6/18/2020 Subcooling - Wikipedia

Subcooling
The term subcooling (also called undercooling) refers to a liquid existing at a temperature below
its normal boiling point. For example, water boils at 373 K; at room temperature (293 K) the water is
termed "subcooled". A subcooled liquid is the convenient state in which, say, refrigerants may
undergo the remaining stages of a refrigeration cycle.[1] Normally, a refrigeration system has a
subcooling stage, allowing technicians to be certain that the quality, in which the refrigerant reaches
the next step on the cycle, is the desired one. Subcooling may take place in heat exchangers and
outside them. Being both similar and inverse processes, subcooling and superheating are important
to determine stability and well-functioning of a refrigeration system.[2]

Contents
Applications
Expansion valve operation and compressor safety
System optimization and energy saving
Natural and artificial subcooling
Economizer and energetic efficiency
Transcritical carbon dioxide systems
See also
References

Applications

Expansion valve operation and compressor safety

Subcooling is normally used so that when the refrigerant reaches

the thermostatic expansion valve, all of it is in its liquid form,
thus allowing the valve to work properly. If gas reaches the
expansion valve a series of unwanted phenomena may occur.[3]
These may end up leading to behaviors similar to those observed
with the flash-gas phenomena: problems in oil regulation
throughout the cycle;[4] excessive and unnecessary misuse of
power and waste of electricity; malfunction and deterioration of
several components in the installation; irregular performance of
the overall systems, and in an unwatched situation, ruined
equipment.
A small diagram of a refrigeration
Another important and common application of subcooling is its
system with mechanical subcooling
indirect use on the superheating process. Superheating is
and superheating coupled by an
analogous to subcooling in an operative way, and both processes
internal heat exchanger (IHX).
can be coupled using an internal heat exchanger. Subcooling here
serves itself from the superheating and vice versa, allowing heat
to flow from the refrigerant at a higher pressure (liquid), to the one with lower pressure (gas). This
creates an energetic equivalence between the subcooling and the superheating phenomena when
there is no energy loss. Normally, the fluid that is being subcooled is hotter than the refrigerant that
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is being superheated, allowing an energy flux in the needed direction. Superheating is critical for the
operation of compressors because a system lacking it may provide the compressor with a liquid gas
mixture, situation that generally leads to the destruction of the gas compressor because liquid is
uncompressible. This makes subcooling an easy and widespread source of heat for the superheating
process.

System optimization and energy saving

Allowing the subcooling process to occur outside the condenser (as with an internal heat exchanger)
is a method of using all of the condensing device's heat exchanging capacity. A huge portion of
refrigeration systems use part of the condenser for subcooling which, though very effective and
simple, may be considered a diminishing factor in the nominal condensing capacity. A similar
situation may be found with superheating taking place in the evaporator, thus an internal heat
exchanger is a good and relatively cheap solution for the maximization of heat exchanging capacity.

Another widespread application of subcooling is boosting and economising. Inversely to

superheating, subcooling, or the amount of heat withdrawn from the liquid refrigerant on the
subcooling process, manifests itself as an increase on the refrigeration capacity of the system. This
means that any extra heat removal after the condensation (subcooling) allows a higher ratio of heat
absorption on further stages of the cycle. Superheating has exactly the inverse effect. An internal heat
exchanger alone is not able to increase the capacity of the system because the boosting effect of
subcooling is dimmed by the superheating, making the net capacity gain equal to zero. Some systems
are able to move refrigerant and/or to remove heat using less energy because they do so on high
pressure fluids that later cool or subcool lower pressure (which are more difficult to cool) fluids.

Natural and artificial subcooling

The subcooling process can happen in many different ways; therefore, it is possible to distinguish
between the different parts in which the process takes places. Normally, subcooling refers to the
magnitude of the temperature drop which is easily measurable, but it is possible to speak of
subcooling in terms of the total heat being removed. The most commonly known subcooling is the
condenser subcooling, which is usually known as the total temperature drop that takes place inside
the condenser, immediately after the fluid has totally condensed, until it leaves the condensing unit.

Condenser subcooling differs from total subcooling usually because after the condenser, throughout
the piping, the refrigerant may naturally tend to cool even more, before it arrives to the expansion
valve, but also because of artificial subcooling.[3] The total subcooling is the complete temperature
drop the refrigerant undergoes from its actual condensing temperature, to the concrete temperature
it has when reaching the expansion valve: this is the effective subcooling.

Natural subcooling is the name normally given to the temperature drop produced inside the
condenser (condenser subcooling), combined with the temperature drop happening through the
pipeline alone, excluding any heat exchangers of any kind. When there is no mechanical subcooling
(i.e. an internal heat exchanger), natural subcooling should equal total subcooling.[5] On the other
hand, mechanical subcooling is the temperature reduced by any artificial process that is deliberately
placed to create subcooling.[1] This concept refers mainly to devices such as internal heat exchangers,
independent subcooling cascades, economisers or boosters.

Economizer and energetic efficiency

Subcooling phenomena is intimately related to efficiency in refrigeration systems. This has led to a lot
of research on the field. Most of the interest is placed in the fact that some systems work in better
conditions than others due to better (higher) operating pressures, and the compressors that take part
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of a subcooling loop are usually more efficient than the compressors that are having their liquid
subcooled.

