Fundamentals of Refrigeration

Refrigeration means the process of removing heat

from spaces, objects, or materials and maintaining them
at a temperature below that of the surrounding
atmosphere.
To produce a refrigeration effect, the material to
be cooled needs only to be exposed to a colder object or
environment. The heat will flow on its own in its natural
direction-that is, from the warmer material to the cooler
material.
Refrigeration, then, generally means an artificial
way of lowering the temperature. Mechanical
refrigeration is a mechanical system or apparatus that
transfers heat from one substance to another.
The purpose of refrigeration is to maintain spaces ,
objects, or materials at low temperatures. Remember,
you cannot cool anything by adding coolness to it,
instead you will have to remove heat from it. Therefore,
 Heat and Temperature
Heat is a form of energy. Temperature is a measure
of the intensity of heat. The quantity or amount of heat
energy in a substance is measured in calorie. At
atmospheric pressure, 1 calorie is the amount of heat
required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water through
1C. In the opposite case, when 1 calorie heat is removed
from 1 kg of water at atmospheric pressure, then the
temperature of the water will drop 1C.
Temperature, as we know, is measured in Degree
Celsius. Degree Celsius indicates the intensity of the heat
in a given substance. Temperature does not indicate the
number of calories in the substance.
For example, lets consider a cupful of very hot
water and a bucketful of warm water. Which has the
higher temperature? Which has more heat? The heat in
the cupful of hot water is more intense; therefore, its
temperature is higher. The bucketful of warm water has
more calories (more heat energy), but its heat is less
Concept Development for Vapor Compression
Refrigeration Cycle
All vapor compression refrigeration systems are
designed and built around these basic thermodynamic
principles:
1) Fluids absorb heat while changing from liquid

