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AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS

1.1 Air conditioning:

Air conditioning may be defined as the process of treating the air so as to control its
temperature, vapor content and the quality of air to achieve the maximum thermal comfort or
to meet the requirement of conditioned space.
Air conditioning Process includes;
 Temperature Control
 Humidity Control
 Air Quality Control
 Air Velocity Control
And the alteration in the air temperature is done by refrigeration process.

1.2 Air conditioning system:

In general air conditioning system may be defined as the machine which supplies cold air to
an enclosed space and due to the presence of this cold air, the internal temperature of the
enclosed space get reduced and can be maintained to the requirement of the conditioned
space and the process which is used inside the air conditioning system to cool down the air is
known as refrigeration.
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1.3 Components of Air conditioning system:

An air conditioning system generally consists of five mechanical components:

S. AC Components Reference Image

No
.

1 Compressor: A compressor is a mechanical device

that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing
its volume.

2 Condenser (hot): a condenser is a device or unit

used to condense a substance from its gaseous to
its liquid state, by cooling it.

3 Evaporator (cold): An evaporator is a device in a

process used to turn the liquid form of a chemical
substance such as water into its gaseous-form/vapor.
The liquid is evaporated, or vaporized, into a gas form
of the targeted substance in that process

4 Expansion Valve: This valve restricts the flow of

liquid refrigerant from the condenser to the
evaporator. As refrigerant passes through the
metering device, its pressure decreases.
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5 Refrigerants: A refrigerant is a substance or

mixture, usually a fluid, used in a heat pump and
refrigeration cycle. In most cycles it undergoes phase
transitions from a liquid to a gas and back again

Note: Hermetic compressor: A hermetic or sealed compressor is one in which both

compressor and motor are confined in a single outer welded steel shell. The motor and
compressor are directly coupled on the same shaft, with the motor inside the refrigeration
circuit. Thus the need for a shaft seal with the consequent refrigerant leakage problem was
eliminated. All the refrigerant pipeline connections to the outer steel shell are by welding or
brazing. The electrical conductors to the motor are taken out of the steel shell by sealed
terminals made of fused glass. The figure below shows the cut-away view of a hermetic
compressor. One can see the cooper windings inside the outer shell and also the refrigerant
conections (copper pipes). Hermetic compressors are ideal for small refrigeration systems,
where continuous maintenance (replenishing
refrigerant and oil charge etc) cannot be
ensured. Hence they are widely used in domestic
refrigerators, room air conditioners etc. Since,
the motor is in the refrigerant circuit, the
efficiency of hermetic compressor based systems
is lower as the heat dissipated by the motor and
compressor becomes a part of the system load.
Also material compatibility between the
electrical windings, refrigerant and oil must be
ensured. Since the complete system is kept in a
welded steel shell, the hermetic compressors are not meant for servicing. A variation of
hermetic compressor is a semi-hermetic compressor, in which the bolted construction offers
limited serviceability.
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Note: Types of the Evaporators;

The evaporators used for the refrigeration and the air conditioning applications have different
types of construction depending on the application. Based on their construction the various
types of evaporators are:

1) Bare Tube Evaporators

The bare tube evaporators are made up of copper tubing or steel

pipes. The copper tubing is used for small evaporators where the
refrigerant other than ammonia is used, while the steel pipes are
used with the large evaporators where ammonia is used as the
refrigerant. The bare tube evaporator comprises of several turns of
the tubing, though most commonly flat zigzag and oval trombone
are the most common shapes. The bare tube evaporators are usually
used for liquid chilling. In the blast cooling and the freezing
operations the atmospheric air flows over the bare tube evaporator
and the chilled air leaving it used for the cooling purposes. The
bare tube evaporators are used in very few applications, however
the bare tube evaporators fitted with the fins, called as finned
evaporators are used very commonly.

