Abstract

Modern refrigeration has many applications, such as preserving medicine, blood and the most
important application, the preservation of food. Most foods kept at room temperature spoil
rapidly. Nearly half of the vaccines in developing countries go to waste every year due to
temperature spoilage, according to the World Health Organization. In our country Ethiopia too,
these problems are seen visibly. They can be eradicated or reduced by using solar technology for
remote applications. To solve this problem, we designed a solar absorption refrigerator. This
work contains the general introduction, problem statement, objectives and scope of the study in
the first chapter. In the second chapter, literatures related to our work are revised and basic
thermal analysis of the cycle is given. The third chapter explains the method and place used for
data collection. The fourth chapter elaborates refrigerator components design analysis to use
ammonia water solution as a working fluid pairs. The component design includes solar collector
(the generator), air-cooled heat exchangers (condenser, evaporator and absorber), valves, piping
and separation disc (rectifier). The design procedures for some of the components are given at
the end of the appendix for the ease of reference for the reader.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ i

List of figures and tables ............................................................................................................ iv

Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................................... v

Nomenclature vi

CHAPTER 1 ..................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.1 Back ground .........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.2 Problem statement ...........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.3 Objective .........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.4 Specific objective ............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.5 Methodology ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.6 Significance .....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.7 Scope ...............................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.2 Applications of solar energy technology..............................Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.3 Solar absorption refrigeration...............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.4 Thermal analyses ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.4.1 Working fluid for absorption refrigeration systems ......Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.4.2 Governing equations ......................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

DESIGN ANALYSIS ....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.1 Description of the refrigeration system ................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

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 3.2 Generator design ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.3 Condenser design .................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.4 Evaporator design .................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.5 Expansion valve design ........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.6 Bubble pump design .............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.7 Absorber design: ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.8 Piping selection ....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.9 Accessories ......................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.9.1 Filter drier: - .............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.9.2 Rectifier: ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.9.3 Housing: ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.10 Design summary..............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

COST ESTIMATION ....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.1. Engineering Cost .................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.2. Development Cost ...............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

CHAPTER 5 ..................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .............................Error! Bookmark not defined.

5.1 Conclusion............................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

5.2 Recommendation ................................................................................................................. 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 61

APPENDICES ...............................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

A. properties of some working fluids and materials ..................Error! Bookmark not defined.

B. design procedures for some components ...............................Error! Bookmark not defined.

iii
List of figures and tables
Table 3. 1 Pressure, enthalpy and specific volume of NH3 at capillary tube sections . Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Table 3. 2 Head, vapor fraction, velocity and enthalpy change at capillary tube sections . Error! Bookmark
not defined.
Table 3. 3 Vapor and liquid viscosity values at capillary tube sections ........ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 3. 4 Viscosity, Reynolds number and friction factor at capillary tube sections . Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Table 3.5 Thermal analysis summary ..................................................................................................... 56
Table 3. 6 Dimensional design anlysis results ........................................................................................ 56
Table A1Thermo physical properties of saturated liquid ammonia (R717); . Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table A2 Thermo physical properties of saturated vapor ammonia (R717); . Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table A3 Shermo physical properties of air at atmospheric pressure ...................................................... 66
Table A4 Saturation table of R717(Ammonia) ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table A5 Saturation table of R718 (Water) ............................................................................................ 67
Table A6 Thermodynamic properties for AISI 1010 .............................................................................. 67
Table A7 Thermodynamic properties for aluminum alloy ...................................................................... 67
Table A8 Solar radiation recorded data for Mekelle .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Figure 1 Schematic diagram of solar absorption refrigeration ....Error! Bookmark not defined.7
Figure 2 Basic components of the parabolic troughcollector ........Error! Bookmark not defined.
Figure 1 Configuration of a bubble pump..46

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 Acknowledgement
We express our gratitude to Mr. Meseret Tesfay (M.TECH), our advisor, for his advice and
sharing his ideas with us for better out put on the project.

We again want to say thanks to Kidst Mebrahtom and Mebrahtu H. (1st year mechanical) for
giving us their personal computers (laptops) to use for our final year project.

We then want to thank all mechanical engineering G.C students for their moral and material help
and advice as friends.

Finally, we want to say thanks to our friends and those who helped us morally and materially in
any means for successful completion of this work.

v
Nomenclature
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vi
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vii
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viii