ME 331

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning

Lec. M.Umer

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 1

 Refrigeration components
Condensers
Introduction
The function of a condenser is to remove heat of the hot vapour refrigerant
discharge from the compressor. The heat is removed first by transferring it to the
walls of the condenser tubes and then from tubes to the condensing or cooling
medium. The cooling medium may be air or water or combination of the two.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 2

 Introduction

 The refrigerant may leave the condenser as a saturated or a sub-cooled liquid, depending
upon the temperature of the external medium and design of the condenser.

 In actual refrigeration systems with a finite pressure drop in the condenser or in a system
using a zeotropic refrigerant mixture, the temperature of the refrigerant changes during
the condensation process.

 The temperature profile of the external fluid, which is assumed to undergo only sensible
heat transfer, is shown by dashed line.
 The heat rejection process is
represented by 2-3’-3-4.
 2-3’ is a sensible, de-
superheating process
 3’-3 is the condensation process
 3-4 is a sensible, sub cooling
process, during which the
refrigerant temperature drops
from T3 to T4.
Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 3
 Condensers

Factors Affecting the Condenser Capacity:

1. Material: thermal conductivity etc.

2. Amount of Contact: surface area of the condenser.
3. Temperature Difference: most air-cooled condensers are designed
to operate with temperature difference of 14 C.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 4

 Condensers

Heat Rejection Factor:

The load on the condenser per unit refrigeration capacity is known as

Heat Rejection Factor. The condenser load is given by:

𝑄𝐻 𝑄𝐿 + 𝑊𝑐 1
𝐻𝑅𝐹 = = =1+
𝑄𝐿 𝑄𝐿 𝐶𝑂𝑃

HRF depends upon the condenser and

evaporator temperatures.
In actual air-conditioning application for R-
12 and R-22, and operating at a condenser
temperatures of 40 C and an evaporator
temperature of 5 C, the heat rejection
factor is about 1.25.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 5

 Condensers

Classification of Condensers:
According to the condensing medium used, the condensers are
classified into the following three groups.

1. Air-cooled condensers
a) Natural convection
b) Force Convection

2. Water-cooled condensers
a) Tube-tube Type
b) Shell and Tube type

3. Evaporative condensers

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 6

 Condensers

Air-cooled Condensers:
It consist of steel or copper tubing through which the refrigerant flows. The size
of the tube usually ranges from 6 mm to 18 mm outside diameter, depending
upon the size of condenser. The plate type fins on the tubes increase the surface
area for heat transfer.

The air-cooled condensers may have

two or more rows of tubing, but
condensers with up to six rows of
tubing are common.

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 Condensers
Types of Air-cooled Condensers
1. Natural Convection

 The heat transfer from the condenser is by

buoyancy induced natural convection and
radiation.
 Since the flow rate of air is small and the
radiation heat transfer is also not very
high, the combined heat transfer
coefficient in these condensers is small.
 As a result a relatively large condensing
surface is required to reject a given
amount of heat.
 These condensers are used for small
capacity refrigeration systems like
household refrigerators and freezers.

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 Condensers
Types of Air-cooled Condensers
1. Forced Convection
 In this type of condensers, the circulation of air over the condenser surface is maintained
by using a fan or a blower.

 The current practice in the forced convection type is to use 10 – 15 𝑚2 of the total surface
area per ton of refrigeration based on 2 – 5 m/s face velocity of air over the coil.
 These condensers are used in
systems up to 5 TR capacity.

 The moist air flows over the fins

while the refrigerant flows inside
the tubes.

 Forced convection type condensers

are commonly used in window air
conditioners, water coolers and
packaged air conditioning plants.

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 Condensers

Water-cooled Condensers:

The water-cooled condensers operate at a lower condensing temperature than

an air-cooled condenser. This is because the supply water temperature is
normally lower than the ambient air temperature.
The compressor for a water-cooled condenser requires less power for the same
capacity.

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 Condensers
Types of Water-cooled Condensers
1. Double Pipe or Tube-in-Tube type:

 Double pipe condensers are normally used up to 10 TR capacity.

 The cold water flows through the inner tube,

while the refrigerant flows through the annulus in
counter flow.

 The refrigerant in the annulus rejects a part of its

heat to the surroundings by free convection and
radiation.

tube-in-tube type condenser

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 Condensers
Types of Water-cooled Condensers
2. Shell and Tube/Coil Condenser:

 This is the most common type of condensers used in systems from 2 TR upto thousands of
TR capacity.
 In these condensers the refrigerant flows through the shell while water flows through the
tubes in single to four passes.

