Chillers

Henry Nicolás Ávila Bustos, Orlaine Castilla Peñate, Juan David Escobar, David Felipe Díaz
Salazar, Harold Santiago Manrique Arismendi

Mechanical Engineering department

Heat Transfer
Santo Tomás University
Bogotá, Colombia

I. INTRODUCCIÓN

All building need air conditioning. For smaller buildings this can be provided by A/C units but once the
building reaches a certain size it becomes cost-effective to use a centralized system. Centralized systems use
“chillers” which are basically giant A/C units but they work slightly differently because of their size. [1]

Chillers generate chilled water which is used to provide air conditioning in buildings. All building generates a
lot of unwanted heat, whether it be solar heat gain from the sun beating down on it or from the occupants
inside and the equipment they use. This heat needs to be removed to keep the people inside at a comfortable
temperature but also to make sure electrical and mechanical equipment is kept within certain thermal limits
otherwise these will break. [1]

Chillers are industrial devices that allow to reduce the temperature of a fluid that need it. They use the heat
transfer to get a big or small change in the temperature that is around the device, thus avoid high temperatures
that do not let reach the best results. To chill the fluid, chillers can use two different options, water or air. [2]

Chillers are typically located in the basement or on the roof. Roof top chillers tend to be air cooled whereas
basement chillers tend to be water cooled. By “cooled” we refer to the method it uses to discard the unwanted
heat into the atmosphere which was picked up in the building. Water cooled chillers will use cooling towers
whereas air cooled chillers will blow air across their condenser, much like an A/C unit, to disperse the
unwanted heat into the atmosphere. [1]

II. HOW DOES THE CHILLERS WORK?

A chiller works on the principle of vapor compression or vapor absorption. Chillers provide a continuous
flow of coolant to the cold side of a process water system at a desired temperature of about 50°F (10°C). The
coolant is then pumped through the process, extracting heat out of one area of a facility (e.g., machinery,
process equipment, etc.) as it flows back to the return side of the process water system.
A chiller uses a vapor compression mechanical refrigeration system that connects to the process water system
through a device called an evaporator. Refrigerant circulates through an evaporator, compressor, condenser
and expansion device of a chiller. A thermodynamic process occurs in each of above components of a chiller.
The evaporator functions as a heat exchanger such that heat captured by the process coolant flow transfers to
the refrigerant. As the heat-transfer takes place, the refrigerant evaporates, changing from a low-pressure
liquid into vapor, while the temperature of the process coolant reduces.
The refrigerant then flows to a compressor, which performs multiple functions. First, it removes refrigerant
from the evaporator and ensures that the pressure in the evaporator remains low enough to absorb heat at the
correct rate. Second, it raises the pressure in outgoing refrigerant vapor to ensure that its temperature remains
high enough to release heat when it reaches the condenser. The refrigerant returns to a liquid state at the
condenser. The latent heat given up as the refrigerant changes from vapor to liquid is carried away from the
environment by a cooling medium (air or water). [3]

III. TYPES OF CHILLERS

● CHILLERS ACCORDING TO TYPE OF CONDENSER

A. Water chiller
It is an air conditioning system that cools water to send air through a LCU (LIQUID COOLER
UNIT) to offices, public service centers, hospitals or other private and public spaces. This
equipment can cool the water to 6 ° C and is more efficient than a cooling tower.

The chiller is a liquid cooler, which, as in a direct expansion system, heats or cools by thermal
exchange. It keeps the liquid refrigerated when it is a function of cold or the liquid heated, when it is
a function of a heat pump. [3]

Fig 1. Water chiller

B. Air chiller

This machine works with air to chill the air around it. To get cool the air, first the device absorbs the
heat of the air   it transports the fluid through pipes and special treatment of air coils that helps to
dehumidify the air.
But this machine requires to be outside of the place that the user wants to get chill, because the
device takes the air out with a different temperature to chill the temperature inside on one specific
place. Air chillers have a condenser boils improved with a fan. This device is excellent for get chill
big places, when an air conditioning is not enough. [3]
 Fig 2. Air chiller

● CHILLERS ACCORDING TO TYPE OF COMPRESSOR

A. Centrifugal Compressor

The first one we’re going to look at is the centrifugal type compressor. The centrifugal type
compressor looks a lot like this and is quite easy to spot as the compressor is above the chiller with a
large volute shaped pipe curling around into the condenser.

Fig 3. Centrifugal Compressor

The refrigerant flows in through the suction line, hits into the center of the impeller where it will be
directed by the blades. The blades rotate and that imparts an angular velocity onto the particles of the
refrigerant. This angular velocity makes the refrigerant particles fly out at high velocity, in all
directions, and collects in the volute (the outer curl) where it increases in pressure from the kinetic
energy, it then passes down into the condenser. This type of compressor/chiller is a very common set
up for a central plant in large buildings. [4]

B. Turbocor Compressor

A variation of the centrifugal type is the Turbocor compressor. Turbocor compressors are much smaller units
mounted also to the top of the chillers. These work very similar to the centrifugal type, but they have
two stage compressors inside. The refrigerant flows in through the front, passes through the two
different compressors and then the refrigerant exits and travels down into the condenser. These
usually have magnetic bearings and electronic motors inside, which make these units very efficient.
Turbocor are becoming much more common and they are set to continue this trend. [4]

Fig 4. Turbocor Compressor

 C. Screw compressors

Screw compressors are used for both water cooled and air cooled chillers. With water cooled type the
compressor is on top of the chiller and with air cooled type the compressors are under the chiller.
Indoor water cooled chillers will often be insulated whereas air cooled may not be. This type takes
the refrigerant off of the evaporator and passes through into the compressor. Inside the compressor
are two interconnecting screws.

