MEL 344: Refrigeration and

Air-Conditioning
Amit Gupta
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
1st Semester 2013-2014
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

about the course

to prepare the students to carry out analysis and design
of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems

prerequisites: thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer,

fluid mechanics
office hours: Fri 10 AM - 11 AM (tentative) @ II-255
course website: web.iitd.ac.in/~agupta under Courses

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Dr. Amit Gupta

joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi,
as Assistant Professor in May 2011
B.Tech.: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (2004)
M.S.: University of Central Florida (2007)
Ph.D.: University of Central Florida (2009)

Post-Doctoral Fellow: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

(2009-2011)
Research interests: thermodynamics, microfluidics, Li-ion
batteries, micro-air vehicles
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

evaluation procedure
Celebrations of Learning
Two minor exams: 35 points each (35x2=70)
Major exam: 70 points
Quizzes (approx. 5)*: 10 points
Lab Sessions: 50 points
TOTAL: 200 points
Audit: > 75% attendance & 60% final score (no

exceptions)
* ALL SCORES WILL BE COUNTED
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Ground Rules
Unacceptable activities during a lecture/lab session?
Text messaging using mobile phone
Browsing internet on mobile phone
Emailing using mobile phone
Calling through your mobile phone
All of the above

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Ground Rules
Mobile phones SILENT
75 % attendance (lesser means a lower grade)

No disruptive behavior
Act professionally

PLAGIARISM is a serious offense

Honour Code

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

The Honour Code

I will not give or receive aid in examinations; that I will not give
or receive unpermitted aid in class work, in preparation of
reports, or in any other work that is to be used by the
instructor as the basis of grading; and
I will do my share and take an active part in seeing to it that

others as well as myself uphold the spirit and letter of the

Honour Code

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Review of Responsibility
Lectures

AG

Readings

you

Homeworks

you

Labs and reports

you

Exams

you

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Course components
Refrigeration cycles, refrigerants
Psychrometry, air-conditioning and load
calculations
Components-compressors, evaporators,
expansion devices, condensers,
dehumidification coils, ducts, fans
Alternative systems absorption, steamejector, air
Shell-and-tube
condenser1

Multi-cylinder Compressor1

Automatic expansion
valve2
Sources:
1Hundy,

Trott and Welch; 2Dossat

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

reading material
Reference books/literature:
Refrigeration and Air-conditioning by W.F. Stoecker
and J.W. Jones, McGraw Hill, 2nd edition
Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning Analysis and
Design by McQuiston, Parker and Spitler, Wiley
Refrigeration and Air-conditioning by R.C. Arora, PHI

Principles of refrigeration: R.J. Dossat

Refrigeration and Air-conditioning: Hundy, Trott and
Welch
Refrigeration and Air-conditioning: C.P.Arora
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

reading material
ASHRAE handbooks
Automotive Air-Conditioning and Climate Control
Systems by Daly, Butterworth-Heinemann

Fundamentals of Thermodynamics: Sonntag and van

Wylen
Applied Thermodynamics for engineering
technologists: T.D. Eastop and A. McConkey
Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics by
Moran and Shapiro
Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach by
Cengel and Boles
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Definitions
Refrigeration:

Air-conditioning:

action of cooling; removal

of heat and discarding it
at a higher temperature

Industrial (food
preservation),
chemical, process
industries

Treating air to control

simultaneously its
temperature, humidity,
cleanliness, and distribution to
meet the comfort requirements
of the occupants of the
conditioned space

Cooling and
dehumidifying
operations in airconditioning

Heating,
dehumidifying,
control of air
quality

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Relevance
Grain storage and preservation in India
According to WB, food-grain stock management in
India needs to improve to tackle inflation

Source: The Hindu

Source: The Deccan Herald

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Relevance
According to BBC, more than 1.3 million tonnes of
food grain - worth millions $ - went rotten in storage
over the past decade in India
Grain was damaged in warehouses
Amount of food grain could have fed over 10 million
people in a year
According to MD of FCI
"Our storage conditions are not really the same as in the
West, where it is untouched by hand. "

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Relevance
Increasing cost of energy require innovative
approaches to improve efficiency
Depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs has
resulted in research on newer and safer
refrigerants

