MM 311 Applied Thermo Fluid

The University of the South Pacific

School of Engineering and Physics
MM 311 Applied Thermo Fluids

Lab 1: Performance Study of a Vapor Compression Refrigerant System

Lab Session Time: Wednesday (2-5pm)

Student Name: Shavneel chand
Student ID#: S11108836

AIM

To calculate and compare the values of heat lost by air and heat gained by the refrigerant as by theory this
has to be equal.

EQUIPMENT

Vapor compression refrigerant system unit.

INTRODUCTION

In 1805, the American inventor Oliver Evans described a closed vapor-compression refrigeration cycle for
the production of ice by ether under vacuum. Heat would be removed from the environment by recycling
vaporized refrigerant, where it would move through a compressor and condenser and would eventually
revert to a liquid form in order to repeat the refrigeration process over again. However, no such refrigeration
unit was built by Evans [1]. In 1834, an American expatriate to Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, built the first
working vapor-compression refrigeration system in the world as it was a closed-cycle that could operate
continuously [2].

The vapor-compression uses a circulating liquid refrigerant as the medium which absorbs and removes heat
from the space to be cooled and subsequently rejects that heat elsewhere. Figure 1 depicts a typical, single-
stage vapor-compression system. All such systems have four components: a compressor, a condenser, a
thermal expansion valve also called a throttle valve, and an evaporator.

Figure 1. Typical single stage vapor compression refrigeration system [3]

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THEORY

The Circulating refrigerant enters the compressor in the thermodynamic state known as a saturated vapor
and is compressed to a higher pressure, resulting in a higher temperature as well. The hot, compressed vapor
is then in the thermodynamic state known as a superheated vapor and it is at a temperature and pressure at
which it can be condensed with cooling air. That hot vapor is routed through a condenser where it is cooled
and condensed into a liquid by flowing through a coil or tubes with cool air flowing across the coil or tubes.
This is where the circulating refrigerant rejects heat from the system and the rejected heat is carried away by
the air. The condensed liquid refrigerant, in the thermodynamic state known as a saturated liquid, is next
routed through an expansion valve where it undergoes an abrupt reduction in pressure. That pressure
reduction results in the adiabatic flash evaporation of a part of the liquid refrigerant. The auto-refrigeration
effect of the adiabatic flash evaporation lowers the temperature of the liquid and vapor refrigerant mixture to
where it is colder than the temperature of the enclosed space to be refrigerated. The cold mixture is then
routed through the coil or tubes in the evaporator. A fan circulates the warm air in the enclosed space across
the coil or tubes carrying the cold refrigerant liquid and vapor mixture. That warm air evaporates the liquid
part of the cold refrigerant mixture. At the same time, the circulating air is cooled and thus lowers the
temperature of the enclosed space to the desired temperature. The evaporator is where the circulating
refrigerant absorbs and removes heat which is subsequently rejected in the condenser and transferred
elsewhere by the air used in the condenser.
To complete the refrigeration cycle, the refrigerant vapor from the evaporator is again a saturated vapor and
is routed back into the compressor [4].

Figure 2 schematic of a vapour compression refrigerant system with TS and PH graph. [5]

As shown in the figure 1 the standard single stage, vapour compression refrigeration system consists of the
following four processes:

Process 1-2: Isentropic compression of saturated vapour in compressor

Process 2-3: Isobaric heat rejection in condenser
Process 3-4: Isenthalpic expansion of saturated liquid in expansion device
Process 4-1: Isobaric heat extraction in the evaporator

Applying steady flow energy equation to each of the process the following equations were obtained:

Evaporator: Heat transfer rate at evaporator or refrigeration capacity is given by:

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Compressor: Power input to the compressor is given by:

Condenser: Heat transfer rate at condenser is given by:

Expansion device: For the isenthalpic expansion across the expansion device could be considerable,
however, if we take the control volume, well downstream of the expansion device, then the kinetic energy
gets dissipated due to viscous effects is given by:

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND PROCEDURE

The vapour compression refrigerant system was set up in the lab which used Arcton 12 refrigerant gas in the
system. The input feed of H was set to 70mm of water which was then used to take the following readings
from the vapour compression refrigerant system:

Pressure 1 = 1.2 bar

Pressure 2 = 9 bar
Temperature 1 = 27.5c
Temperature in = 33c
Temperature out = 27c
r =46 g/s

