Vapor Compression Essay

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The challenge in refrigeration (and air conditioning, etc.) is to remove heat from a low temperature source and dump it at a higher temperature sink. Compression refrigeration cycles in general take advantage of the idea that highly compressed fluids at one temperature will tend to get colder when they are allowed to expand. If the pressure change is high enough, then the compressed gas will be hotter than our source of cooling (outside air, for instance) and the expanded gas will be cooler than our desired cold temperature. In this case, we can use it to cool at a low temperature and reject the heat to a high temperature. Vapor-compression refrigeration cycles specifically have two additional advantages. First, they exploit the large thermal energy required to change a liquid to a vapor so we can remove lots of heat out of our air-conditioned space. Second, the isothermal nature of the vaporization allows extraction of heat without raising the temperature of the working fluid to the temperature of whatever is being cooled. This is a benefit because the closer the working fluid temperature approaches that of the surroundings, the lower the rate of heat transfer. The isothermal process allows the fastest rate of heat transfer. An ideal refrigeration cycle looks much like a reversed Carnot heat engine or a reversed Rankine cycle heat engine. The primary distinction being that refrigeration cycles lack a turbine, using a throttle instead to expand the working fluid. (Of course, a turbine could be incorporated into a refrigeration cycle if one could be designed to deal with liquids, but the useful work output is usually too small to justify the cost of the device.) The cycle operates at two pressures, Phigh and Plow, and the statepoints are determined by the cooling requirements and the properties of the working fluid. Most coolants are designed so that

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