Chilled Water System PDF

Mechanical Services Training
Chilled Water System Selection and

Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
Mechanical Services Training

Chilled Water System
Selection and Design
The information contained in this document is for the use

of Connell Wagner employees only and is not to be
copied or distributed outside the company.
© Connell Wagner 2008

Document Control
Document ID:
HTTP://CWONLINE.CONWAG.COM/__CA25749000821C97.NSF/0/5DA0586C2E80C8F4CA2574EB001F0A8D/$FILE/CHILLEDWATERSYSTEMS2008.
DOC
Rev No Date Revision Details Typist Author Verifier Approver
A person using Connell Wagner documents or data accepts the risk of:
a) Using the documents or data in electronic form without requesting and checking them for accuracy against the original hard copy
version; and
b) Using the documents or data for any purpose not agreed to in writing by Connell Wagner.
Mechanical Services Training Page i
Chilled Water System Selection
and Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
Table of Contents
Section Page
1. The Basics 1
1.1 The Thermodynamic Trick 1
1.2 The Refrigeration Cycle 1
1.3 Heat Rejection 2
2. Types of Chiller 2
2.1 The Parts of a Chiller 2
2.2 Reciprocating Chillers 3
2.3 Screw Chillers 4
2.4 Centrifugal 5
2.5 Typical Operating Parameters 6
3. Pumping Systems 7
3.1 Two-Way and Three Way Valves 7
3.2 Bypass Control 8
3.3 Decoupled Primary-Secondary Pumping 9
FILE
HTTP://CWONLINE.CONWAG.COM/__CA25749000821C97.NSF/0/5DA0586C2E80C8F4CA2574EB001F0A8D/$FI
LE/CHILLEDWATERSYSTEMS2008.DOC
Mechanical Services Training Page 1 of 12
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
1. The Basics
1.1 The Thermodynamic Trick
Buildings will gain heat, through conduction, solar radiation and internal heat sources. This heat has to be
rejected, to prevent the temperatures within the space from rising to unacceptable levels.
Heat will only flow naturally from a warm body to a cooler body. In a building the heat gains are offset by
passing air over cooling coils, lowering the temperature of the air. The chilled water in the coil effectively
absorbs the “room heat”. It does this by being colder than the air. The water circuit must then give up this
heat to something. This is usually done in the heat exchanger of a chiller. The returning chilled water
enters the chiller evaporator and gives up heat to the surrounding, colder refrigerant. Thus the water is
cooled back down to a temperature at which it can absorb room heat. In the process, the refrigerant boils.
Now what to do with this heat – it now resides in a cold gas at 4C or so. It is colder than the environment,
so where can the heat go?
After boiling (evaporating) the refrigerant can be compressed and in the process, rises in temperature. The
refrigerant may rise to 40C to 55C, depending on system type. In any case, it is now at a higher
temperature than the ambient external environment, so the heat can now be rejected to the external
environment. This is often done direct to the air (as in air cooled chillers) or to water (such as cooling
towers).
1.2 The Refrigeration Cycle
After being compressed the gas is hotter than the environment, so it can give up the heat it has gathered
from the building. In doing so it condenses back to a liquid. It is now a warm liquid at high pressure. If this
is throttled, its pressure and temperature fall. The refrigerant has then returned to the beginning of the
cycle – a cold liquid, ready to boil and absorb more heat from the building.
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
1.3 Heat Rejection

A chiller can either reject heat directly to atmosphere (an air cooled chiller) or can be water cooled. Water
cooled machines reject heat to a condenser water loop, which in turn rejects heat to the environment,
commonly through a cooling tower.
Remember that the total heat rejected is more than the cooling load of the building. Remember
conservation of energy – the compressor is doing work on the gas by the action of compressing it. Work is
energy and this energy must go somewhere. In other words the total heat rejected by a cooling tower is
the sum of the chiller compressor motor power and the cooling load.
2. Types of Chiller
2.1 The Parts of a Chiller
Compressors are one of the four essential components of the compression refrigeration system; the others
are the condenser, evaporator, and expansion device. It is from the compressor type that the chiller type is
defined eg centrifugal chillers have centrifugal compressors.
The compressor circulates refrigerant through the system in a continuous cycle. There are two basic types
of compressors: positive-displacement and dynamic. Positive-displacement compressors increase
refrigerant vapor pressure by reducing the volume of the compression chamber through work applied to
the compressor’s mechanism.
Put in plain language, positive displacement compressors work by grabbing a discrete volume of
refrigerant, then squashing it before releasing it at higher pressure. The device then goes back to get
another volume of low pressure refrigerant
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
Positive displacement compressors include reciprocating, rotary (rolling piston, rotary vane, single screw,
and twin-screw), scroll, and trochoidal types.
Dynamic compressors increase refrigerant vapor pressure by continuous transfer of angular momentum
from the rotating member to the vapor followed by conversion of this momentum into a pressure rise.
Centrifugal compressors function on this principle.
The compressors may be in one of several arrangements
 Open compressors are those in which the shaft extends through a seal in the crankcase for an
external drive. These are unusual in normal commercial chillers. Very large custom built machines are
commonly open drive.
 Hermetic compressors contain the motor and compressor in the same housing, with the motor shaft
integral with the compressor crankshaft and the motor in contact with the refrigerant. In welded-shell
hermetic compressors (sealed) the motor-compressor is mounted inside a steel shell, which, in turn is
sealed by welding. Fully hermetic compressors are common on packaged DX equipment, but are
uncommon in chiller applications
 A semi-hermetic compressor (bolted, accessible, or serviceable) is a hermetic compressor of bolted
construction amenable to field repair. This is the most common arrangement in commercial chillers.
2.2 Reciprocating Chillers
Reciprocating compressors are a positive displacement type compressor.
In a reciprocating compressor, pistons moving up and down in cylinders do the compression. Refrigerant
enters and leaves the cylinders through valves. The pistons are driven by connecting rods to a rotating
shaft. The shaft is generally driven by an electric motor.
Reciprocating chillers are the oldest commercial chiller technology still in use. The disadvantages of
reciprocating chillers are
 Typically lower efficiency than screw or centrifugal machines.

FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
 Many moving parts

 Limited unloading steps in some cases.
 Capacity limited in commercial machines to about 1,200kWR
The advantages of such machines are
 Simple technology, making access to service personnel easy. This is especially important in remote
areas and even has a bearing in large regional centres such as Darwin.
 Low cost, particularly in the low capacity range.
 The ability to be adapted to a wide range of refrigerants and a wide range of operating conditions.
2.3 Screw Chillers

Screw chillers are another form of positive displacement machine.
Until relatively recently, screw chillers were rarely seen in the market, due to their high cost. This arose
mainly from the tight construction tolerances required. Also, until the changes in available refrigerants
arising from the Montreal Protocol, there was perhaps little commercial imperative for the manufacturers to
move away from reciprocating technology.
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
However, screw chillers are now the predominant chiller in the “light load” market up to about 1,000kWR.
They are usually lower cost than reciprocating machines at the high end of this range and are
considerably more efficient.
The disadvantages of screw chillers are
 Capacity limited in commercial machines to about 1,200kWR

 Very noisy. Must be contained in an acoustically isolated plant room.
 Requires skilled service technicians that may not be available outside major cities.
 High efficiency
 Low cost, particularly in the 500kWR to 1,000kWR capacity range.
2.4 Centrifugal
Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called turbocompressors, belong to a family of turbomachines that

