Faculty of Chemical and

Energy Engineering

LAB REPORT SKPU 2711

THERMODYNAMICS AND MATERIAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY

2017/2018 – 01

EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT 6: VAPOUR

COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION
LECTURER DR AIZUDDIN BIN SUPEE
SECTION 01
GROUP NO 5
1. MUNISRAU KRISHNAPPARAO
2. MOHD SHAHADAN BIN ABD
GROUP MEMBERS RASHID
3. NURHAFIZAH BINTI MANSOR
5. NURHAINI BINTI DARYSA
DATE OF EXPERIMENT 3 OCT 2017
DATE OF REPORT SUBMISSION 10 OCT 2017

CRITERIA SCORE TOTAL MARKS REMARKS

FORMATTING /10
ABSTRACT /10
INTRODUCTION /10
LITERATURE /10
REVIEW/THEORY
METHODOLOGY /10
RESULTS /10
DISCUSSION /30
CONCLUSION /10

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TABLE OF CONTENT

No. Content Page

1.0 Abstract 2
2.0 Introduction 3
3.0 Literature review 3-4
4.0 Methodology and Apparatus 4-6
5.0 Results and discussion 6-9
6.0 Conclusion 10
7.0 References 11

1.0 Abstract

This experiment was conducted to determine Coefficient of Performance (COP) for vapour
compression cooling system. This vapour compression refrigeration consist of four
components which are evaporator, compressor, condenser and throttle valve. At evaporator,
the pressure should be low while in compressor, the pressure need to be high same like in
condenser but for throttle valve, the pressure need to be lower to enter back to compressor.
Then, the pressure in evaporator and condenser were recorded while for compressor, the
work input was recorded. There are seven temperature that need to be recorded for every 10
minutes in 5 value of condenser flow rate start from 30g/s. Lastly, conclusion is made based
on the rate of heat transfer that occur in condenser and evaporator and the effects of changing
the condenser flow rate.

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2.0 Introduction

A refrigerator is a machine that removes heat from a low temperature region. Since
energy cannot be destroyed, the heat taken in at a low temperature must be dissipated to the
surroundings. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that heat will not pass from a cold
region to a warm one without the aid of an external agent. Therefore, a refrigerator will
require this external agent or energy input for its operation. The operation of this refrigerator
as shown in Figure 1.1 below :

Figure 1.1 : Operation of Refrigerator

In a vapour compression refrigeration system a gas is alternatively compressed and
expended and goes from liquid to the vapour state. The basic components of a vapour-
compression refrigeration system are shown below :

Figure 1.2 : Basic components of a refrigeration system

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 The four basic components of the vapour compression refrigeration system are thus :

1.1.1 Evaporator – heat is absorbed to boil the liquid at low temperature,

therefore a low pressure must be maintained in this section.
1.1.2 Compressor – the compressor does work on the system increasing the
pressure from that existing in the evaporator and to that existing in the
condenser like delivering high pressure and high temperature vapour to
the condenser.
1.1.3 Condenser – the high pressure, high temperature vapour that enters the
condenser has heat removed from it and as a results it is condensed
back into a liquid phase.
1.1.4 Throttle valve – the high pressure liquid from the condenser is
expended through this valve, allowing its pressure to drop to that
existing in the evaporator.

OBJECTIVE

To determine Coefficient of performance (COP) for vapour compression cooling system.

4
Literature Review

The transfer of heat from low-temperature region to high temperature region, a device
call refrigerator is used. Refrigerator is a cyclic devices and refrigerant is the working fluid
that used in the refrigeration cycle (Cengel & Boles, 2011). Based on the working principle,
this day refrigeration system can be classified into;

i. Mechanical vapor compression system

ii. Absorption refrigeration systems
iii. Gas cycle refrigeration system
iv. Steam jet refrigeration systems
v. Thermoelectric and magnetic refrigeration system
But, mostly in industry, either vapor compression system or a vapor absorption system are
used (Arora, 2010).