 The condensed refrigerant collects at

the bottom of the shell.
 The coldest water contacts the liquid
refrigerant so that some sub-cooling can
also be obtained.
 The most common type is horizontal
shell type.
 Most of the vertical shell-and-tube type
condensers are usually used with
ammonia in large capacity systems

Horizontal shell and Tube type condenser

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 Condensers
Air cooled vs water cooled condensers

Some Salient features of air cooled and water cooled condensers are:

Parameter Air cooled Water cooled

Temperature difference, 6 to 22 ºC 6 to 14 ºC
𝑇𝐶 − 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡

Volume flow rate of 12 to 20 𝑚3 /𝑚𝑖𝑛 0.007 to 0.02 𝑚3 /𝑚𝑖𝑛

coolant per TR
Heat transfer area per TR 10 to 15 𝑚2 0.5 to 1.0 𝑚2

Face Velocity 1.5 to 6 m/s 2 to 3 m/s

Fan or pump power per 75 to 100 W Negligible

TR

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 13

 Condensers
water cooled condensers

Fouling Factor:

The water used in water-cooled condensers always contains a certain amount of minerals
and other foreign materials. These materials form deposits inside the condenser water
tubes which is called water fouling.
The deposits insulate the tubes, reduce their heat transfer rate and restrict the water flow.

Recommended fouling factors:

1. For copper tubes used for R-12
and R-22 condensers, the
fouling factor is 0.000095
𝑚2 𝑠𝐾/𝐽.
2. For Steel tubes used in
ammonia condensers, the
fouling factor is 0.00018
𝑚2 𝑠𝐾/𝐽.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 14

 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

In order to find the overall thermal

resistance, let us consider that the
water is flowing inside the tube and
the refrigerant outside the tube in a
shell of a condenser.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 15

 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

The heat transfer from the vapour refrigerant to the water in tubes takes place in the
following manner.
1. The heat transfer takes place from the vapour refrigerant to the outside of the tube
through the condensing film.

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 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

2. The heat transfer takes place from the outside surface to inside surface of the tube

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 17

 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

3. The heat transfer takes place through the layer of scale

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 18

 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

4. The heat transfer takes place through the boundary layer film to the water inside the
tube.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 19

 Condensers
Water-cooled Condenser
Heat Transfer in Condensers

Adding all the previous equations:

The overall heat transfer is given by:

OR

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 20

 Condensers

Augmentation of Condensing Heat Transfer Coefficient:

 The overall heat-transfer coefficient such as 𝑈0 , always has a value lower than the
lower of the two film coefficients (ℎ0 & ℎ𝑖 ).
 A familiar way to decrease the resistance (R) is to provide an extended surface or fins
on the side of the lower heat transfer coefficient.
 In shell-and-tube condensers the water-side coefficient of the order of 6000
W𝑚−2 𝐾 −1 . Whereas a typical value of the condensing coefficient for ammonia is
8000 W𝑚−2 𝐾 −1 .
 And the same for R12 and R22 is of the order of 1500 W𝑚−2 𝐾 −1 only.

 Thus in R12 and R22 condensers, it is desirable

to use fins on the refrigerant side.

 A recommended configuration is with one fin

per mm having height of approximately 1.5 mm
(by ACME industries, USA)

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 21

 Condensers
Evaporative condensers

 In evaporative condensers, both air and water are used to extract heat from the
condensing refrigerant.
 Evaporative condensers combine the features of a cooling tower and water-cooled
condenser in a single unit.
 In these condensers, the water is sprayed
from top part on a bank of tubes carrying
the refrigerant and air is induced upwards.

 The heat transfer coefficient for

evaporative cooling is very large.

 The water spray countercurrent to the

airflow acts as cooling tower. The role of
air is primarily to increase the rate of
evaporation of water.

 Evaporative condensers are used in places

where water is scarce. An evaporative condenser
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 Condensers

Optimum condenser pressure for lowest running cost:

 The total running cost of a refrigeration system is the sum of costs of compressor power
and the cost of water.
 The cost of water can be the cost of municipal water or the cost of running a cooling
tower.
 The compressor power increases as the condenser temperature or the pressure increases
for fixed evaporator temperature.

 It is observed that there is a

condenser pressure at which the
running cost is minimum and it is
recommended that the system
should be run at this pressure.

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 23

 Evaporators

An evaporator, like condenser is also a heat exchanger. In an evaporator, the refrigerant boils
or evaporates and in doing so absorbs heat from the substance being refrigerated.

Classification of Evaporators

Based on construction:

a. Bare tube coil evaporator,

b. Finned tube evaporator,
c. Plate evaporator,
d. Shell and tube evaporator,
e. Shell and coil evaporator,
f. Tube-in-tube evaporator.