includes fans, propellers, and turbines. These machines continuously exchange angular momentum
between a rotating mechanical element and a steadily flowing fluid. Because their flows are continuous,
turbomachines have greater volumetric capacities, size for size, than do positive displacement devices.
For effective momentum exchange, their rotating speeds must be higher, but little vibration or wear results
because of the steady motion and absence of contacting parts.
Centrifugal compressors are well-suited for air-conditioning and refrigeration applications because of their
ability to produce a high pressure ratio. Suction flow enters the rotating element (impeller),axially and is
discharged radially at a higher velocity. The change in diameter through the impeller increases gas flow
velocity. This dynamic pressure is then converted to static pressure through diffusion, which generally
begins within the impeller and ends in a radial diffuser and scroll outboard of the impeller.
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
Another way of thinking about the process is in terms of conservation of energy. Gas enters the impeller
chamber axially. It is then accelerated radially, thus increasing its kinetic energy. After leaving the impeller
is rapidly decelerates, so a proportion of this new kinetic energy is converted to potential energy (in the
form of increased pressure).
The disadvantages of centrifugal chillers are
 Sensitive to unstable operation at part load, due to surge, Should not be used at below about 30% of
full load. Hence they can seldom be used without a light load screw or reciprocating chiller.
 High cost. They are not typically economically viable when the total demand is less than about
4,000kWR.
 Requires skilled service technicians that may not be available outside major cities.
 High efficiency
 Compact size.
 Very high output. Common commercially available machines range from 1,000kWR to 8,000kWR
2.5 Typical Operating Parameters
The operating parameters of chillers can vary and are a compromise between chiller efficiency, pipe sizing
and pumping energy, cooling tower performance and air handling unit coil performance. Climactic
conditions and building geometry also influence these decisions.
Typically the chilled water flow (CHWF) temperature setpoint is 6C. The design chilled water return
(CHWR) temperature is usually about 13C. The CHWF temperature is sometimes rescheduled upwards
at part load as this reduces the compressor motor power required.
Condenser cooling water should be above 20C for stable operation of large systems. Cooling towers are
usually selected to provide 29C CCWF from 35C CCWR at peak load. They should not be controlled at
a setpoint of 29C CCWF as this is wasteful of energy. The cooling towers fans should be staged around a
setpoint of no more then 22C typically.
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
3. Pumping Systems
3.1 Two-Way and Three Way Valves
The connections to the individual cooling coils in the air-handling units around a building can be made with
two way, or three way control valves. These open or close according to demand for cooling.
With three way valves, the flow in a branch serving a coil is constant. The water either goes through the
coil, or bypasses it to the return line. The flow in a branch is constant and the overall system flow is
constant
Three way valve connection
With a two-way valve system, the flow in the branch varies as the valve opens and closes. The overall
system flow is also variable.
Two way valve connection
Three way valve arrangements can only be used with a single chiller. They cannot usually be used with
multiple chiller installations. The reason for this is part load performance. A three-way valve system
requires all of the flow to be pumped all of the time. If there are three equal sized chillers and the load is
10% of the peak, this would require all three chillers running at 10% capacity to achieve the required
leaving water condition. Chillers do not operate effectively at this low load percentage. There are other
issues with return water condition and the effect this has on the chiller control system also.
Chillers require a near constant water flow across their vessels when running. With two-way valve control,
there is a variable system flow. The engineer must come up with a system design that can achieve
variable system flow and constant chiller control. Two examples of system design to achieve this follow
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
3.2 Bypass Control
This type of system is commonly used in small to medium sized chiller installations (say up to about
4,000kWR). Here the chillers are started in sequence as the load increases. The pumps are constant flow.
The variability of the system flow is dealt with by the bypass valve, which allows some of the CHWF to flow
directly to the CHWR line. The valve is usually controlled to maintain either a constant pressure difference
across the system flow and return, or a constant pressure between the chiller flow and return headers. The
latter can have issues relating to the size of the pressure signal, relative to errors, leading to unstable
control.
The disadvantages of bypass valve control are
 Pumps see full system head at all times and pump full flow. Hence pump energy is moderately high. It
should be noted that the pump energy is not as high as a constant volume (i.e. three way valve)
system, because pumps can be turned off.
 Cannot be used on geographically large systems, like sports stadiums. This is because the control
valve in the bypass leg can only tolerate a pressure differential of about 250kPa between system flow
and system return.
 Fewer pumps required than primary/secondary and no variable speed drives, hence the cost is lower
 Relatively simple control system requirements.
FILE
Design
Revision 1
23 October 2008
3.3 Decoupled Primary-Secondary Pumping

With this system the system and the chillers are decoupled, that is they are hydraulically independent. The
primary pumps associated with the chillers run only when the chillers run and only see the resistance of
the chillers.
The intent of the system is to deliver just the right amount of water, at the right temperature.
The secondary pumps are variable speed. Though often specified as varying their speed to maintain a
constant pressure difference at an appropriate point in the system, this misses an opportunity. At part load
the flow is reduced, hence the system resistances reduce. It is possible to measure the capacity being
delivered, so the pressure set point can be ramped up and down to suit load.
The system controls itself so that the primary flow is always more than the secondary flow. The secondary
pumps draw off whatever CHWF they need, and it will be at the same temperature as the chillers generate
it (typically 6C). So the system delivers just the right amount of water, at the right temperature.
If the secondary flow is greater than the primary flow, return water will bypass around the chiller. Obviously
this means that the chilled water temperature will not be maintained. Pressure sensors detect the
bypassing flow at the orifice plate. The control system responds by enabling another chiller and primary
pump. The primary flow again exceeds the secondary flow.
The disadvantages of primary/secondary pumping are
 Higher cost.
 Increased system complexity. Some technicians find these systems hard to get their heads around.
 Significant energy savings

 Stable control, even on multi-use sites.
FILE

Chilled Water System PDF

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Chilled Water System PDF

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Mechanical Services Training

Chilled Water System Selection and

Mechanical Services Training

The information contained in this document is for the use

© Connell Wagner 2008

1.2 The Refrigeration Cycle

1.3 Heat Rejection

The compressors may be in one of several arrangements

2.2 Reciprocating Chillers

Reciprocating compressors are a positive displacement type compressor.

 Typically lower efficiency than screw or centrifugal machines.

 Many moving parts

The advantages of such machines are

2.3 Screw Chillers

The disadvantages of screw chillers are

 Capacity limited in commercial machines to about 1,200kWR

The advantages of such machines are

Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called turbocompressors, belong to a family of turbomachines that

The disadvantages of centrifugal chillers are

The advantages of such machines are

2.5 Typical Operating Parameters

Three way valve connection

Two way valve connection

3.2 Bypass Control

The disadvantages of bypass valve control are

The advantages of such machines are

3.3 Decoupled Primary-Secondary Pumping

The disadvantages of primary/secondary pumping are

The advantages of such machines are

 Significant energy savings

Potrebbero piacerti anche