Economizer capable screw compressors are being built,[6] which require particular manufacturing
finesse. These systems are capable of injecting refrigerant that comes from an internal heat exchanger
instead of the main evaporator, in the last portion of the compressing screws. In the named heat
exchanger, refrigerant liquid at high pressure is subcooled, resulting in mechanical subcooling. There
is also a huge quantity of systems being built in booster display. This is similar to economizing, as the
compressor's efficiency of one of the compressors (the one working on higher pressures) is known to
be better than the other (the compressors working with lower pressures). Economizers and booster
systems usually differ in the fact that the first ones are able to do the same subcooling using only one
compressor able to economize, the latter systems must do the process with two separate compressors.

Besides boosting and economizing, it is possible to produce cascade subcooling systems, able to
subcool the liquid with an analogous and separate system. This procedure is complex and costly as it
involves the use of a complete system (with compressors and all of the gear) only for subcooling. Still,
the idea has raised some investigation as there are some purported benefits. Furthermore, the United
States Department of Energy issued a Federal Technology Alert mentioning refrigerant subcooling as
a reliable way of improving the performance of systems and saving energy.[7] Making this kind of
system operationally independent from the main system and commercially possible is subject to
study due to the mentioned claims. The separation of the subcooling unit from the main cycle (in
terms of design) is not known to be an economically viable alternative. This kind of system usually
requires the use of expensive electronic control systems to monitor the fluid thermodynamic
conditions. Recently, a product capable of increasing the system's capacity by adding mechanical
subcooling to any generic unspecific refrigeration system has been developed in Chile.[8]

The subcooling principle behind all these applications is the fact that, in terms of heat transfer, all the
subcooling is directly added to the cooling capacity of the refrigerant (as superheating would be
directly deducted). As compressors that are subcooling work on this easier conditions, higher
pressure makes their refrigerant cycles more efficient, and the heat withdrawn by this means,
cheaper than the one withdrawn by the main system, in terms of energy.

Transcritical carbon dioxide systems

In a common refrigeration system, the refrigerant undergoes phase changes from gas to liquid and
from liquid back to gas. This enables to consider and discuss superheating and subcooling
phenomena, mainly because gas must be cooled to become liquid and liquid must be heated back to
become gas. As there are little possibilities of completing this for the totality of the flowing refrigerant
without undercooling or overheating, in conventional vapor-compression refrigeration both
processes are unavoidable and always appear.

On the other hand, transcritical systems make the refrigerant go through another state of matter
during the cycle. Particularly, the refrigerant (usually carbon dioxide) does not go through a regular
condensation process but instead passes through a gas cooler in a supercritical phase. To talk about
condensation temperature and subcooling under these conditions is not entirely possible. There is a
lot of actual research on this subject concerning multiple staged processes, ejectors, expanders and
several other devices and upgrades. Gustav Lorentzen outlined some modifications to the cycle
including two staged internal subcooling for these kind of systems.[9] Due to the particular nature of
these systems, the topic of subcooling must be treated accordingly, having in mind that the conditions
of the fluid that leaves the gas cooler in supercritical systems, must be directly specified using
temperature and pressure.[10]

See also
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Heat transfer Carbon dioxide

Economizer Thermal expansion valve
Evaporation Refrigeration cycle
Superheated water Vapor-compression refrigeration
Condenser Evaporator
Screw compressors Condensation
Refrigerant Thermodynamics
List of refrigerants Gustav Lorentzen

References
1. Ibrahim Dinçer, Refrigeration Systems and Applications. John Wiley & Sons, Second Edition,
2010, pp. 169-170. [1] (https://books.google.cl/books?id=WnEqJLuI-hMC&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169
&dq=mechanical+subcooling&source=bl&ots=5Yj-UB0nCC&sig=Rst_f8cwSnJwDNwuNUP95GS
Tv-I&hl=es&ei=0QCZTLv2FcO88ga72KjvDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0
CCkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=mechanical%20subcooling&f=false)
2. Emerson Climate Technologies, Factors to Consider in Converting Compressor Rated Capacity in
Actual Capacity. December 2002, Page 1. [2] (https://opi.emersonclimate.com/CPID/GRAPHICS/
Types/AEB/ae1273.pdf)
3. Access my Library, How Important is Liquid Subcooling? (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-
1G1-11508303/important-liquid-subcooling-includes.html)
4. Kotza International, The Problem of Flash-Gas (http://www.kotza-international.com/site/gb/fdextra
ct/exo3.html)
5. Copeland Scrolls, Scroll Compressors With Vapour Injection for Dedicated Heat Pumps. Page 6.
[3] (http://www.emersonclimate.eu/literature/eCopeland/EN_C060217_AGL_ZHEVI_0.pdf)
6. Bitzer Kühlmaschinenbau GmbH, Bitzer Product Range A-201-2. August 2008, Page 4.
7. Department of Energy of United States of America, Federal Technology Alert: Refrigerant
Subcooling. Pacific Northwest National Library, November 1995.
8. High Beam Research, Chilean Inventor Develops Universal Autonomous Compact Power
System. [4] (https://web.archive.org/web/20121104194840/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-20
90396781.html)
9. Jahar Sarkar, Review on Cycle Modifications of Transcritical CO2 Refrigeration and Heat Pump
Systems. Page 1.
10. Danfoss Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Division, Transcritical Refrigeration Systems with
Carbon Dioxide. July 2008, Page 8.

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