phase to vapor phase and reject heat while

changing from vapor phase to liquid phase.
2) The temperature at which a change in phase
occurs in constant during the change, but this
temperature will vary with the pressure. At one
fixed pressure vaporization takes place only at
fixed corresponding temperature. However, the
temperatures of vaporization at a particular
pressure are different for different fluids.
3) Heat flows from a body at higher temperature to
a body at lower temperature.
4) In selecting metallic parts of cooling and
condensing units, metals are selected which
have high heat conductivity.
5) Heat energy and other forms of energy are
mutually convertible with directional relationship
imposed by the Second Law of Thermodynamic.
 Vaporization of the Fluid
An insulated space can be adequately
refrigerated by only allowing liquid refrigerant to
evaporate in a container vented out to atmosphere.
The liquid refrigerant is under atmospheric pressure of
1kg/cm2 and the saturation temperature
corresponding to this pressure is approximately -
29.8C. Thus the liquid refrigerant evaporates at this
low temperature and the latent heat of vaporization is
absorbed from the surroundings, which is shown in the
figure at 5C.
Since the temperature of the liquid remains
same during vaporizing process, the refrigeration will
continue until all liquid is vaporized. Any such
container as shown in figure, where liquid is vaporized
and heat is absorbed by the container from the space
to be refrigerated, is called Evaporator.
 Controlling the Vaporizing Temperature
The temperature at which the liquid vaporizes is
tied up with the pressure. There is a definite
vaporizing temperature for a liquid at a particular
pressure. The pressure in the evaporator is kept at 3
kg/cm2 with the help of control valve which allows the
vapor to escape at such rate that the pressure is
maintained inside the evaporating vessel.
If the control valve is closed the pressure will
increase such that the saturation temperature of the
liquid refrigerant in the vessel corresponds to the
space temperature of 5C. This will stop the further
vaporization of liquid refrigerant.
 Vaporizing at Sub-atmospheric Pressure
Vapor pump is sucking vapor from the
vaporizing chamber, then compressing and
discharging it to the atmosphere. The evaporator
pressure can thus be maintained at any pressure
below atmosphere provided the rate of formation of
vapor is matching with the capacity of the pump to
compress and discharge the vapor. Depending on the
evaporator pressure the corresponding temperature
can be maintained in evaporator.
The pressure maintained is shown to be 0.6426
kg/cm2 with saturation temperature of -40C .
 Maintaining the Constant Mass in Evaporator
It may be noted that in all the previous cases,
the refrigerant vaporizes and escapes, but is not
replenished continuously as it vaporizes. Figure shows
one of the methods of keeping the liquid level
constant by a float and needle valve assembly. Thus
the rate of flow of liquid refrigerant in the chamber is
same as the rate of liquid vaporized and pumped out.
The liquid storage tank is kept at high pressure and its
pressure falls to the evaporator pressure as it passes
through the needle valve.
The evaporator which has been shown in figure-
A as a chamber can be replaced by coil as shown in
figure-B. The vaporization of the liquid takes place in
the coil and at the end of the coil, it is possible that
the vapors may even get slightly superheated.
 A temperature sensing device called thermostat
could be placed in the system. The refrigerant control
could be operated by this temperature sensing device.
 Recovering the Refrigerants
So far, the refrigerant after vaporizing is
pumped out to the atmosphere. It is uneconomical to
let the refrigerant to atmosphere. Thus it is necessary
that this refrigerant should be recovered and reused.
Thus the vapor discharged from the pump is sent to
an apparatus called condenser, where it is condensed
and then sent the evaporator through the refrigerant
control valve.
Before compression, the refrigerant vapor is at
the vaporizing temperature and pressure of
evaporator. This pressure and temperature is low.
During compression the pressure of the vapor is
increased to a point such that the corresponding
saturation temperature is above the temperature of
the condensing medium used. At the same time,
mechanical work is done on the vapor in compressing
and the enthalpy of the vapor is increased with
corresponding increase in temperature of the vapor.
After compression, the high temperature, high
pressure vapor is discharged into the condenser where
heat is rejected to the condensing medium which is
normally air or water. Thus vapor cools & then
condenses at the saturation temperature
corresponding to the pressure in the condenser. The
condensed liquid passes on to the liquid storage
vessel from where it flows to the evaporator.
Thus it may be noted that the refrigerant which
is the working fluid carries the heat from the space to
be cooled to the outside. The working fluid absorbs
heat from the refrigerated space in the evaporator,
carries it out of the space and rejects it to the
condensing medium in condenser. Thus condenser has
to be located outside the refrigerated space.
 Simple Saturated Cycle
Vapor compression refrigeration plant is shown
diagrammatically in figure-A. The working substance is
such that readily evaporates and condenses. The cycle
is thermodynamically assumed such that the
refrigerant vapor leaves the evaporator and enters the
compressor as dry saturated vapor. This point is
denoted as point 1 both on flow diagram shown in
figure and T-s shown figure-B for 1 kg of the working
substance.
Let us take the case when the vapor is dry
saturated at the suction to the compressor shown by
point 1 in the figures. It is at pressure P1 and
temperature T1.The vapor is drawn into the
compressor cylinder during its suction stroke and
during the compression stroke the vapor is
 This point is represented by 2 which shows the
vapor in superheated state. The vapor at point 2
passes on to condenser in which cooling water is
supplied to remove the sensible heat from the vapor.
Thus vapor is first cooled to the saturated
temperature at pressure P2 and further removal of
heat, condenses it to liquid removing its latent heat till
point 3 is reached. Thus, in order to carry out this
operation, the saturation temperature corresponding
to pressure P2 should be sufficiently higher than the
temperature of cooling water for efficient heat
transfer.
It may be then possible to even sub-cool the
liquid vapor to temperature below that at point 3. The
high pressure liquid is then expanded through a
throttle valve, and the liquid at point 3 throttles to
lower pressure P1 and the condition obtained after the
 After throttling we get the liquid partly
evaporated at lower temperature T4 and lower
pressure P1 Thus, after the throttle valve, we get wet
vapor at a low temperature.
These vapors now pass through, the evaporator
coils immersed in brine or the chamber to be
refrigerated. These vapors absorb latent heat from
brine in further evaporating itself. The vapors may
reach point 1, i.e., dry saturated at pressure P1. This
completes the cycle. This cycle is also called Simple
Saturated Cycle..