Newer applications, for instance cooling at the

microscale (microchips) cannot be achieved by
merely scaling existing refrigeration systems

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

In practice
Source: Hundy, Trott and Welch

cold air

Slabs of Ice-cream
Source: Hundy, Trott and Welch

Interior of a cold storage

facility; warehouse
preservation of fruits,
vegetables and meat at -20C

Once ice-cream is frozen, it

is rapidly hardened to a
storage temperature of
-25C, thus requiring very low
refrigerant temperature

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

In practice
Construction: hardening
of raw materials releases
heat which must be
removed to avoid
expansion and stress in
concrete
Source: Stoecker & Jones

Drinking fountains: small

refrigeration units chill
drinking water for use as
needed
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

In practice
Operation Theatres:
Key factors to be
controlled-Temperature
and humidity.

Clean rooms:
Very low level of environmental
pollutants like dust, microbes,
aerosol particles etc. are allowed.
Cleanliness measured as particles
of micron size per m3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Other applications
Domestic refrigeration
Textile industries

Computer rooms
Residential air-conditioning

Air-conditioning of vehicles
Food storage and distribution

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Fundamentals
Thermodynamic property: an attribute
that can be evaluated quantitatively;
something that matter has.
Work and heat transfer can be
evaluated in terms of change in
properties; things that are done to/on
the system
Equilibrium states.
2 thermodynamic properties will define a
Lord Kelvin, who devised the
state.
absolute scale for temperature*
For a mixture (e.g. dry air and water
*Source: Hundy, Trott and Welch
vapor), 3 properties will be required.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Basic laws of thermodynamics

Zeroth law:
when two bodies have equality of
temperature with a third body, they
in turn have equality of
temperature with each other
First law:
during any cycle a system (control
mass) undergoes, the cyclic
integral of heat is proportional to
the cyclic integral of work

Q W

for a control mass system

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

System (Closed and Open)

System: collection of matter within prescribed and identifiable
boundaries.

Fluid in the cylinder of a reciprocating

engine: Closed system*

Fluid in a turbine at any instant: Open

system*

*Source: Eastop and McConkey

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Work
Classical definition of work:
Work is done by a system if the sole effect on the
surroundings could be the raising of a weight
Path function, i.e. depends on the path that the system
follows
Work done at a moving boundary
2

P
Consider quasi-equilibrium compression of
air

Work done on the system is given by the

area a-1-2-b-a, i.e.,

W2 PdV

Air

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Heat
Classical definition:
Heat: form of energy that is transferred across the
boundary of a system at a given temperature to
another system (surroundings) at a lower temperature
by virtue of the temperature difference between the
two systems

Transient phenomenon, i.e. a body never

contains heat
Path function

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

First law of thermodynamics (contd.)

How does it change for a
process?
Consider two separate cycles:
2

A-B:

2
1

1
2

C
1

2
1

Q Q W W
C

Subtract:

Q W Q W
A

A
B

Q Q W W
1
2

C-B:

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

First law of thermodynamics (contd.)

Q W depends only on the
initial and final states => not a
path function (Point function)
Given by E: dE Q W
Property of the mass

A
B

C
1
V

E=Internal energy + Potential energy + Kinetic

energy, i.e.

E U PE KE

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

First law of thermodynamics (contd.)

Integrating
1

Q2 E2 E1 1W2

1Q2 : heat transferred to the control mass from state 1

to 2
1W2 : work done by the control mass during the
process

For negligible changes in KE and PE, change in

E can be written as change in U
u: Internal energy intensive property

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

First law for a control volume (CV)

Steady flow with a given mass
flow rate through the CV
Energy entering = Energy leaving

C12
m u1
z1 g p1v1 Q
2

Source: Eastop and McConkey

C22
W m u2
z2 g p2v2
2

In most problems (unless specified), changes in KE

and PE are negligible.
Define a new property, specific enthalpy (h): h u pv
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

First law for a control volume (CV)

steady-state, steady-flow process (SSSF)

C12
C22
m h1
z1g Q W m h2
z2 g
2
2

Rearranging,
C12
C22
h1
z1 g q w h2
z2 g
2
2

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Availability for the Lab Sessions

Name:
Entry number:
Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

9:30 AM 11:30
AM
2PM - 4PM
3PM - 5PM
4PM - 6PM

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi