.
The system manipulates temperature and
pressure of the refrigerant to move the heat
from one area to another
– 2nd law of thermodynamics- Heat will
always travel towards cold
– Heat from the air in the space being
conditioned travels towards the cold
refrigerant in the evaporator coil, and heat in
the refrigerant is rejected to the cooler
outdoor air in the condenser coil
Why do we use refrigerants?

• It is that in liquid state it has a low boiling point at

atmospheric pressure
• At the point of evaporation it will absorb heat
• Requiring low temperature and low pressure
• But if condensed at a high pressure and
temperature will give up heat
• The two components in a refrigeration
system used to change the state of the
refrigerant are the 1) Evaporator and 2)
the Condenser

• The evaporator is placed in the area to be

cooled (such as in the refrigerator), and
the condenser is placed in the area where
the heat will be rejected (such as in an
area outside of the refrigerated space)
Capacities of a refrigeration
system: is the rate at which it will
remove heat from the refrigerated
medium.

We use the Imperial measure of

12,000 Btu/h = 1 Ton of cooling
capacity
• We can manipulate the boiling temperature of a
substance by increasing or decreasing the pressure
on the liquid
• Refrigerants typically have low boiling temperatures at
atmospheric pressure
• R22 (a common refrigerant used in air conditioning
systems) boils at -44⁰F at 0 PSIG (We now use
R410a)
• R134a (a common refrigerant used in refrigeration
systems) boils at -15⁰F at 0 PSIG (This replaced the
now banner R12)
Refrigeration System Challenge
Program
• The two conditions we must ensure in the
refrigerant system are:
• 1. only vapourized refrigerant entering the
compressor,
• 2. only liquid refrigerant entering the
metering device
• We must ensure conditions listed above
are met while system parameters change