JIMMA UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

(Meng 5212)
PART 1 3.VCRS
Refrigeration Lecture One
By: Ali S.(M.Sc. In Thermal System
Engineering)

By: Ali S. MEng5212 2022/23

By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 2
 Vapour Compression Refrigeration Systems

• Vapour cycles can be subdivided into vapour compression systems, vapour absorption systems, vapour
jet systems etc.

• VCRS are the most commonly used among all refrigeration systems

• In VCRS working fluid (refrigerant) undergoes phase change at least during one process.

• The refrigeration effect is produced when the refrigerant evaporates at low temperature

• It is also called mechanical refrigeration systems, b/c the input energy required to run the compressor is
in the form of mechanical energy

• Suit to almost all applications with the refrigeration capacities ranging from few Watts to few megawatts
with wide variety of refrigerants

• The actual vapour compression cycle is based on Evans-Perkins cycle, which is also called as reverse
Rankine cycle.
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By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 4
 Comparison between gas cycles and vapor cycles

• In gas cycle, the operating cycle will be away from the vapour dome (saturation liquid and vapour curves).

• Heat rejection and refrigeration take place as the gas undergoes sensible cooling and heating

• In a vapour cycle, phase change takes place and refrigeration effect is due to the vaporization of refrigerant liquid.

• In VCRS temperature remains constant, If the refrigerant is a pure substance during vaporization and condensation

• But temperature glide during vaporization and condensation if the refrigerant is a zeotropic mixture (having d/t
vapor and liquid phase composition)

• The required mass flow rates for a given refrigeration capacity is much smaller compared to a gas cycle, because
large amount of heat (latent heat) can be transferred per kg of refrigerant at a near constant temperature during
phase change.

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 Advantage and dis-advantage of VCRS over Air refrigeration system

Advantages:
• Smaller size for a given capacity of refrigeration
• Has less running cost
• Can be employed over a large range of temperature
• Quite high COP

Dis advantages:
• High initial cost (components eg. evaporator)
• Prevention of leakage of refrigerant, w/h is a major problem in VCRS

By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 6

 Standard Vapour Compression Refrigeration System (VCRS)

• Is Based on a theoretical cycle called Evans-Perkins or reverse Rankine cycle w/h has two
isobaric and two isentropic processes.
• Process 3-4: Isenthalpic expansion of saturated liquid in expansion device.

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 Analysis of standard VCRS

• Assumption for analysis of VCRS

• Steady flow;
• Negligible kinetic and potential energy changes across each component, and
• No heat transfer in connecting pipe lines
1. Evaporator: Heat transfer rate at evaporator or refrigeration capacity
= 𝑚𝑟 (h1-h4) Refrigeration effect

2. Compressor: Power input to the compression

𝑊𝑐= 𝑚𝑟(h2-h1)
3. Condenser : Heat transfer rate at condenser Condenser pressure Pc

By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 8

 Cont…

4. Expansion device: h3=h4, and the exit condition is two phase region, hence from the definition of quality (dryness
fraction), ℎ4=(1-𝑋4)ℎ𝑓,𝑒+𝑋4ℎ𝑔,𝑒=ℎ4 + 𝑋4ℎ𝑓𝑔 where;

• X4 is the quality at point 4,

• ℎ𝑓𝑒, ℎ𝑔,𝑒, ℎ𝑓𝑔, are the saturated liquid enthalpy, saturated vapour enthalpy and latent heat of vaporization at
evaporator pressure, respectively

• At compressor inlet, 𝑚r, 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 volume flow rate (w/h indicates com. size) and specific volume.

• Once all the state points are known, then from the required refrigeration capacity and various enthalpies one can
obtain the required refrigerant mass flow rate, volumetric flow rate at compressor inlet, COP, cycle efficiency etc.

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 Irreversibilities in VCRC

Standard vapour compression refrigeration cycle introduces two irreversibilities

1. Irreversibility due to isenthalpic throttling (process 3- 4) or Throttling loss

2. Irreversibility due to non-isothermal heat rejection (process 2-3) or superheat horn

• Due to these irreversibilities, the cooling effect reduces and work input increases

• As a result the theoretical COP of standard VCR cycle is smaller than that of a Carnot
system for the same heat source and sink temperatures.

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 Comparison between Carnot (dry compression) and standard VCRS

• The reduction in refrigeration effect (replacing Isentropic expansion by Iso-enthalpic

throttling) is equal to the area d-4-4’-c-d (area A2) and is known as throttling loss.

