CHAPTER: 5

TECHNICAL TERMS
1. SPECIFIC HEAT
It is the ratio between the quantities of heat required to change the temperature of 1
pound of any substance 1°F, as compared to the quantity of heat required to change 1 pound of
water 1°F. Specific heat is equal to the number of Btu required to raise the temperature of 1
pound of a substance 1°F. For example, the specific heat of milk is .92, which means that 92 Btu
will be needed to raise 100 pounds of milk 1° F. The specific heat of water is 1, by adoption as a
standard, and specific heat of another substance (solid, liquid, or gas) is determined
experimentally by comparing it to water. Specific heat also expresses the heat-holding capacity
of a substance compared to that of water.
2. SENSIBLE HEAT
Heat that is added to, or subtracted from, a substance that changes its temperature but not
its physical state is called sensible heat. It is the heat that can be indicated on a thermometer.
This is the heat human senses also can react to, at least within certain ranges. For example, if a
person put their finger into a cup of water, the senses readily tell that person whether it is cold,
cool, tepid, hot, or very hot. Sensible heat is applied to a solid, a liquid, or a gas/vapor as
indicated on a thermometer. The term sensible heat does not apply to the process of conversion
from one physical state to another.
3. LATENT HEAT
It is the term used for the heat absorbed or given off by a substance while it is changing
its physical state. When this occurs, the heat given off or absorbed does NOT cause a
temperature change in the substance. In other words, sensible heat is the term for heat that affects
the temperature of things; latent heat is the term for heat that affects the physical state of things.
To understand the concept of latent heat, you must realize that many substances may exist as
solids, as liquids, or as gases, depending primarily upon the temperatures and pressure to which
they are subjected.
4. SUPERHEAT
It is a very important term in the terminology of refrigeration - but it is unfortunately used
in different ways. It can be used to describe a process where refrigerant vapour is heated from its
saturated condition to a condition at higher temperature. The term superheat can also be used to
describe - or quantify - the end condition of the before-mentioned process.
5. PRESSURE
It is defined as a force per unit area. It is usually measured in pounds per square inch
(psi). Pressure may be in one direction, several directions, or in all directions. The ice (solid)
exerts pressure downward. The water (fluid) exerts pressure on all wetted surfaces of the
container. Gases exert pressure on al I inside surfaces of their containers.
6. VAPORIZATION
It is the process of changing a liquid to vapor, either by evaporation or boiling. When a
glass is filled with water, as shown in figure 6-10, and exposed to the rays of the sun for a day or
two, you should note that the water level drops gradually. The loss of water is due to
evaporation. Evaporation, in this case, takes place only at the surface of the liquid. It is gradual,
but the evaporation of the water can be speeded up if additional heat is applied to it. In this case,
the boiling of the water takes place throughout the interior of the liquid. Thus the absorption of
heat by a liquid causes it to boil and evaporate.
7. CONDENSATION
It is the process of changing a vapor into a liquid. For example, in figure 6-12, a warm
atmosphere gives up heat to a cold glass of water, causing moisture to condense out of the air
and form on the outside surface of the glass. Thus the removal of heat from a vapor causes the
vapor to condense.
8. COP of REFRIGERATION

The COP of a refrigeration system is the ratio of net refrigeration effect to the work
required to produce the effect.

9. UNIT OF REFRIGERATION

The capacity of refrigeration is expressed in tonnes of refrigeration (TOR).

1 tones of refrigeration = 210 kJ/min (or) = 3.5 kJ/sec (kW)
A tone of refrigeration is defined as the quantity of heat to be removed in order to form one tone
of ice at 0oC in 24 hours.
10. REFRIGERATION EFFECT
 The amount of heat extracted in a given time is known as refrigeration effect.

11. EFFECTS OF UNDER COOLING

It increases the refrigeration effect therefore the COP increases. The mass flow rate of the
refrigeration is less than that for the simple saturated cycle. The reduced mass flow rate reduces
the piston displacement per minute. Power per tones of refrigeration losses due to reduction in
mass flow rate. The increased efficiency may be offering some extent by the rise in the
condenser pressure. Work input almost remains same. The heat rejection capacity of the
condenser increases.

12. EFFECTS OF SUPER HEATING

Supper heating increases the net refrigeration effect, but super heating requires more
work input therefore super heating reduces the COP.

