Thermodynamics of Refrigeration Systems

Historical Aspects of Thermodynamic Theory and Practical Implementation

In the early nineteenth century, the abundance of industrializing spirit in the
Western world resulted in the invention of various types of engines to power
machinery. As the designs became more complicated and efficiency concerns arose,
scientists began exploring possible relationships between heat and work. In 1824,
Sadi Nicholas Leonard Carnot published a book that attempted to discover a
mathematical expression for the amount of work produced by one kilogram of
steam. Through his observations, temperature emerged as a gauge of attainable
work. He likened temperature analogous to releasing water from varying heights.
Water released from a greater height could produce more mechanical work than
from a low one, just as a pot of water raised to a higher temperature could perform
more work on its surroundings. These elementary observations later became
embodied in the modernly accepted Second Law of Thermodynamics. Shortly after
Carnot, Englishman James Joule experiments on heat transfer resulted in a
statement of the First Law of Thermodynamics. His discoveries, published in 1850,
explained how the seemingly "lost" heat in a system actually reemerged as physical
work in varying forms.
The efforts of Carnot and Joule helped forward the invention of everyday heat
transfer machines. In 1851, American physician Dr. John Gorrie invented a dense air
compression machine, which was the first commercial product used for refrigeration
and air conditioning. Soon after in 1853, Alexander Twining received a U.S. Patent
for his machine that produced ice using vapor compression mechanisms. Further
developments in refrigeration technology included the invention of cold-air
refrigerators tailored especially for the international frozen meat trade circa 1870,
and by World War II, air conditioning systems had become commonplace in
department stores, restaurants, and hospitals. The modern day refrigerator also
emerged as a common household appliance.
Basic Thermodynamic Definitions and Laws
An understanding of basic thermodynamic principles remains prerequisite to fully
comprehending the refrigeration mechanisms used in the aforementioned modern
appliances. Thermodynamics, in its simplest form, involves the relationships
between heat, work, and properties of different types of systems. A few definitions
beg mention:

1. closed system - a system in which no mass ever crosses the boundaries

of the system, but energy is still transferable between the system and its
surroundings

2. isolated system - a system in which no mass nor energy ever crosses the
system's boundaries. Note that if an isolated system is defined to contain

everything (all matter in existence), the total energy internal to the system
remains constant since no energy may cross the system's boundaries.

3. open system - a system where mass and energy may freely travel
between the system and its surroundings

4. temperature - a measurement of the "warmness" or "coldness" of an

entity, but specifically correlates with the kinetic energies of the molecules in
the substance. At a higher temperature, molecules move or vibrate more
than at lower temperatures.

5. heat - energy transported across the boundary of a system as a result of a

temperature difference

The whole of thermodynamics can be described in the standard four rules of

thermodynamics. Only the first three seem directly relevant to explaining the
thermodynamic aspects of refrigeration, and are reproduced below:
The Zeroth Law: If body A and body B both have temperatures equal to that of
body C, then the temperature of body A equals the temperature of body B. Note
that this law seems extremely obvious, but still remains the basis for temperature
measurement.
The First Law: Energy is conserved. Refer to the definition of an isolated system
for a brief overview. In equation form, the first law takes the form:
Esystem +

Esurroundings = 0

Energy and work are accounted for in the equation where q is heat and w is work:
E=q+w
The Second Law:

"No process is possible whose sole result is the extraction of heat from a
single reservoir and the performance of an equivalent amount of
work." (Kelvin-Planck definition)

"No process is possible whose sole result is the remove of heat from a
reservoir at one temperature and the absorption of an equal quantity of heat
by a reservoir at a higher temperature." (Clausius definition)

"All spontaneous processes produce an increase in the entropy of the

universe." (General Chemistry definition)

These definitions and laws are helpful in describing the functioning of a basic heat
engine.

Heat Engines
Heat engines, technically speaking, are "continuously operating thermodynamic
systems at the boundary of where there are heat and work interactions." (Spalding
203) Simply, a heat engine converts heat to work energy or vice versa.

An
example of a
common heat engine is a power plant. It consists of four main elements, a boiler,
turbine, condenser, and feed pump, and the main circulating heat transfer entity is
water. If we consider the power plant to be a closed system with its boundary
enclosing the operating components, we can apply the First Law of
Thermodynamics. The boiler burns a fuel source, causing a transfer
of qcombustion heat to water inside, vaporizing it. The high pressure vapor enters the
turbine, resulting in a work output of wturbine, and then leaves still as steam but at
lower pressure and temperature. The vapor moves through the condenser where it
condenses back into water, losing qcondensation heat to the surroundings. The water is
pumped back into the boiler, requiring wpump work. Since E = q + w, and
assuming a steady state of operation ( E=0),

( qcombustion - qcondensation ) + ( wpump - wturbine ) = 0

or

qcombustion - qcondensation = wturbine - wpump

wpump is significantly less than the wturbine attained.
However, qcondensation may be even more than two-thirds the magnitude
of qcombustion, meaning that the total useful work obtained from the combustion of
Generally,

fuel is less than one third of the total work theoretically possible from a complete
conversion of qcombustion. The second law of thermodynamics embodies the fact
that no engine can be constructed that is 100% efficient.
Refrigeration systems are also heat engines, except running in reverse. The four
components of a refrigeration cycle closely mirror those of the steam power plant,
reversed. The steam engine's boiler (acting as an evaporator), becomes the
refrigerator's condenser, the turbine (an expansion device) reverses and becomes a
compressor, the condenser becomes evaporator, and the pump, a compressing
device, is replaced by the throttle valve, a expansion device.

