HARAMAYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (MEng 5281)

By Tihun B. (MSc. Thermal Engineering)

OCT, 2023
 PART 1
Refrigeration.
 Introduction
Refrigeration: defined as the process of achieving and maintaining a temperature
below that of the surroundings,
 The aim being to cool some product or space to the required temperature.

It should be kept in mind that refrigeration is not same as “cooling”, even though
both the terms imply a decrease in temperature.
Cooling is a heat transfer process down a temperature gradient, it can be a
natural, spontaneous process. However, refrigeration is not a spontaneous
process, as it requires expenditure of energy.

Thus cooling of a hot cup of coffee is a spontaneous cooling process (not a

refrigeration process), while converting a glass of water from room temperature
to say, a block of ice, is a refrigeration process (non-spontaneous).
Difference between a heat engine, refrigeration and heat pump
 We all know from experience that heat flows in the direction of decreasing
temperature, that is, from high-temperature regions to low-temperature ones.
So This heat-transfer process occurs in nature without requiring any devices.

 The reverse process, however, cannot occur by itself. The transfer of heat
from a low-temperature region to a high-temperature one requires special
devices called refrigerators
 Another device that transfers heat from a low-temperature medium to a
high-temperature one is the heat pump. Refrigerators and heat pumps are
essentially the same devices; they differ in their objectives only

The objective of a refrigerator is to maintain the refrigerated space at a low temperature by

removing heat from it.
The objective of a heat pump, however, is to maintain a heated space at a high temperature.
 The performance of refrigerators and heat pumps is
expressed in terms of the coefficient of performance
(COP), defined as

 Refrigerators, like heat engines, are cyclic devices.

The working fluid used in the refrigeration cycle is
called a refrigerant.
 Refrigeration can be achieved by natural means or artificial means
 Natural means of refrigeration
use of ice or
evaporative cooling: process of reducing the temperature of a system by
evaporation of water
Cooling by Salt Solutions: common salt, when added to water dissolve in
water and absorb its heat of solution from water (endothermic process).
This reduces the temperature of the solution (water+salt).

 Artificial Refrigeration
 Vapour Compression Refrigeration Systems:
 Vapour Absorption Refrigeration Systems:
 Gas Cycle Refrigeration:
 Steam Jet Refrigeration System:
 Thermoelectric Refrigeration Systems:
 Application of Refrigeration and Air - conditioning

The major applications of refrigeration can be grouped in to the following four

major equally important areas
1. Food processing, preservation and distribution
 Storage of Raw Fruits and Vegetables
 Fish
 Meat and poultry
 Dairy Products
 Beverages
 Processing and distribution of frozen food
2. Chemical and process industries
 Separation of gases Storage as liquid at low pressure
 Condensation of Gases Removal of Heat of Reaction
 Dehumidification of Air Cooling for preservation
 Solidification of Solute Recovery of Solvents
Cont..
3. Special application and
 Cold Treatment of Metals
 Medical
 Ice Skating Rinks
 Construction
 Desalination of Water
 Ice Manufacture
4. Comfort air conditioning
 Methods of producing Low Temperatures
 Theoretically refrigeration can be achieved by several methods. All these
methods involve producing temperatures low enough for heat transfer to take
place from the system being refrigerated to the system that is producing
refrigeration.
1. Sensible cooling by cold medium
If a substance is available at a temperature lower than the required refrigeration
temperature, then it can be used for sensible cooling by bringing it in thermal
contact with the system to be refrigerated.
 The energy absorbed by the substance providing cooling increases its
temperature, and the heat transferred during this process is given by:

Where m is the mass of the substance providing cooling, cp is its specific heat and ΔT
is the temperature rise undergone by the substance.
2. Endothermic mixing of substances
Low temperatures can be obtained when certain salts are dissolved in water.
This is due to the fact that dissolving of these salts in water is an endothermic
process
3. Phase change processes
Refrigeration is produced when substances undergo endothermic phase change
processes such as sublimation, melting and evaporation.
 For all phase change processes, the amount of refrigeration produced is
given by:

where Q is the refrigeration produced (heat transferred), m is the mass of the phase
change substance and Δhph is the latent heat of phase change.
4. Expansion of Liquids

 When a high pressure liquid flows

through a turbine delivering a net work
output, its pressure and enthalpy fall.

 In an ideal case, the expansion process

can be isentropic, so that its entropy
remains constant and the drop in enthalpy
will be equal to the specific work output
(neglecting kinetic and potential energy
changes).
Cont..

 When a high pressure liquid is forced to flow through a restriction such as a

porous plug, its pressure decreases due to frictional effects.
 No net work output is obtained, and if the process is adiabatic and change in
potential and kinetic energies are negligible, then from steady flow energy
equation, it can be easily shown that the enthalpy of the liquid remains
constant.
 However, since the process is highly irreversible, entropy of liquid increases
during the process. This process is called as a throttling process.
Cont..
 Whether or not the temperature of the liquid drops significantly during the
isentropic and isenthalpic expansion processes depends on the inlet condition
of the liquid. If the inlet is a saturated liquid, then the outlet condition lies in
the two-phase region,
 For both the cases the exit temperature will be same, which is equal to the
saturation temperature corresponding to the outlet pressure p2. It can be seen
that this temperature is much lower than the inlet temperature (saturation
temperature corresponding to the inlet pressure p1).

 This large temperature drop is a result of vapour generation during expansion

requiring enthalpy of vaporization, which in the absence of external heat
transfer (adiabatic) has to be supplied by the fluid itself.
 5. Thermoelectric Refrigeration
 Thermoelectric refrigeration is a novel method of producing low temperatures
and is based on the reverse Seebeck effect
 In Seebeck effect an EMF, E is produced when the junctions of two dissimilar
conductors are maintained at two different temperatures T1 and T2.

 When a battery is added in between the two conductors A and B whose junctions are
initially at same temperature, and a current is made to flow through the circuit, the
junction temperatures will change, one junction becoming hot (T1) and the other
becoming cold (T2). This effect is known as Peltier effect.
 Refrigeration effect is obtained at the cold junction and heat is rejected to the
surroundings at the hot junction. This is the basis for thermoelectric
refrigeration systems.
Cont..
 6. Adiabatic demagnetization
 Similar to mechanical compression and expansion of gases, there are some
materials that raise their temperatures when adiabatically magnetised, and drop thei
temperature when adiabatically demagnetised.

 Each atom of the paramagnetic salt may be considered to be a tiny magnet. If the sal
is not magnetized then all its atoms or the magnets are randomly oriented such that
the net magnetic force is zero.
 If it is exposed to a strong magnetic field, the atoms will align themselves to the
direction of magnetic field. This requires work and the temperature increases
during this process.
 Now if the magnetic field is suddenly removed, the atoms will come back to the
original random orientation. This requires work to be done by the atoms. If there i
no heat transfer from surroundings, the internal energy of the salt will decrease as
it does work. Consequently the salt will be cooled .