Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr. Kassegne, S.
October 15, 2014
Table of Contents: Jesse Javier
List of Tables
refrigeration cycle operates, most importantly the role an expansion valve plays in determining
the Qin and efficiency of the cycle. The RA1 allows the measurement of various states within the
cycle through Thermistor sensors placed at different stages. These results could then be recorded
and displayed though the corresponding program to be later analyzed. Different compressor
speeds can be set that show different mass flow rates within the system with an increase in Win.
Through the 3 compressor speeds 65%, 75% and 85% the expansion valve can be adjusted over a
period of time which demonstrates the effect of the systems current properties vs the opening of
the valve. The main purpose of the Refrigeration System lab is to demonstrate the trends seen
through these changes on the refrigerant system’s total output and efficiency.
compressor, condenser, evaporator and expansion valve a refrigerant fluid is flowed through the
system with the intent to pull Qin from the resultant space. As the fluid moves through the system
it changes states from liquid, to saturated liquid, to superheated vapor and back to liquid.
The temperatures after each section of the cycle are recorded along with the refrigerant
flow rate, motor torque and water flow rate during the time frame. These experimental
parameters are used for the equations below to calculation the major parameters efficiency and
Qin.
The expansion valve is an important part of all refrigeration cycles and it regulates the
flow between a higher pressure and lower pressure by means of a simple mechanical force F1,
F2 and F3. The valve is used to control the flow of liquid refrigerant entering the evaporator at a
rate that matches the amount of refrigerant being boiled off in the evaporator, This is its main
purpose but like all the other metering devices it also provides a pressure drop in the system,
separating the high pressure side of the system from the low pressure side.
The following derivations, equations, and figures are from the document “Refrigeration
System – Experiment 9” written by Dr. Kassegne for the ME495 Laboratory. This derivation will
automatic recording of all important process variables using an integral USB interface device.
The hermetically sealed refrigerant compressor incorporates a brushless three phase DC electric
motor that is driven by a variable speed controller. Compressor speed and power supplied is
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Refrigerant R134a
Compressor rating .11 cm3 (0.434 cu in) for high evaporator temperature with 7.2°C rating point
Condenser Brazed plate heat exchanger using water as heat transfer medium
Evaporator Brazed plate heat exchanger using water as heat transfer medium
PC Software
The software used with the RA1 refrigeration unit has the functions and capabilities
designed to make the operation of the equipment and processing of the results more
straightforward, and also to enhance student understanding of the subjects being covered.
The software is used for a Diagrammatic representation of the equipment, complete with
continuous real time display of the various sensor outputs and instantaneous Coefficient of
Performance (COP). It also automatically logs the data from the sensors and puts them in a
Full control of the refrigeration units compressor, and pump speed is done by the
software as well.
The refrigeration system experiment was conducted in the ME 495 Laboratory Facility at
San Diego State University on October 1st, 2014 at 10:00 AM by lab group E. Experimental
procedures outlined in the ME 495 Lab Manual prepared by Sam Kassegne were executed.
Setup-
The initial setup requires preparing and configuring the settings on the refrigeration
module. The USB connection between the RA1 and PC was confirmed first. Next, power was
initiated to the RCD Device, circuit breakers, RA1 refrigeration unit and to the RA1 software.
Water pump speeds feeding to the condenser and to the evaporator were set to 90% and the RA1
Experiment-
After removing the cap on the expansion valve, a screwdriver was used to rotate the valve
¼ turn. The compressor was then initiated and set at 65 % speed. The value given at FM3 by the
variable area flow meter was input into the RA1 software and the system was given time to
become steady. Upon stability of temperature and pressure, data samples were taken at 5 second
intervals for 1 minute. The expansion valve was then rotated ¼ turn counter clockwise and data
samples were taken again for the same rate and time. This process was repeated until the
Coefficient of Performance was constant. Additionally, these steps were repeated with
compressor speeds of 75% and 85% and all data samples were saved to a flash drive.
It was important that at the end of the experiment, the expansion valve was configured for
normal operation. This was done by setting the compressor, condenser, and evaporator to speeds
of 80%, 50%, and 70% respectively allowing the system to stabilize with a differential
temperature across the evaporator of 4 to 6oC. The system was then turned off.
