MEP3001 Air Conditioning Systems-Lecture 3

Lecture 3
Introduction to Refrigeration
Cycles
Dr. Ahmed Darwish
Mechanical Power Engineering Department
Winter 2023

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Main Processes in A/C
 Seven main processes are required in A/C
Heating : the process of adding thermal energy (heat) to the conditioned
space to raise or maintain the temperature of the space.
Cooling : the process of removing thermal energy (heat) from the
conditioned space to lower or maintain the temperature of the space.
Humidifying : the process of adding water vapor (moisture) to the air in
the conditioned space to raise or maintain the moisture content of the air.
Dehumidifying : the process of removing water vapor (moisture) from
the air in the conditioned space to lower or maintain the moisture content
of the air.
Cleaning: the process of removing particulates and biological
contaminants from the air delivered to the conditioned space to improve
the air quality.
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Main Processes in A/C (cont.)
Ventilating : the process of exchanging air between the outdoors and the
conditioned space to dilute the gaseous contaminants in the air and
improve air quality, composition, and freshness.

Air movement (handling): the process of circulating and mixing air

through conditioned spaces in the building to achieve the proper
ventilation and to facilitate the thermal energy transfer.

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Cooling loads

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Principles of refrigeration cycles
 Heat is usually transferred from TH to TL.
 What if we need to reverse that?
Refrigerator: is a device that transfers heat
from low-temperature reservoir to a high-
temperature reservoir by using external work.
It runs on a cycle.
Working fluid is a refrigerant.
The efficiency of a refrigerator is called
“Coefficient of performance” or COP.
The objective of a refrigerator is to remove
heat QL from the space which requires a work
input.
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Heat Pump
 When you use the same cycle but the desired output
become QH, we call that a “heat pump”.
For heat pump, COP is

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Example 1
The food compartment of a refrigerator is maintained at 4°C by removing heat from it
at a rate of 360 kJ/min. If the required power input to the refrigerator is 2 kW,
determine (a) the coefficient of performance of the refrigerator and (b) the rate of heat
rejection to the room that houses the refrigerator.

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Example 2
A heat pump is used to meet the heating requirements of a house and maintain it at
20°C. On a day when the outdoor air temperature drops to -2°C, the house is estimated
to lose heat at a rate of 80,000 kJ/h. If the heat pump under these conditions has a COP
of 2.5, determine (a) the power consumed by the heat pump and (b) the rate at which
heat is absorbed from the cold outdoor air.

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Carnot Refrigeration/Heat pump Cycles
 Consider the following cycle.
1-2 : Evaporation (QL added at TL)
2-3 : Compression (W added to machine)
3-4 : Heat rejection (QH ejected at TH)
4-1 : Expansion (W extracted from machine)

 Carnot defined the maximum COPR as

Notice that 2-3 and 4-1 both have constant s (entropy). This
means that these processes are ideally performed (no losses).
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From Carnot to Practically Ideal Refrigeration Cycle
Carnot Ideal Cycle

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Practical Ideal Refrigeration Cycle
1-2 : Isentropic compression in a
compressor.
2-3 : Constant-pressure heat rejection in
a condenser.
3-4 : Throttling in an expansion device
4-1 : Constant-pressure heat absorption
in an evaporator.

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Example 3
A refrigerator uses refrigerant-134a as the working fluid and operates on an
ideal vapor-compression refrigeration cycle between 0.14 and 0.8 MPa. If the
mass flow rate of the refrigerant is 0.05 kg/s, determine (a) the rate of heat
removal from the refrigerated space and the power input to the compressor, (b)
the rate of heat rejection to the environment, and (c) the COP of the
refrigerator.

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Example 3 (cont.)
a) the rate of heat removal from the refrigerated space and the power input to the compressor

b) The rate of heat rejection from the refrigerant to the environment is

c) The coefficient of performance of the refrigerator is

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Actual Refrigeration Cycle
 Losses and change of entropy
Friction will increase entropy
Heat loss/gain will change entropy depending on the
direction of heat transfer.

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Example 4
Refrigerant-134a enters the compressor of a refrigerator as superheated vapor at 0.14 MPa
and −10°C at a rate of 0.05 kg/s and leaves at 0.8 MPa and 50°C. The refrigerant is cooled in
the condenser to 26°C and 0.72 MPa and is throttled to 0.15 MPa. Disregarding any heat
transfer and pressure drops in the connecting lines between the components, determine (a) the
rate of heat removal from the refrigerated space and the power input to the compressor, (b)
the isentropic efficiency of the compressor, and (c) the coefficient of performance of the
refrigerator.

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