The
form of the
steam power plant's equation still holds true, except there is no physical work
extracted from the system:

( qevaporation - qcondensation ) + ( 0 - wcompressor ) = 0

or
qevaporation - qcondensation = wcompressor
However, the reasons behind the seeming simplicity of refrigeration as a reversed
heat engine remain elusive. Refrigeration at its core depends on the rather
unintuitive phenomenon that expanding gases cool down. A brief digression into
expansion work and its relation to the first law of thermodynamics might prove
useful. Assume an ideal gas. If it is allowed to expand at constant temperature, the
average kinetic energy of the gas molecules must also remain constant. Since no
attraction exists between the molecules in an ideal gas, potential energy is zero.
Thus, the net change of the system's total energy must be zero as well. If E = 0,
and E = q + w, then:
q = -w
This means that if a gas performs work on its surroundings while expanding, it must
absorb heat from the surroundings for E to be zero. For real world gases, E is
not zero, but is still quite small.
Another way to observe this peculiarity is to consider that if the pressure over a
liquid is lowered enough, the liquid will begin to evaporate since the liquid
molecules may occupy a greater volume. Thus, the liquid will draw heat from the
surroundings, since the total energy of the system remains constant while the
kinetic energy of the molecules has increased, while the potential energy increase
in a real world gas remains small. This allows for refrigeration to occur, since high
pressure liquid refrigerant is sent through the expansion valve into a low pressure
area where the liquid evaporates and expands, drawing heat from the surroundings.
The implementation details of a refrigeration system will be discussed in greater
detail shortly.
Both the power plant and refrigeration processes described are thus heat engines,
and obey thermodynamic laws. A steam power plant is a direct heat engine since
heat is converted to work, while a refrigeration system is a reversed heat engine:
that is, work causes a heat transfer. Note well that the formal definition of a heat
engine gives no indication of the direction of the process. For reference,
thermodynamic schematics of both processes are indicated below:

Implementation of Vapor-Compression Refrigeration

Modern refrigerators are frequently based on the vapor-compression refrigeration
cycle. Vapor compression systems center around the transfer of heat from a lowtemperature region to a higher temperature region. Such a process requires an
input of energy to move forward, and is usually supplied in the form of electricity
powering. Refrigerators involve four main components: a compressor, condenser,
throttling expansion valve, and an evaporator. The basic steps in the cycle are
documented below.

1. The compressor powered by an external energy source (usually electricity)

compresses the refrigerant gas that enters from the evaporator to a temperature
that exceeds the surroundings of the condensing element. The refrigerant thus
enters the condenser as a super-heated vapor, and the heat-exchanging coils and
fins of the condenser dissipate the heat caused by pressurization to the
surroundings.
2. The refrigerant slowly cools as it passes through the condenser coils, and
condenses into liquid form. The pressure inside the condenser remains significant as
the liquid refrigerant nears the throttling expansion valve.
3. The throttling expansion valve controls the rate at which the liquid refrigerant
flows from the high pressure condenser element into the low pressure evaporator
coil that resides with the subject of the refrigeration process. An expansion valve
may be as simple as a capillary tube that simply restricts the flow of liquid into the
evaporator. The pressure drop between the condenser and the evaporator causes
the liquid refrigerant to immediately boil and evaporate, thus drawing heat from
itself, resulting in a reduction of temperature of the evaporator coil.
4. The coil-fin arrangement of the evaporator is distinctly similar to the condenser,
except that the evaporating gas inside the coil absorbs heat from the surroundings
of the evaporator. The refrigerant then returns to the condenser, where the
compression cycle begins once more. Note that the pressure difference required for
cooling is maintained since the compressor continually sucks gas from the "out" end
of the evaporator.
Considerations for Refrigeration Systems
While the phase changes for water work will in a direct heat engine application like
a power plant, the circulating heat transfer medium in a refrigerator must possess
specific characteristics. The refrigerant must be recyclable: that is, it can be
condensed and evaporated repeatedly. Furthermore, it must be able to easily absorb
and expend heat at normal operating temperatures for the device. Water fails as an
efficient refrigerant: its boiling point greatly exceeds normal operating conditions,
and its freezing point also is too high for good cooling. As a result, special liquids
emerged as refrigerants that possessed many of the desired characteristics:

1. high density to avoid the need for large volumes of the refrigerant

2. ability to operate at low differences in pressure

3. non-flammable

4. non-explosive in gas or liquid form

5. non-corrosive

6. non-toxic

7. ability to carry oil in solution (for machine lubrication)

8. resistance to electricity

(Sauer 38)
Early refrigerants included ammonia (NH3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), propane (C3H8), and
methane (CH4). Each of these failed to meet all of the desired criteria necessary for
safe refrigerator operation, especially for widespread consumer use. One of the first
commercial liquids developed was refrigerant-12, more commonly known by the
manufacturer's name (Freon-12, Arcton-12, etc). Chemically, it was
dichlorodiflourmethane (CCl2F2). However, recent environmental studies have
indicated that the chlorine in the liquid destroys ozone, and thus Freon-12 has been
removed from the marketplace and succeeded by new refrigerant technology.