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Refrigeration System Components

This document provides an introduction to refrigeration system components. It discusses how refrigeration works by removing heat from matter, lowering its temperature. The two main methods of refrigeration are natural, using ice, and mechanical, using a refrigerant to transfer heat. The document states that the chapter will provide information on key refrigeration system components like compressors and condensers, and discuss technical and operational aspects of refrigeration systems.

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Baraa Al Sayed
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16 views

Refrigeration System Components

This document provides an introduction to refrigeration system components. It discusses how refrigeration works by removing heat from matter, lowering its temperature. The two main methods of refrigeration are natural, using ice, and mechanical, using a refrigerant to transfer heat. The document states that the chapter will provide information on key refrigeration system components like compressors and condensers, and discuss technical and operational aspects of refrigeration systems.

Uploaded by

Baraa Al Sayed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Refrigeration System Components

3.1 Introduction
Refrigeration is the process of removing heat from matter which may be a solid, a liquid, or

a gas. Removing heat from the matter cools it, or lowers its temperature. There are a number

of ways of lowering temperatures, some of which are of historical interest only. In some older

methods, lowering of temperature may be accomplished by the rapid expansion of gases under

reduced pressures. Thus, cooling may be brought about by compressing air, removing the excess

heat produced in compressing it, and then permitting it to expand.

A lowering of temperatures is also produced by adding certain salts, such as sodium nitrate,

sodium thiosulfate (hypo), and sodium sulfite to water. The same effect is produced, but to a lesser

extent, by dissolving common salt or calcium chloride in water.

As known, two common methods of refrigeration are natural and mechanical. In the natural

refrigeration, ice has been used in refrigeration since ancient times and it is still widely used. In

this natural technique, the forced circulation of air passes around blocks of ice. Some of the heat

of the circulating air is transferred to the ice, thus cooling the air, particularly for air-conditioning

applications. In the mechanical refrigeration, the refrigerant is a substance capable of transferring

heat that it absorbs at low temperatures and pressures to a condensing medium; in the region of

transfer, the refrigerant is at higher temperatures and pressures. By means of expansion, compression,

and a cooling medium, such as air or water, the refrigerant removes heat from a substance

and transfers it to the cooling medium.

In this chapter, we provide information on refrigeration system components (e.g., compressors,

condensers, evaporators, throttling devices) and discuss various technical and operational aspects.

Auxiliary refrigeration system components are also covered.

3.2 History of Refrigeration


For centuries, people have known that the evaporation of water produces a cooling effect. At first,

they did not attempt to recognize and understand the phenomenon, but they knew that any portion

of the body that became wet felt cold as it dried in the air. At least as early as the second century,

evaporation was used in Egypt to chill jars of water, and it was employed in ancient India to make
ice (Neuberger, 1930).

The first attempts to produce refrigeration mechanically depended on the cooling effects of

the evaporation of water. In 1755, William Cullen, a Scottish physician, obtained sufficiently

low temperatures for ice making. He accomplished this by reducing the pressure on water

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