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 Cont…

• The increases in heat rejection of VCRS cycle, compared to Carnot cycle by area 2’2’’2=A1
is called superheat horn (due to replacement of isothermal by isobaric)
•

,Which is increased by A1 Or superheat horn

,Which is increased by A1 and A2

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 Cont…

• Superheat losses and throttling losses depend very much on the shape of the vapor dome on T-s diagram.
• And also the shape of the saturation curves depends on the nature of refrigerant

• Type 1: symmetrical saturation curves or both losses are significant, Ammonia, CO 2 and water
• Type 2: CFC11, CFC12, HFC134a, small superheat losses, but large throttling losses
• Type 3: CFC113, CFC114, CFC115, iso-butane, do not have any superheat losses(danger of wet
compression)
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 Cont…

 Generally,
• The superheat loss increases only the work input to the compressor, it does
not affect the refrigeration effect.
• In heat pumps superheat is not a loss, but a part of the useful heating effect.
• However, the process of throttling is inherently irreversible, and it
increases the work input and also reduces the refrigeration effect.

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 Sub-cooling and superheating

• Reducing sink temperature lower than condensing temp by adding extra area for heat transfer,
is called sub-cooling (w/h is in the sub-cooled liquid region)

• Increasing temp. of heat source a few degrees higher than the evaporator temp., so that the
vapour at the exit of the evaporator can be superheated is called superheating

• Usefull superheating:- super-heating of refrigerant due to heat transfer within the refrigerated space

• Useless superheating:- super-heating of refrigerant vapor by exchanging heat with the surroundings
as it flows through the connecting pipelines.

• Sub-cooling is beneficial w/h increases refrigeration effect by reducing throttling loss with no
additional specific work input

• And only liquid enters into the throttling device leading to its efficient operation by reducing
pressure drop in the evaporator.
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 Cont…

Sub-cooling
• Throttling loss with sub-cooling a-4”-4’-b

• Throttling loss without sub-cooling the b-4’-4-c

• Refrigeration effect increases by an amount equal to (h4-h4’) = (h3-h3’)

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 Cont…

• With useful superheating, the refrigeration effect, specific volume at the inlet to the
compressor and work of compression increase.
• COP may or may not increase with superheat, depends on the relative increase in
refrigeration effect and work of compression.
• Superheat is desirable to prevents the entry of liquid droplets into the compressor.

superheating
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 liquid-suction heat exchanger (LSHX)

• Sub-cooling and superheating can be achieved by simply increasing heat transfer area if the temperature
difference is large enough b/n condenser and heat sink and b/n evaporator and heat source.

• If change in temp is not sufficient, the required amount of subcooling and superheating is attained by LSHX.

• LSHX is a counter-flow heat exchanger in which the warm refrigerant liquid from the condenser
exchanges heat with the cool refrigerant vapour from the evaporator.

LSHX effect

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 Cont…

• Heat transferred between the refrigerant liquid and vapour in the LSHX

• If we assume that there is no heat exchange between the surroundings and the LSHX and negligible kinetic and potential energy changes
across the LSHX, then, the heat transferred between the refrigerant liquid and vapour in the LSHX, Q LSHX is given by:

• If we take average values of specific heats for the vapour and liquid, then we can write the above equation as;

• This means that, the degree of subcooling (T3-T4) will always be less than the degree of superheating, (T1-T6).

By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 19

 Cont…

• If we define the effectiveness of the LSHX, ε LSHX as the ratio of actual heat transfer rate in the LSHX to maximum
possible heat transfer rate, then:

• The maximum possible heat transfer rate is equal to ,

• Because the vapour has a lower thermal capacity, hence only it can attain the maximum possible temperature difference,
which is equal to T3-T6.

• If we have a perfect LSHX with 100 percent effectiveness (ε LSHX = 1.0), then from the above discussion it is clear that the

temperature of the refrigerant vapour at the exit of LSHX will be equal to the condensing temperature, Tc, i.e., T 1= T3= Tc.

• This gives rise to the possibility of an interesting cycle called as Grindley cycle, wherein the isentropic compression
process can be replaced by an isothermal compression leading to improved COP.

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 Actual VCRS

Ideal cycles are internally reversible and no change of refrigerant state takes place in the
connecting pipelines

Irreversibilities in actual VCRS

1. Pressure drops in evaporator, condenser and LSHX

2. Pressure drop across suction and discharge valves of the compressor

3. Heat transfer in compressor

4. Pressure drop and heat transfer in connecting pipe lines

By: Ali S. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 1/26/23 21

 𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑎𝑐𝑡 = 𝜂𝑐𝑦𝑐𝜂𝑖𝑠𝜂𝑚𝑜𝑡𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑐𝑎𝑟
An approximate expression for cycle efficiency (η cyc) in the evaporator
temperature range of –50oC to +40oC and condensing temperature range of
+10oC to +60oC for refrigerants such as ammonia, R 12 and R 22 is suggested
by Linge in 1966.