75%, and 85% compressor speed. This data is further reduced into three graphs. Graph 1
represents the Coefficient of Performance (CP) over time. The trend to be noted here despite
imprecise equipment is that as the expansion valve was opened the CP increased. Graph 2 shows
the CP as it relates to compressor work. The importance of this graph is to note that as the
compressor work increased the CP decreased. Similarly the CP as it relates to compressor speed
is shown in Graph 3. It is important to note that as the compressor speed increased the CP
dropped and was therefore less efficient. Also interesting is the range of CP values were
significantly closer together as the compressor speed was increased showing that it ran more
Graph 3:
Discussion of results: Brandon Haschke
Table 1 above consists of the critical raw data from each run of the experiment at 65%,
75%, and 85% compressor speed. This data is further reduced in to three graphs. Graph 1
represents the Coefficient of Performance (CP) over time. The trend to be noted here despite
imprecise equipment is that as the expansion valve was opened the CP increased. Graph 2 shows
the CP as it relates to compressor work. The importance of this graph is to note that as the
compressor work increased the CP decreased. Similarly, the CP as it relates to compressor speed
shown in Graph 3 shows compressor speed increased while CP dropped and was therefore less
efficient. Also interesting is the range of CP values were significantly closer together as the
compressor speed was increased showing that it ran more consistently although less efficient.
Sources of Error:
It should be noted that the values of motor torque, work in and coefficient of performance
fluctuated between lower and higher values. This may be caused by imprecise or faulty
measuring gauges on the Armfield RA1 Refrigeration Unit or unsteady power being delivered to
the motor. Other sources of error may be a faulty expansion valve, human error when adjusting
the expansion valve or leaks in the system which could have caused these fluctuations.
Theoretical Comparison:
The expansion valve regulates the amount of refrigerant entering the evaporator. The
optimum setting for an expansion valve is when the amount of refrigerant entering the evaporator
equals the amount of refrigerant being boiled off in the evaporator [1]. This optimum setting
should result in the highest possible COP for the given system. The optimum setting for the
expansion valve would be just before the COP begins to drop (due to the valve being open too
much). This cannot be determined from our data because the average of our COP did not drop. It
increased throughout the experiment. It is possible that the expansion valve was not opened
enough. This would have prevented the amount of refrigerant entering the expansion valve to
exceed the amount of refrigerant being boiled off, which would have prevented an average drop
in the COP.
1) How does the temperature change as the expansion valve is adjusted? Explain
The thermal expansion valve in the refrigeration system is used to control the amount of
refrigerant flowing into the evaporator. As the expansion valve is opened, the flow of the
2) How does the pressure vary across the expansion valve? Explain
3) Provide graphs for the efficiencies of each of the compressor speed runs.
Graph 4:
Graph 5:
Graph 6:
4) What happens to the system when the expansion valve is adjusted? Explain
As the expansion valve is adjusted, the refrigerant levels either increase causing a
and pressure.
5) Why does the expansion valve need to be adjusted?
The valve is adjusted in the experiment so that the working fluids to cool. This process
This is not entirely calculable as the mass flow rate is still uncertain. However, the
optimum expansion valve can be observed experimentally from the graphs as the point at
7) What happens to the system when the compressor speed is changed? Why?
The system is allowed to cool at a faster rate, as more refrigerant is being pumped
through the system in the given time and more contact is made.
The highest compressor speed was the speed shown experimentally to be the optimum
compressor speed.
The average range of efficiencies for the 65% run was between 25-28, 75% had
efficiency between 27-30, while the 85% run was averaging between 29-33.The highest
speeds was clearly the most efficient and best of the compressor speeds.
obvious correlation between the adjustment of the expansion of the valve and the amount of
refrigerant that was allowed to enter the evaporator, which then boiled, and performed the goal
of refrigeration cycle, absorbing heat. It can also be seen immediately apparent that the more
valves were opened, the greater the performance became. However this was performed and
tested at intermediate steps at 90 degree rotations, along the way to find the performance at each
steps of valuable information that required, such as efficiency and performance at each of those
points. All of this information is very important and valuable as the amount of heat absorption
varies from application to application, and it may be suitable in some circumstances to operate
the refrigeration cycle at maximum efficiency, whereas others may need more or less heat
absorption. As a group we concluded that this lab is helpful and useful and allowed the students
to experience the collection of range of performances and efficiencies from a very practical and
[2] "Armfield." RA1MKII : Vapour-Compression Refrigeration Unit. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct.
2014.
[3] "The Ideal Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Cycle." Ch10, Lesson B, Page 2 -. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 Oct. 2014.