The process of the reverse Carnot cycle can be eliminated by vaporizing the
refrigerant completely before it is compressed and by replacing the turbine with a throttling
device are called vapor-compression refrigeration cycle as shown in figure below;

Figure : Schematic and T-s diagram for ideal vapor-compression refrigeration cycle

This vapor compression cycle consist of four process;

1. Isentropic compression in a compressor

2. Constant-pressure heat rejection in a condenser
3. Throttling in an expansion device
4. Constant-pressure heat absorption in an evaporator

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3.0 Methodology and Apparatus

Apparatus

Refrigeration Cycle Demonstration Unit, R633, PA Hilton is using R-141b refrigerant fluid

Methodology

Evaporator, Condenser, Compressors, expansion valves, wattmeter, water flows in and out,
and the flow of fluid R-141b as shown in Figure 1 (Diagram 1)

Diagram 1: The Flow of the Fluid

Diagram 2: Opening the valve

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 Diagram 3: Shut down the operation

Figure 1: The Experimental Set-up

Launch operations and take readings

1. The valve was opened as shown in Diagram 2.

2. The water pipe was turned on. The water flow was set to the evaporator at the rate
of flow 19 g/s and flow rate of water to condenser as maximum.

3. Then the device was switched on.

4. The cooling system was allowed to be stable (approximately 10 min). Record

readings in Table 1.

5. The experiment was repeated by changing the flow rate of water to condenser in

between 18 to 10 g/s. It was repeated for 4 times.

Terminating Operations

1. The main switch was switched off.

2. After one minute, the water supply pipes were turned off.

3. After one minute, the valves were closed to the "Shut Down Position" as shown in

Figure 2 (Diagram 3).

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4.0 Results and Discussions
i) Results

Table : Results of the experiment.

Test No. 1 2 3 4 5
Absolute 30 25 20 15 10
Condenser (g/s)
Condenser 15 18 25 29 30
Gauge Pressure
(bar)
Absolute 25 25 25 25 25
Evaporator (g/s)
Evaporator -35 0 12 20 20
Gauge Pressure
(bar)
Compressor 189 224 238 229 222
Power Input
(W)
Temperature T1 26.3 27.4 28.2 26.8 28.8
(˚C)
Temperature T2 26.8 27.9 28.7 27.6 29.0
(˚C)
Temperature T3 27.6 30.2 32.6 34.0 34.4
(˚C)
Temperature T4 33.8 36.8 38.6 39.9 39.8
(˚C)
Temperature T5 27.0 29.0 31.0 32.0 31.0
(˚C)
Temperature T6 28.0 28.0 29.0 29.0 29.0
(˚C)
Temperature T7 34.0 41.0 47.0 54.0 58.0
(˚C)
Rate of Heat 0.052 0.021 0.053 0.084 0.022
Transfer at
Evaporator
(kW)
Rate of Heat 0.779 0.691 0.502 0.371 0.226
Transfer at
Condenser
(kW)
Coefficient of 0.072 0.031 0.118 0.293 0.204
performance
(COP)

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DISCUSSION

Condenser flow rate vs Temperature

70

60
T1
50
Temperature

T2
40
T3
30
T4
20 T5
10 T6
0 T7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Condenser flow rate(g/s)

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the flow rate of condenser versus temperature for all 5 tests. Based on
the graph, the temperature affects the flow rate in the condenser. Its shows that as the
condenser flow rates increases, all the temperature from T1 until T7 decreases except for T1
and T2 where it increases maybe due to some error occur during the experiment.
The data obtained from the experiment is accurate, but it is still influenced by some
error. Parallax error happened when taking the readings from a thermometer. To reduce the
error, the position of the reader’s eye must be perpendicular to the scale of the thermometer.
Besides, the readings for temperature of T1 until T4 are not very accurate since the
temperatures indicated by the electronic thermometer are always changing with time. Thus, it
is difficult to get the exact reading of these thermometers and caused some error in the
results. Another error that might occur in this experiment is when taking the value of
compression power, in which these values keep changing with time. Thus these values were
not very accurate.

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 Condenser flow rate vs Power Input
250

200

150

Power Input
100

50

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 2

Based on Figure 2, the graph shows the condenser flow rates against the
compressor input of T1-T7. It shows that the compressor power increases during test 1 until
test 3 and drop drastically during test 4 to test 5 which is from 238 W to 229W and 222W.
During the experiment, error that might occur in this experiment is the value of compression
power, in which these values keep changing with time. Thus the values were not accurate. To
increase the accuracy of the data taken, take the average values of the temperature for T1, T2,
T3 and T4.
The joint at the pipe may be loosen causing leaking at the joint and this will make the
flow becomes unsteady. The machine maybe is not in a good condition. To overcome this
problem, make sure the joint are connected tightly to avoid leakage before starting the
experiment. In addition, make sure there is no air bubbles that present inside the pipe because
it will affect the result obtained. To avoid this error, let the water flow inside the pipe first for
a while to eliminate the bubbles that may be formed in the pipe before starting the
experiment.

