The experimental unit includes all the necessary components for a fully operational refrigeration circuit, such as compressor, condenser, evaporator and a capillary tube as expansion element. Other components complement the scope of the equipment: display and control panel, pressure switches and pressure display to protect the compressor against excessive pressure and a flow meter and sight glass with filter/drier. Condenser and evaporator are each present twice: as air/refrigerant heat exchanger and as water/refrigerant heat exchanger. This allows for different component combinations.
The components are mounted on plates and form installation-ready modules. 6 of the 8 modules are positioned in the frame at
any one time and connected via hoses and supply cables. This allows for the construction of different simple compression refrigeration systems. For filling the system the refrigerant filling and evacuation equipment is recommended.
In experiments the processes in the equipment and the changes in the refrigerant state are initially demonstrated. Continued experiments allow the use of the equipment as a refrigeration system and as a heat pump. Pressures, flow rates power consumption of the compressor are displayed as important characteristic variables of refrigeration circuits. The temperature is measured by inter laboratory thermometers.
The well-structured instructional material sets out the fundamentals and provides a step-by-step guide through the
experiments.
The unit shall perform the following experiments and investigations:
Learning Objectives / Experiments
Fundamentals of a simple refrigeration circuit
Detection and understanding of the cyclic process
Changes of state of the refrigerant
Representation the refrigeration circuit in the process schematic
Representation of the cyclic process in the log p-h diagram
Estimating key figures, refrigeration capacity and heat fluxes
Different operating modes air cooling
Generating cold water
Heat pump (generate hot water)
Practical exercises
Draining and filling the refrigeration system (with evacuation equipment set )
Fault finding
Specification
Setup of simple refrigeration circuits with different components
8 self-contained operational modules mounted on a plate each
Light-weight aluminium frame to arrange 6 modules
Evaporator and condenser each available as air/refrigerant heat exchanger (finned tube heat exchanger) and as water/refrigerant heat exchanger (with pipe coil)