ME LAB III – Activity no.

Title: OPERATION OF THE BASIC REFRIGERATION SYSTEM USING CAPILLARY TUBE

METERING DEVICE

REFRIGERATION SYSTEM (schematic diagram)

I. Objective:
At the end of activity, student will be able to,
a. Learn/actual cycle operation of the basic refrigeration system.
b. Express the refrigeration cycle with color coded 2-side pressure of the system
c. Describe the function of the system major parts.

Refrigeration works on the principle of heat absorption due to the evaporation of

refrigerant. The refrigerant is evaporated by passing it from a region of high pressure to
a region of low pressure thus reducing its saturation temperature below its actual
temperature. The degree of cooling can then be controlled by controlling the amount of
refrigerant passing into the low pressure region. The mechanism that controls the
refrigerant flow into the low pressure region is ' called a metering device,

The most common metering device in use for household refrigeration systems is the
simplest one, the capillary tube. The easiest way to create a high and low pressure
difference is to put a restriction, the refrigerant flow path. The capillary tube is such a
restriction. The cap tube is a copper tube with a small bore wrapped into a coil. The
amount of restriction is dependent upon both the size of the bore and the length of the
tube. The cap tube is positioned between the compressor and the evaporator. The tube
leading from the compressor to the cap tube is called the liquid line or high side line. It
gets these names from the fact that the refrigerant contained in it is a liquid under high
pressure. The refrigerant flows through the liquid line to the capillary tube restriction,
then into a loss pressure area called the evaporator. The evaporator is a looped copper
tube that has metal fins attached to it to help transfer the heat from the refrigerated
area to the refrigerant.

The refrigerant begins to evaporate as soon as it reaches the evaporator but it is

carried into the evaporator before it has completely evaporated. As the refrigerant
evaporates, water from the air begins to freeze on the evaporator tubes and as long as
there is evaporation in a certain part of the evaporator, there will be frost on that part
of the coils. Therefore, it is easy to tell how much of the evaporator is being used. The
capillary tube system is at peak efficiency when all of the refrigerant leaving the
evaporator has been evaporated. The amount of refrigerant that is in the systems
determines where in the evaporator that evaporation stops so the charge of refrigerant
must be such that evaporation will continue until the end of the evaporator. If there is
too little charge, frosting will occur beyond the evaporator, that is, on the line leading to
the compressor, the suction line.

Notice that the capillary tube system requires a fixed charge. This means that a specific
amount of charge is required by the system and remains in the system at all times. The
other metering devices we will study require a storage tank of refrigerant so that a
variable amount of refrigerant can be used. Another noticeable difference be-tween this
system and others we shall study is that when the compressor is shut off, the pressure
across the capillary tube equalizes, since the cap tube is simply a restriction. This is not
the case in other metering devices. For these, the high pressure behind the metering
device is maintained when the compressor is off, thus causing added strain when the
compressor is restarted.

II. Tools and equipment:

a. Set of assembled refrigeration system with R-22 refrigerant charge.
b. Power supply and master control
c. Clamp ammeter
III. Drawing
Activity report illustration:

IV. Observation