The following results were then taken and used in the Arcton 12 pressure Enthalpy diagram to locate point
3 as it lies on the saturated liquid line at pressure of 9 bars and point 4 was located using point 3 which was
dropped vertically down to meet with the pressure of 1.2 bars. The constant temperature line was then used
to locate point 1 which intersected with 1.2 bar pressure line and following the constant entropy lone which
intersected with 9 bar pressure point 2 was located. Moving on the enthalpy at each point was found where
h1 was found to be 270 kj/kg and similarly h2 was located to be 315 kj/kg and finally h3 and h4 was found to
be 138 kj/kg. The following enthalpy was then used to calculate for the following variables such as heat lost
by the refrigerant, work required by compressor, coefficient of performance.

RESULTS AND SAMPLE CALCULATION

H = 70 mm
Pressure 1 = 1.2 bar
Pressure 2 = 9 bar
Temperature 1 = 27.5c 300.5k
Temperature in = 33c 306k
Temperature out = 27c 300k
r =46 g/s 0.046kg/s

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Values found from P-h graph:

h1= 270 KJ/Kg

h2= 315 KJ/Kg
h3= 138 KJ/Kg
h4= 138 KJ/Kg

COP of the VCR:

1 4 270138
= = 2.93
2 1 315270

Rate Of Work Done By The Compressor:

= (2 1 )
= (0.046kg/s) (315-270)
= 2.07 KJ/s
Rate Of Heat Gain By The Refrigerant:

= (1 4 )
= (0.046kg/s) (270-138)
= 6.072 KJ/s

Rate of Heat lost by the Air:

1. Find volume flow rate of air:
= 0.0247()
= 0.0247x (70)
=0.2066 mm3/s 2.07x10-10m3/s
2. Find the mass flow rate of air:

=
1
(101.3)(0.2066)
=
(287300.5)
= 0.243 Kg/s
3. Rate of Heat lost by the air:
= ( )
= 0.243 X 1005 X (306-300)
= 1.46 KJ/s

DISCUSSION

The results that was obtained from the experiment and which was used to do the analysis of the equations, it
was found that the heat lost by the air is not equal to the heat gained by the refrigerant, as stated by the
theory this values has to be equal but its not in practical. The aim of this experiment was to compare the
two values and there were slight difference between the heats lost by the air which came up to be 1.46 kj/kg
and the heat gained by the refrigerant came up to be 6.072kj/kg.

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The reason for such difference in the results could be due to the body heat that can be absorbed by the
system as it was of metal while doing experiment. The difference in results also could be due to setup in the
lab exposed to atmospheric wind blowing hence change in the results of heat gained by refrigerant. The
difference would also arise if there were some of some misinterpretation of fine details in graph which might
have been approximated to the nearest value hence the values were so close to each other in the diagram this
could be reason to that calculating the results gave such difference in our experiments.

CONCLUSION

To conclude from this experiment, it can be said that the heat lost by air and heat gained by the refrigerant
should be equal but it is not due to the errors present as stated in the discussion. The major error that would
have caused such a difference could have been the interpretation of graph while taking the enthalpy reading
which may have differed from exact values.

REFERENCE

[1] Colin Hempstead and William E. Worthington (Editors) (2005). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century
Technology, Volume 2. Taylor& Francis. ISBN 1-57958-464-0.

[2] Robert T. Balmer (2011). Modern Engineering Thermodynamic. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-
374996-3.

[3] Wikipedia. (2016). Vapor-compression refrigeration. [Online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor-compression_refrigeration#/media/File:Refrigeration.png [Accessed 15
Mar. 2016].

[4] Vapour compression refrigerant system. (2016). 1st ed. [eBook] Kharagpur: ME, IIT, pp.14-18.
Available at: http://nptel.ac.in/courses/112105129/pdf/RAC%20Lecture%2010.pdf [Accessed 15 Mar.
2016].

[5] Google.com. (2016). schematic of a vapour compression refrigeration system - Google Search. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.google.com/search?q=schematic+of+a+vapour+compression+refrigeration+system&biw=1366
&bih=657&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4opisxMLLAhUOx2MKHckKDokQ_AUIBig
B#imgrc=dN3tPTveUfryxM%3A [Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].

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