No moisture contents in the refrigerant therefore no corrosion in the machines part.

13. PROPERTIES OF IDEAL REFRIGERANT

It should have low boiling point and low freezing point.

It must have low specific heat and high latent heat.

It should have high thermal conductivity to reduce the heat transfer in evaporator and
condenser.

It should have low specific volume to reduce the size of the compressor.

It should be non-flammable, non-expensive, non-toxic and non-corrosive.

It should have high critical pressure and temperature to avoid large power requirements.

It should give high COP to reduce the running cost of the system.

It must be cheap and must be readily available

14. RSHF
 Room sensible heat factor is defined as the ratio of room sensible heat load to the room
total heat load.

15. RELATIVE HUMIDITY

It is defined as the ratio of partial pressure of water vapour (pw) in a mixture to the
saturation pressure (ps) of pure water at the same temperature of mixture.

16. SPECIFIC HUMIDITY

It is defined as the ratio of the mass of water vapour (ms) in a given volume to the mass
of dry air in a given volume (ma).

17. DEGREE OF SATURATION

It is the ratio of the actual specific humidity and the saturated specific humidity at the
same temperature of the mixture.

18. DEW POINT TEMPERATURE

The temperature at which the vapour starts condensing is called dew point temperature.
It is also equal to the saturation temperature at the partial pressure of water vapour in the
mixture. The dew point temperature is an indication of specific humidity.

19. SENSIBLE HEAT AND LATENT HEAT

Sensible heat is the heat that changes the temperature of the substance when added to it or
when abstracted from it. Latent heat is the heat that does not affect the temperature but change
of state occurred by adding the heat or by abstracting the heat.

20. PSYCHOMETRIC PROCESSES

1. Sensible heating and sensible cooling, 2. Cooling and dehumidification, 3. Heating

and humidification, 4. Mixing of air streams, 5. Chemical dehumidification, 6. Adiabatic
evaporative cooling.

21. ADIABATIC MIXING

The process of mixing two or more stream of air without any heat transfer to the
surrounding is known as adiabatic mixing. It is happened in air conditioning system.

22. DRY BULB TEMPERATURE (DBT)

 The temperature recorded by the thermometer with a dry bulb. The dry bulb
thermometer cannot affected by the moisture present in the air. It is the measure of sensible heat
of the air.

23. WET BULB TEMPERATURE (WBT)

It is the temperature recorded by a thermometer whose bulb is covered with cotton wick
(wet) saturated with water. The wet bulb temperature may be the measure of enthalpy of air.
WBT is the lowest temperature recorded by moistened bulb.

24. DEW POINT DEPRESSION

It is the difference between dry bulb temperature and dew point temperature of air vapour
mixture.
 UNIT V

REFRIGERATION AND AIR CONDITIONING

5.1 Fundamentals of refrigeration

The first mechanical refrigerators for the production of ice appeared around the year 1860. In
1880 the first ammonia compressors and insulated cold stores were put into use in the USA.
Electricity began to play a part at the beginning of this century and mechanical refrigeration
plants became common in some fields: e.g. breweries, slaughter-houses, fishery, ice production,
for example. After the Second World War the development of small hermetic refrigeration
compressors evolved and refrigerators and freezers began to take their place in the home. Today,
these appliances are regarded as normal household necessities.
Refrigeration is the process of removing heat from an area or a substance and is usually done by
an artificial means of lowering the temperature, such as the use of ice or mechanical
refrigeration.
Mechanical Refrigeration is defined as a mechanical system or apparatus so designed and
constructed that, through its function, heat is transferred from one substance to another. Since
refrigeration deals entirely with the removal or transfer of heat, some knowledge of the nature
and effects of heat is necessary for a clear understanding of the subject.
5.2 Common Refrigerants

Today, there are three specific types of refrigerants used in refrigeration and air-conditioning
systems:

1. Chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, such as R-11, R-12, and R-114

2. Hydro chlorofluorocarbons or HCFCs, such as R-22 or R-123
3. Hydro fluorocarbons or HFCs, such as R-134a. All these refrigerants are "halogenated,"
which means they contain chlorine, fluorine, bromine, astatine, or iodine.
Refrigerants, such as Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12), Mono chloro difluoromethane (R-22),
and Refrigerant 502 (R-502), are called primary refrigerants because each one changes its state
upon the application or absorption of heat, and, in this act of change, absorbs and extracts heat
from the area or substance.