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 A) The calculation of the rate of heat transfer occurred at the evaporator and condenser
of the five test.


i) The rate of heat transfer in evaporator, QL = m cpT 2  T 1

m = 0.025 kg/s cp = 4.187 kJ/ kg.K

QL1 = (0.025)(4.187)(26.8-26.3) QL4 = (0.025)(4.187)(27.6-26.8)

= 0.052 kW = 0.084 kW

QL2 = (0.025)(4.187)(27.9-27.4) QL5 = (0.025)(4.187)(29.0-28.8)

= 0.021 kW = 0.022 kW

QL3 = (0.025)(4.187)(28.7-28.2)

= 0.053 kW


ii) The rate of heat transfer in condenser, QH = mcp T4  T3 

QH1 = (0.030)(4.187)(33.8-27.6) QH4 = (0.015)(4.187)(39.9-34.0)

= 0.779 kW = 0.371 kW

QH2 = (0.025)(4.187)(36.8-30.2) QH5 = (0.010)(4.187)(39.8-34.4)

= 0.691 kW = 0.226 kW

QH3 = (0.020)(4.187)(38.6-32.6)

= 0.502 kW

* Both QL and QH are defined as magnitudes and therefore are positive quantities.
QL QL
The coefficient of performance of refrigerator, COPR = =
Wnet QH  Q L

COPR1 = 0.052/(0.779-0.052) = 0.072

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 COPR2 = 0.021/(0.691-0.021) = 0.031

COPR3 = 0.053/(0.502-0.053) = 0.118

COPR4 = 0.084/(0.371-0.084) = 0.293

COPR5 = 0.022/(0.226-0.022) = 0.204

From the above calculation, we can conclude that the value of the coefficient of performance
of the refrigerator (COPR) increase with the increasing of the value of the rate of heat transfer
in evaporator, QL. This is proved by the equation below.

QL
COPR =
QH  Q L

The coefficient of performance (COP) is directly proportional to the rate of heat

transfer in evaporator, QL. Notice that the value of COPR can be greater than unity which is
the amount of heat transfer from refrigerated space can be greater than the work input. This is
in contrast to the thermal efficiency, which can never be greater than 1.

B) The effect of the change in rate of heat transfer at condenser against the temperature
of T1 – T7 and the power of compressor.

From Figure 1, the temperature versus condenser flow rate, QH, we can see that as the
condenser flow rate increase, the temperature will decrease. This means that, the heat transfer
rate is inversely proportional to the flow rate of water. The change in condenser flow rate will
affect the temperature of water which is going through the evaporator and the condenser
which is labeled from T1 to T7.

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 As we can see from the graph, we can interpret that the value of T5 and T6 are almost
constant for every reading even though there is a change in condenser flow rates. For the
temperature T1 and T2, they are almost not influenced by the change of condenser flow rates
because the refrigerant R-141b that enter and leaves the evaporator is at saturated state. For
the value of T3 , they are affected with the changing of condenser flow rates. Their values are
decline as the condenser flow rates increase due to transferring at the condenser.

Based on Graph 2, we can conclude that compressor power decrease as the condenser
flow rate increase. Therefore, the compressor power is inversely proportional to the
condenser flow rate. However, compressor power is directly proportional to the specific
volume of the water.

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6.0 Conclusion

The coefficient of performance are:-

COPR1 = 0.052/(0.779-0.052) = 0.072

COPR2 = 0.021/(0.691-0.021) = 0.031
COPR3 = 0.053/(0.502-0.053) = 0.118
COPR4 = 0.084/(0.371-0.084) = 0.293
COPR5 = 0.022/(0.226-0.022) = 0.204

The value of the coefficient of performance of the refrigerator (COPR) increase with the
increasing of the value of the rate of heat transfer in evaporator, QL.

7.0 References

Arora, R. C. (2010). Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. New Dehi: PHI Learning Private
Limited.

Cengel, Y. A., & Boles, M. A. (2011). Thermodynamics An Engineering Approach Seventh

Edition. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

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8.0 Appendices

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