Mechanical Refrigeration Cycle

Outdoor Air Cooled Package Chiller

     The job of the refrigeration cycle is to remove unwanted heat from one place and discharge it into another. To accomplish this, the refrigerant is pumped through a closed refrigeration system. If the system was not closed, it would be using up the refrigerant by dissipating it into the surrounding media; because it is closed, the same refrigerant is used over and over again, as it passes through the cycle removing some heat and discharging it. The closed cycle serves other purposes as well; it keeps the refrigerant from becoming contaminated and controls its flow, for it is a liquid in some parts of the cycle and a gas or vapor in other phases.

     The liquid refrigerant travels now to the metering device where it passes through a small opening or orifice where a drop in pressure and temperature occurs, and then it enters into the evaporator or cooling coil. As the refrigerant makes its way into the large opening of the evaporator tubing or coil, it vaporizes, ready to start another cycle through the system.

     Now this low-pressure, low-temperature vapor is drawn to the compressor where it is compressed into a high-temperature, high-pressure vapor.

     The compressor discharges it to the condenser, so that it can give up the heat that it picked up in the evaporator. The refrigerant vapor is at a higher temperature than the air passing across the condenser (air-cooled type); or water passing through the condenser (water-cooled type); therefore that is transferred from the warmer refrigerant vapor to the cooler air or water.

     The metering device is a point where we will start the trip through the cycle. This may be a thermal expansion valve, a capillary tube, or any other device to control the flow of refrigerant into the evaporator, or cooling coil, as a low-pressure, low-temperature refrigerant. The expanding refrigerant evaporates (changes state) as it goes through the evaporator, where it removes the heat from the substance or space in which the evaporator is located.