The primary refrigerant is so termed because it acts directly upon the area or substance, although
it may be enclosed within a system. For a primary refrigerant to cool, it must be placed in a
closed system in which it can be controlled by the pressure imposed upon it. The refrigerant can
then absorb at the temperature ranges desired. If a primary refrigerant were used without being
controlled, it would absorb heat from most perishables and freeze them solid.

Secondary Refrigerants are substances, such as air, water, or brine. Though hot refrigerants in
themselves, they have been cooled by the primary refrigeration system; they pass over and
around the areas and substances to be cooled; and they are returned with their heat load to the
primary refrigeration system. Secondary refrigerants pay off where the cooling effect must be
moved over a long distance and gastight lines cost too much.

Refrigerants are classified into groups. The National Refrigeration Safety Code catalogs all
refrigerants into three groups:

 Group I – safest of the refrigerants, such as R-12, R-22, and R-502

 Group II – toxic and somewhat flammable, such as R-40 (Methyl chloride) and R-764
(Sulfur dioxide)
 Group III – flammable refrigerants, such as R-170 (Ethane) and R-290 (Propane).

R-12 Dichlorodifluoromethane (CC12 F2) Dichlorodifluoromethane, commonly referred to as R-

12, is colorless and odorless in concentrations of less than 20 percent by volume in air. In higher
concentrations, its odor resembles that of carbon tetrachloride. It is nontoxic, noncorrosive,
nonflammable, and has a boiling point of -21.7°F (-29°C) at atmospheric pressure.

5.3 Required Properties of Ideal Refrigerant

1) The refrigerant should have low boiling point and low freezing point.
2) It must have low specific heat and high latent heat. Because high specific heat decreases the
refrigerating effect per kg of refrigerant and high latent heat at low temperature increases the
refrigerating effect per kg of refrigerant.
3) The pressures required to be maintained in the evaporator and condenser should be low
enough to reduce the material cost and must be positive to avoid leakage of air into the system.
4) It must have high critical pressure and temperature to avoid large power requirements.
5) It should have low specific volume to reduce the size of the compressor.
6) It must have high thermal conductivity to reduce the area of heat transfer in evaporator and
condenser.
7) It should be non-flammable, non-explosive, non-toxic and non-corrosive.
8) It should not have any bad effects on the stored material or food, when any leak develops in
the system.
9) It must have high miscibility with lubricating oil and it should not have reacting properly with
lubricating oil in the temperature range of the system.
10) It should give high COP in the working temperature range. This is necessary to reduce the
running cost of the system.
5.4Coefficient of Performance (COP)
The performance of refrigerators and heat pumps is expressed in terms of coefficient of
performance (COP), defined as

5.5 Vapour Compression Refrigeration

Heat flows naturally from a hot to a colder body. In refrigeration system the opposite
must occur i.e. heat flows from a cold to a hotter body. This is achieved by using a substance
called a refrigerant, which absorbs heat and hence boils or evaporates at a low pressure to form a
gas. This gas is then compressed to a higher pressure, such that it transfers the heat it has gained
to ambient air or water and turns back (condenses) into a liquid. In this way heat is absorbed, or
removed, from a low temperature source and transferred to a higher temperature source.

The refrigeration cycle can be broken down into the following stages

1 - 2 Low pressure liquid refrigerant in the evaporator absorbs heat from its surroundings,
usually air, water or some other process liquid. During this process it changes its state from a
liquid to a gas, and at the evaporator exit is slightly superheated.

2 - 3 The superheated vapour enters the compressor where its pressure is raised. There will also
be a big increase in temperature, because a proportion of the energy input into the compression
process is transferred to the refrigerant.

3 - 4 The high pressure superheated gas passes from the compressor into the condenser. The
initial part of the cooling process (3 - 3a) desuperheats the gas before it is then turned back into
liquid (3a - 3b). The cooling for this process is usually achieved by using air or water. A further
reduction in temperature happens in the pipe work and liquid receiver (3b - 4), so that the
refrigerant liquid is sub-cooled as it enters the expansion device.
4 - 1 The high-pressure sub-cooled liquid passes through the expansion device, which both
reduces its pressure and controls the flow into the evaporator.
It can be seen that the condenser has to be capable of rejecting the combined heat inputs of the
evaporator and the compressor; i.e. (1 - 2) + (2 - 3) has to be the same as (3 - 4). There is no heat
loss or gain through the expansion device.
5.5.1 Schematic of a Basic Vapor Compression Refrigeration System

Advantages of Vapour compression refrigeration system over air refrigeration system:

• Since the working cycle approaches closer to carnot cycle, the C.O.P is quite high.
• Operational cost of vapour compression system is just above 1/4th of air refrigeration
 system.
• Since the heat removed consists of the latent heat of vapour, the amount of liquid
circulated is less and as a result the size of the evaporator is smaller.
• Any desired temperature of the evaporator can be achieved just by adjusting the throttle
valve.
Disadvantages of Vapour compression refrigeration system over air refrigeration system
• Initial investment is high
• Prevention of leakage of refrigerant is a major problem

5.5.2 Alternative Refrigerants for Vapour Compression Systems

The use of CFCs is now beginning to be phased out due to their damaging impact on the
protective tropospheric ozone layer around the earth. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 and the
subsequent Copenhagen agreement of 1992 mandate a reduction in the production of ozone
depleting Chlorinated Fluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants in a phased manner, with an eventual
stop to all production by the year 1996. In response, the refrigeration industry has developed two
alternative refrigerants; one based on Hydrochloro Fluorocarbon (HCFC), and another based on
Hydro Fluorocarbon (HFC). The HCFCs have a 2 to 10% ozone depleting potential as compared
to CFCs and also, they have an atmospheric lifetime between 2 to 25 years as compared to 100
or more years for CFCs (Brandt, 1992). However, even HCFCs are mandated to be phased out
by 2005, and only the chlorine free (zero ozone depletion) HFCs would be acceptable.

Until now, only one HFC based refrigerant, HFC 134a, has been developed. HCFCs are
comparatively simpler to produce and the three refrigerants 22, 123, and 124 have been
developed. The use of HFCs and HCFCs results in slightly lower efficiencies as compared to
CFCs, but this may change with increasing efforts being made to replace CFCs.

5.6 Vapour Absorption Refrigeration

 In the absorption refrigeration system, refrigeration effect is produced mainly by the use
of energy as heat. In such a system, the refrigerant is usually dissolved in a liquid. A
concentrated solution of ammonia is boiled in a vapour generator producing ammonia vapour at
high pressure. The high pressure ammonia vapour is fed to a condenser where it is condensed to
liquid ammonia by rejecting energy as heat to the surroundings. Then, the liquid ammonia is
throttled through a valve to a low pressure. During throttling, ammonia is partially vapourized
and its temperature decreases.

This low temperature ammonia is fed to an evaporator where it is vapourized removing energy
from the evaporator. Then this low-pressure ammonia vapour is absorbed in the weak solution of
ammonia. The resulting strong ammonia solution is pumped back to the vapour generator and the
cycle is completed. The COP of the absorption system can be evaluated by considering it as a
combination of a heat pump and a heat engine

5.7 Comparison between Vapor Compression and Absorption System

Table 1 Vapor Compression and Absorption System

5.8 Ton of refrigeration:
Amount of heat required to melt a Ton of Ice in a 24/h Period
One ton of refrigeration is the heat required to melt 1 ton of ice in 24 hrs. That is, a refrigeration
machine rated at 1 ton cools as much in 24 hrs. as 1 ton of ice would by melting in the same
period.
The heat required is the product of the latent heat of fusion and the mass in kg.
Q = mH,
1 ton = 907 kg
Latent heat of fusion: H = 340 kJ/kg
Q = 907*340 = 308380 kJ
The power required is then:
P = E/t = Q/t = 308380 kJ/24 hr = 308380/(24*3600) = 3.57 kw
Note: 1 watt = 1 J/s
So that 1 kw = 1 kJ/s

5.9 Air- Conditioning Systems:

The central air conditioning system is used for cooling big buildings, houses, offices, entire
hotels, gyms, movie theaters, factories etc. If the whole building is to be air conditioned, HVAC
engineers find that putting individual units in each of the rooms is very expensive initially as
well in the long run. The central air conditioning system is comprised of a huge compressor that
has the capacity to produce hundreds of tons of air conditioning. Cooling big halls, malls, huge
spaces, galleries etc is usually only feasible with central conditioning units.