Module 1

Previous University Questions: Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning

PART A

1. Explain the working principle of Bell Coleman cycle.

2. Define COP of refrigerator and Tonne of Refrigeration.
3. Compare the various air cooling systems used for aircraft.
4. Represent the heat engine, heat pump and refrigerator on a common plat form and compare.
5. What is meant by dense air refrigeration system with respect to air cycle refrigeration?
6. Explain why the term COP is more relevant than efficiency in refrigeration?
7. Discuss the merits and demerits of Air refrigeration systems.
8. Define COP and explain energy analysis of a refrigerator.
9. Explain reversed Carnot cycle. Show that COP is always greater that one for heat pump.
10. Explain heat pump cycle.
11. What are the various methods of refrigeration?
12. Write the main advantages of Air cycle refrigeration for Aircraft air conditioning?
13. Derive an expression for COP of an air refrigeration system working on reversed Brayton cycle.
14. Distinguish between a Refrigerator and a Heat pump.
15. Explain briefly an air refrigerator working on a Reversed Carnot cycle and derive an expression
for its COP.
16. Write a note on air refrigeration system.
17. What is the unit of refrigeration? Give definition. What is its equivalent in kW?
18. Mention the main advantage of heat pump compared to resistance heater.
19. Discus various reasons, which necessitate the air conditioning of an aircraft.
20. A cold storage is to be maintained at -5oC while the surroundings are at 35oC. The heat leakage
from the surroundings into the cold storage is estimated to be 29 kW. The actual COP of the
refrigeration plant is 1/3 of an ideal plant working between same temperatures. Find the power
required to drive the plant.
21. A domestic refrigerator is loaded with food and the door closed. During a certain period the
machine consumes 1 kWhr of energy and the internal energy of the system drops by 5000 kJ.
Find the net heat transfer for the system.

PART B

1. With a neat sketch explain the working of a Bell-Colemann cycle.

2. Discuss various methods of refrigeration briefly.
3. A certain machine works on reversed carnot cycle between temperature limits of -10oC and 27oC.
find its COP when working as :
(a) A refrigerating machine (b) Heat pump (c) Heat engine
4. A reversed carnot cycle is used for heating and cooling purpose. If the work supplied is 9.5 kW
and COP is 3.6 for cooling, find:
(a) TL/TH (b) Refrigerating effect in tonnes of refrigeration (c) COP for heating
5. A refrigerator of 10 TR capacity operates on reversed carnot cycle. The temperature limits are
40oC and -10oC. Calculate COP of system and power required.
6. An inventor claims to have developed a refrigerator which maintains the refrigerated space at
-5oC which operating in a room when temperature is 26oC and has a COP of 8.4. Find out whether
the claim is correct or not.
7. A 1 ton refrigerating machine works on reversed carnot cycle. It requires 1.75 kW to maintain
low evaporator temperature of 250 K. Find COP of the machine working as:
(a) Refrigerator (b) Heat pump (c) Temperature at which heat is rejected
8. The power required for a carnot refrigerator is 2kW per ton of refrigeration to maintain -40oC in
the refrigerator. Find COP of cycle, temperature of sink and Heat rejected to sink per ton of
refrigeration.
9. The capacity of a refrigerator is 70 kW when working between -6oC and 25oC. Determine the
mass of ice produced per day from water at 25oC. Also find the power required to drive the unit.
Assume that the cycle operates on reversed carnot cycle and the latent heat of ice is 335 kJ/kg.
10. A refrigerating system operates on reversed carnot cycle produces 500 kg/hr ice at -5oC from
water at 25oC. Calculate the capacity in TR, power required for driving the machine and heat
rejected from the system in kW. Assume no heat losses. Take latent heat of freezing = 335 kJ/kg,
specific heat of ice = 2.1 kJ/kgoC.
11. A refrigeration system produces 10kg/hr of ice at -10oC from water available at 25oC. Find
refrigeration capacity of the system in ton of refrigeration. The latent heat of ice can be taken as
335 kJ/kg. Specific heats of water and ice are 4.18 and 1.9 kJ/kg.K respectively.
12. A reversible heat engine operates between two reservoirs at temperatures 700oC and 50oC. The
engine drives a reversible refrigerator which operates between reservoirs at 50oC and -25oC. The
heat transfer to the engine is 2500 kJ and the net work output of the combined system is 400 kJ.
Determine the net heat transfer to the reservoir at 50oC. What will be this heat transfer if the
efficiency of the heat engine and COP of the refrigerator are each 45% of their maximum possible
values?
13. An ice plant working on a reversed carnot cycle heat pump produces 15 tons of ice per day. The
ice is formed from water at 0oC and the formed ice is maintained at 0oC. The heat is rejected to
the atmosphere at 25oC. The heat pump used to run the ice plant is coupled to a carnot engine
which absorbs heat from a source which is maintained at 220oC by burning a fuel of calorific
value 44500 kJ/kg and rejects the heat to atmosphere. Determine (a) Power developed by the
engine (b) Fuel consumed/hr. Enthalpy of fusion of ice = 334 kJ/kg.
14. A carnot engine receives heat at Ta and rejects heat to a sink at Tb. This engine drives a carnot
refrigerator which removes the heat at Tc and rejects heat at Tb. Determine:
(a) The ratio Qc/Qa where
Qc=Heat removed at Tc
Qa=Heat received at Ta
(b) If Ta=300 C and Tc=-20oC, determine Tb such that Qa (heat supplied to the engine) = Qc (heat
o