Fig 5. Screw compressors

The refrigerant will enter into a void between the two screws, but as the screws rotates they push the socket of
refrigerant further into the compressor and squeeze it into a small space. The refrigerant will exit at
high pressure high temperature and flows to the expansion valve. [4]

D. Scroll compressors

The scroll compressor is used mostly on air cooled chillers but you can also find them on water cooled.
Usually one compressor isn’t enough to meet the cooling load so several will be joined together in a
bank. In the example above the blue cylinders under the chiller are the compressors which are joined
to form a bank.

Fig 6. Scroll compressors

With these type of compressors, the refrigerant usually enters via the bottom and is fed into the compressor
discs. One disc will be stationary whilst the other is rotated to compress the refrigerant into a tighter
space. The refrigerant is forced around the spiral as the disc moves which causes it to compress, it
will then leave via the top and head to the expansion valve. [4]

● CHILLERS ACCORDING TO TYPE OF EVAPORATOR

A. THE PLATE EVAPORATOR

version chillers with most rapidly gaining popularity. It is a relic of plate and frame heat exchanger, which
was used in the food industry for many decades. Plate and frame heat exchanger consists of a set of
 plates, which are gasketed so that, when these plates are bolted together one of the liquid flows
between two plates, and other liquids between pairs of adjacent plates. Corrugated plates with a
herringbone pattern that physically strengthens plates, and also contributes to the turbulence of the
fluid, providing excellent convection heat transfer coefficients. This type of heat exchanger is
attractive for such branches of food industry, as dairies, because at the end of the working shift bolts
of fastening of plates in a position can be relaxed, allowing access to any surface cleaning. [5]

Fig 7. Plate evaporator

B. SHELL AND TUBE TYPE EVAPORATOR

The main function of Shell & Tube Type Evaporator is to act as a heat exchanger in a vessel form. This is
mainly done to cool closed circuit for re-circulating fluid flow. This can be done with the help of
refrigerants as a cooling medium. They are efficient in working and having compact design. The
concept of the equipment is based on large number of tubes that can be formed into bundles. The
refrigerants passed through the expansion device that passed into tubes and evaporates to produce a
cooling effect. [6]

Fig 8. Shell and tube evaporator

IV. APPLICATIONS

Chillers are often used for this industries:

I. Plastic industry: To chill warm plastic that is injected, also in processes of extrusion and stamped.

II. Printing industry: Used to cool the rollers that increase their temperature for friction.
 III. Heating and air conditioning industry: Require gig machines for keep the right temperature on
gig surfaces or places

IV. Laser cut: Thanks the laser cut works with high temperatures, the system needs to be chill
quickly for continue with the process of cut off, to prevent overheating. [1]

V. CHILLER PARTS

● Compressor 
● Condenser
● High pressure gauge
● Expansion Valve
● Thermostat
● Control circuit
● Cooling lines and accessories
● Control Devices

VI. OPERATION OF THE CHILLER PARTS

● Compressor: Raises the pressure of the cooling fluid for system continuity.

● Condenser: Condenses the vapor into liquid by extracting heat from the fluid

● High pressure gauge: It protects the system against excessive pressure and gives us visual
indication of the condensing pressure of the refrigerant.

● Expansion Valve: Provides the correct amount of refrigerant to the evaporator coil for proper
cooling.

● Thermostat: It is used to connect or interrupt a circuit in response to a change in temperature

● Control circuit: Control stops and starts of chiller engines, alarm signals.

VII. REFRIGERATION CYCLE

The Compressor (4) absorbs the refrigerant as a low pressure and low temperature gas, then when
compressed it raises the pressure, where the refrigerant becomes a mixture of gas and liquid at high pressure
and high temperature. 

When it passes through the Condenser (1) with the high pressure coming from the Compressor (4) the heat
of the refrigerant is dissipated to the environment through a fan, its temperature decreases until the vapor
condenses into the cooling liquid. 

Already on the low pressure side, the refrigerant reaches an expansion valve (2) that is in the evaporator (3)
is a point where there is a very large loss of charge, by reduction of the passage section; Its function is to let
the refrigerant pass from the part of the high pressure circuit to the low pressure part. [8]
 Fig 9. Control devices

 VIII. REFERENCES

References

[ P. Evans, «The engineering mindset,» 6 April 2017. [En línea]. Available:

1 https://theengineeringmindset.com/chillers-what-are-they-hvac/.
]
[ «Quiminet,» 6 December 2006. [En línea]. Available:
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]
[ «senseware,» 7 october 2019. [En línea]. Available:
3 https://blog.senseware.co/2017/11/16/ultimate-guide-chiller-systems.
]
[ «Motorex,» 10 April 2019. [En línea]. Available:
4 http://www.motorex.com.pe/blog/diferencias-aire-acondicionado-chiller/.
]
[ P. Evans, «The engineer mindset,» 30 May 2019. [En línea]. Available:
5 https://theengineeringmindset.com/chiller-compressor-types/.
]
[ «Senho,» 18 September 2017. [En línea]. Available: http://www.senho-chiller.com/technical-
6 suport/1084.html.
]
[ «Drycool,» 6 June 2008. [En línea]. Available: https://www.drycoolchiller.com/shell-tube-
7 type-evaporater.html.
]
[ «North slope chillers,» 20 May 2019. [En línea]. Available:
8 https://northslopechillers.com/blog/how-chiller-systems-work/.
]