Based on refrigerant flow:

a) Flooded evaporator
b) Dry expansion evaporator
Based on heat transfer process
Based on condition of heat transfer surface.
Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 24
24
 Evaporators
Bare Tube Coil Evaporator

 It’s the simplest type of evaporator.

 The surface area can be increase by carefully extending the length.
 If the tube is too long for the valves capacity, the liquid refrigerant will tend to
completely vaporize early, leading to excessive superheating at the outlet.
 It will also cause greater pressure drop, results in a reduced suction line pressure.
 If the tube diameter is too large, the refrigerant will have greater volume to surface
ration and thus may allow liquid refrigerant to enter the suction line hence compressor
causing slugging.
 It usually use where the temperature is under 0 C, since it is not much effected by frost
formation.

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25
 Evaporators
Finned Evaporator

 It consist of bare tubes or coils over which the metal plates or fins are fastened, which
greatly increase the contact surfaces for heat transfer. Hence also called extended
surface evaporators.
 The shape, size or spacing of the fins can be adapted to provide best rate of heat
transfer for a given application.
 Usually operated above 0 C.

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26
 Evaporators
Plate Evaporator

 It consist of a plate on which the coils are welded on one side or between the two
plates.
 It generally use in household refrigerators, freezers, beverage coolers, etc.

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27
 Evaporators
Shell and Tube Evaporator
 It consists of a number of horizontal tubes enclosed in a cylindrical shell. The inlet and
outlet headers with perforated metal tube sheets are connected at each end of the
tubes.
 When it is operated as a dry expansion evaporator, the refrigerant circulates through
the tubes and the liquid to be cooled fills the space around the tubes within the shell.
 The dry expansion shell and tube evaporators are used for 2 to 250 TR capacity
refrigeration
 When it is operated as a flooded evaporator, the water or brine flows through the
tubes and the refrigerant circulates around the tubes. These are used for 10 to 5000 TR
capacity of refrigeration unit.

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28
 Evaporators
Shell and Coil Evaporator

 These are generally dry expansion evaporators to chill water. The cooling coil is a
continuous tube that can be in the form of a single or double spiral.
 The shell may be sealed or open.
 The shell and coil evaporators are restricted to operation above 5 C in order to prevent
the freezing problem

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29
 Evaporators
Tube-in-Tube Evaporator

 It consist of tube inside another tube. The liquid to be cooled flows through the inner
tube while the primary refrigerant circulates in the space in between the two tubes.
 It provides high heat transfer rates.
 These are used for wine cooling and in petroleum industry for chilling of oil.

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 Evaporators
Flooded Evaporator

 A constant liquid level is always maintained. A float control valve is used as an

expansion device which maintains constant liquid level in the evaporator.
 Since the evaporator is almost completely filled with liquid refrigerant, therefore the
vapour is always in a saturated condition.
 In order to prevent liquid refrigerant to enter into the compressor, an
accumulator/surge tank is generally used with flooded evaporators
 The liquid trapped in the accumulator is re-circulated through the evaporator.

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 Evaporators
Dry Expansion Evaporator

 They simply use relatively little refrigerant as compared to flooded evaporators having
small coil volume.
 These are usually only 1/4 to 1/3rd filled with liquid refrigerant.
 The liquid refrigerant from the receiver is fed by the expansion valve to the evaporator
coil.
 The expansion valve controls the flow rate in such a way that all the liquid refrigerant is
vaporized by the time it reaches the suction line to the compressor.
 The vapour is also superheated to a limited extent.
 The liquid does not recirculated within the evaporator as in flooded type evaporator.

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 Evaporators (Self study)

An evaporator, like condenser is also a heat exchanger. In an evaporator, the refrigerant boils
or evaporates and in doing so absorbs heat from the substance being refrigerated.

Classification of Evaporators

Based on heat transfer process:

a) Natural convection evaporator
b) Forced convection evaporator

Based on condition of heat transfer surface:

a) Frosting evaporator
b) Non-frosting evaporator
c) Defrosting evaporator

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 Evaporators
Pool Boiling
 The mechanism of boiling is so complex that it is difficult to predict the heat transfer
coefficient.
 It is due to the factors such as latent heat effects, surface tension, saturation
temperature and nature of the solid surface.
 When heat is added to a liquid from a submerged solid surface, the boiling process is
called Pool boiling

 A necessary condition for the

occurrence of pool boiling is
that the temperature of the
heating surface exceeds the
saturation temperature of the
liquid.

 As the temperature difference

increases, bubbles start to form
at selected nucleation sites.
 Radiation heat transfer takes
place during film boiling. Pool Boiling curve
Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 34
End of Lecture

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning M.Umer 35