removed by the refrigerator)

(c) Determine the engine and COPref for the given conditions in (b)
15. A dense air refrigeration cycle operates between pressures of 4 bar and 16 bar. The air
temperature after heat rejection to the surroundings is 37oC and air temperature at exit of
refrigerator is 7oC. Determine the isentropic efficiencies of compressor and turbine, work per
Tonne of Refrigeration, COP and power per tonne of refrigeration. Assume =1.4 and Cp =1005
J/Kg K.
16. An air refrigeration system works between the pressure limits of 1 bar and 5 bar. The
temperatures of the air entering the compressor and expander cylinder are 10oC and 25oC
respectively. The expander and compressor follow the law PV1.3=C for expansion and
compression. Find the following:
(a) Theoretical COP of Air refrigeration cycle
(b) If the load on the refrigeration machine is 10 TR, find the amount of air circulated per minute
through the system assuming that actual COP is 50% of the theoretical COP.
(c) The stroke length and piston diameter of single acting compressor if the compressor runs at
300 rpm and the volumetric efficiency is 85%. Assume L/d = 1.5, Cp=1005 J/kg K and
Cv=0.71 kJ/Kg K.
17. A dense air refrigeration cycle operates between 5 bar and 20 bar. The air temperature after heat
rejection to surroundings is 37oC and air temperature at exit to refrigerator is 7oC. The isentropic
efficiencies of compressor and turbine are 0.84 and 0.82 respectively. Determine:
(a) Compressor and turbine work per tonne of refrigeration
(b) COP
(c) Power per tonne of refrigeration
18. The pressure ratio across the compressor of an air standard Bell-Coleman cycle is 5 to 1. The
pressure of air entering compressor is 1 bar and temperature 283 K. Air enters the expansion
cylinder at 298 K. The expansion and compression follow the law PV1.3=constant. Assume a loss
of 0.1 bar between the compressor and expander. Determine the following:
(a) Work of compression and expansion per kg
(b) COP of the cycle
(c) Power Developed of compression and expansion per kg
19. An air refrigerator used for food storage requires 150 kW for its operation. The temperature of air
entering the compressor is 10oC and the temperature of air entering the expansion cylinder is
30oC. The air circulated is 3000 kg per hour. Assuming that 40% additional power is required
than theoretical, determine the following:
(a) Capacity of the refrigerator
(b) Theoretical COP of the cycle
(c) Temperature of air entering the food storage
20. In an open type of refrigeration installation, 1000 kg of atmospheric air is circulated per hour. The
air is drawn from the cold chamber at the temperature of 7oC and 1.01325 bar and then
compressed isentropically to 5 bar. It is then cooled at this pressure to 27oC and then led to the
expansion turbine where it expands isentropically down to 1.01325 bar and is discharged to the
cold chamber. Find out:
(a) Refrigeration capacity
(b) Heat rejected to cooling water in the cooler
(c) COP of the system
21. Air at 1 bar and temperature -5oC is drawn from a cold chamber into the cylinder of the
compressor of a Bell-Coleman refrigeration system. It is compressed isentropically to a pressure
of 5 bar and it is then cooled into a cooler to 15oC. It is then expanded to a pressure of 1 bar in an
expansion cylinder from where it is passed to the cold chamber. Assume polytropic index for
compression as 1.3 and for expansion as 1.2. The specific heat of air at constant pressure is taken
as 1.005 kJ/kg K.
22. An air refrigeration plant operating on Bell-Colemann cycle takes in air from cold room at -6oC
and compresses it from 1.04 bar and 6.2 bar. The index of compression being 1.28. The
compressed air is cooled to 25oC. The ambient temperature is 18oC. Air expands in an expander
with an index of 1.38. Determine (a) COP of the system (b) Quantity of air circulated per minute
for the production of 1500 kg of ice/day at 0oC from water at 18oC (c) Capacity of the plant.
Cpw=4.18 kJ/kgK, Cpa=1.003 kJ/kgK, Latent heat of ice = 3.34 kJ/kg.
23. A Bell-Coleman cycle works between 1 bar and 6 bar. Compression follows PV1.25=C and
expansion follows PV1.3=C. Find COP and capacity of unit in tons of refrigeration if the air flow
is 0.5 kg/s. Assume compression and expansion begin at 7oC and 37oC respectively. Neglect
clearance.
24. An open air-refrigeration cycle is required to produce 6 tonnes if refrigerating effect with a cooler
pressure of 11 bar absolute and a refrigerated space pressure of 1.05 bar. The temperature of air
leaving the cooler is 38oC and the air leaving the room is at 16oC. Calculate:
(a) Mass of air circulated/min
(b) Compressor and expander displacement/min
(c) COP
(d) Power required per tonne of refrigeration
25. A Bell-Colemann refrigeration cycle works between 1 bar and 5 bar. The adiabatic efficiency of
compression is 85% and expansion is 90%. Find out the COP of the system and its tonnage when
the air flow rate is 1 kg/sec. The ambient temperature is 27oC and refrigerator temperature is 0oC.
26. A dense air based Bell-Coleman system working between 4 bar and 16 bar extracts 125 MJ/hr.
The air enters the compressor at 5oC and enters the expander at 23oC. The compressor is double
acting and its stroke is 30 cm, mechanical efficiencies of compressor and expander are 0.85
respectively. For air Cp=1.005 kJ/kg K, R=287 J/Kg K and =1.4. Assuming the unit runs at 300
rpm, find:
(a) Power required to run the unit
(b) Bore of the compressor
(c) Refrigerating capacity in tonnes. Assuming isentropic expansion and compression.
27. An aircraft moving with a speed of 1000 kmph uses simple gas refrigeration cycle for air
conditioning. The ambient pressure and temperature are 0.35 bar and -10oC respectively. The
pressure ratio of compressor is 4.5. The heat exchanger effectiveness is 0.95. The isentropic
efficiencies of compressor and expander are 0.8 each. The cabin pressure and temperature are
1.06 bar and 25oC. Determine temperature and pressures at all points of cycle. Also find the
volume flow rate through the compressor inlet and expander outlet for 100 Ton of refrigeration.
Assume Cp=1005 J/kg K, R=287 J/Kg K, =1.4 for air and 1 TR = 3.5 kW.