In this article we will discuss about the working of refrigeration cycle with the help of a diagram.
In order for lowering the temperature of a body below that of its surroundings and then maintain it, a continuous extraction of the heat from the body is required. This is done by a mechanism called the refrigeration system. The total amount of heat being rejected to the outside body consists of two parts i.e. heat extracted from the body to be cooled and the heat equivalent to the mechanical work required for extracting it.
The working of refrigeration cycle is illustrated in Fig. 6.1. The refrigeration cycle starts from the evaporator inlet (1) in which low pressure liquid undergoes expansion, absorbs heat and evaporator changing to a low pressure vapour at the outlet of the evaporation (2). During the process of expansion, about 20 – 25% of the refrigerant changes to vapour. The compressor (3) sucks this vapour from the evaporator and increases in pressure. It is then discharged to the condenser (4) where the heat is removed from the vapour and condensed into liquid.
Now the refrigerant moves into drier, which prevents the plugging of flow control device by dirt and moisture etc. and then refrigerant flow into the evaporator continued and this process continues till a temperature control device i.e. thermostat stops the compressor. When the temperature again increases, the compressor starts once again and again cycle is continued.