2) Plate Type of Evaporators

In the plate type of evaporators the coil usually made up of copper or aluminum is embedded
in the plate so as so to form a flat looking surface. Externally the plate type of evaporator
looks like a single plate, but inside it there are several turns of the metal tubing through which
the refrigerant flows. The advantage of the plate type of evaporators is that they are more
rigid as the external plate provides lots of safety. The external plate also helps increasing the
heat transfer from the metal tubing to the substance to be chilled. Further, the plate type of
evaporators are easy to clean and can be manufactured cheaply.
The plate type heat exchangers can be easily formed into various shapes as per the
requirement. Thus in the household refrigerators and the deep freezers, where they are used
most commonly, they can be converted into the box shape to form the closed enclosure,
where various food can be kept in the frozen state. The plates can also be welded together
forming the bank of the plate type of evaporators that can be used the larger evaporators of
higher capacities.
Plate types of evaporators provide excellent shelves in the freezers and similar applications.
They can be used as the as the partitions in the freezers, frozen food display cases, ice cream
cabinets, soda fountains and others. Due to various advantages and flexibility offered by the
plate type of evaporators, they are used extensively.
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3) Finned Evaporators

The finned evaporators are the bare tube type of evaporators covered with the fins. When the
fluid (air or water) to be chilled flows over the bare tube evaporator lots of cooling effect
from the refrigerant goes wasted since there is less surface for the transfer of heat from the
fluid to the refrigerant. The fluid tends to move between the open spaces of the tubing and
does not come in contact with the surface of the coil,
thus the bare tube evaporators are less effective. The
fins on the external surface of the bare tube evaporators
increases the contact surface of the of the metallic
tubing with the fluid and increase the heat transfer rate,
thus the finned evaporators are more effective than the
bare tube evaporators.

The fins are the external protrusions from the surface of

the coil and they extend into the open space. They help
removing the heat from the fluid that otherwise would
not have come in contact with the coil.
For the fins to be effective it is very important that there is very good contact between the coil
and the fins. In some cases the fins are soldered directly to the surface of the coil and in other
cases the fins are just slipped over the surface of the fins and then they are expanded thus
ensuring a close thermal contact between the two. Tough the fins help increase the heat
transfer, rate, adding them beyond certain numbers won’t produce any additional benefits,
hence only certain number of fins should be applied on the external surface of the tube.
The finned evaporators are most commonly used in the air conditioners of almost all types
like window, split, packaged and the central air conditioning systems. In these systems the
finned evaporator is popularly known as the cooling coil. The hot room air flows over the
finned evaporator or the cooling coil, gets chilled and enters the room to produce the cooling
effect. In window a/c the finned evaporators is located behind the beautifully looking grill. In
the wall mounted split unit it located behind the front grill of the indoor unit.
To further increase the effectiveness of heat transfer from the evaporators, the tubing are also
given internal fins. These fins are made by forming different internal cross section shapes at
the time of the manufacture of the tubing. Some methods of internal and external fins are
shown in the figure below.
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4) Shell and Tube types of Evaporators

The shell and tube types of evaporators are used in the large refrigeration and central air
conditioning systems. The evaporators in these systems are commonly known as the chillers.
The chillers comprise of large number of the tubes that are inserted inside the drum or the
shell. Depending on the direction of the flow of the refrigerant in the shell and tube type of
chillers, they are classified into two types: dry expansion type and flooded type of chillers. In
dry expansion chillers the refrigerant flows along the tube side and the fluid to be chilled
flows along the shell side. The flow of the
refrigerant to these chillers is controlled by
the expansion valve. In case of the flooded
type of evaporators the refrigerant flows
along the shell side and fluid to be chilled
flows along the tube. In these chillers the
level of the refrigerant is kept constant by the
float valve that acts as the expansion valve
also.

1.4 Working Principles of Air conditioning System:

The working principle is to remove the heat from one area and replace it with chilled dry air
and the hot air is expelled, normally to the outside atmosphere.
Every air conditioner has a compressor inside it. It works to compress and pump the
refrigerant gas. Compression of refrigerant produces heat. To dissipate this heat, compressed
refrigerant is pumped to the condenser coils where a fan blows the heat out to outer
atmosphere. During the process, refrigerant takes the liquid form. This liquid refrigerant is
pumped towards expansion
valve. Expansion valve has
a temperature sensor
connected to it which
works in correlation with
thermostat settings.
Expansion valve releases
the appropriate amount of
refrigerant to evaporator
(cooling coils) where
liquefied refrigerant takes
gaseous form. Conversion
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from liquid to gaseous state due to expansion produces chillness because energy is absorbed
from the surrounding. Air when passes through fins (attached to coils) gets cooled and blown
to the room. The refrigerant in cooling coils then enters the compressor and gets compressed
once again. The cycle continues unless the compressor is shut down. In a nutshell, air
conditioner draws heat from the indoor and releases it to the outdoor. Indoor acts as a source
and outdoor as a sink for heat.