AIR RECIRCULATION THROUGH

A DUCT-ROOM SYSTEM

JANIRU WIJESURIYA
STUDENT I.D = 18894859

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CONTENTS
OBJECTIVE:.............................................................................................................................1
APPARATUS:...........................................................................................................................1
PROCEDURE:...........................................................................................................................2
CALCULATIONS & RESULTS:..............................................................................................3

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1. OBJECTIVE:
Objective of the lab is to observe the flow of the air through the Air conditioning unit, for the
determination of the losses of the heat at different stages in the air duct. This lab work
includes two tests. In the First experiment test Exp.A, air will move in the unit and it enters
the room and then passes through the room. While in the Exp,B cyclic system for the Air duct
will be done.

2. APPARATUS:
The computer software controls apparatus used for the experiment. This apparatus has
sensors used to determine the temperature at the different positions. For this apparatus there
are five sensors are installed at different positions. These positions are identified by certain
name like T1 to T5. There are two extra devices are also installed for the measurement of the
velocities. These points are marked as U1 and U2. These sensors for velocity measurement are
installed at room inlet, which is imaginary, and the second one is installed at the exit position
of recycle louvre. Therefore, this apparatus helps to get the idea of air velocity, temperature
and relative humidity of the air in the certain area. The area of the duct is about 0.04 m 2. This
is shown in the following figure,

Figure 1: Recirculation air duct apparatus

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 Figure 2: schematic diagram of apparatus

3. PROCEDURE:

 For this particular task, re-heater unit and air conditioning system kept off.
 Preheater was used to warm the air.
 For the first part of the experiment EXP.A, air conditioning unit was kept ON. In this
step, louvers and inlet points were fully opened. On the other hand, recycle louver
was kept closed. This was done to prevent the movement of the air towards outside
and to stop it to move again to inlet.
 For the second part of the experiment, EXP.B, inlet and outlet louvres were kept
close. This was done to make the air duct cycling.
 Then reading for the EXP.B were taken. These readings were taken with the help of
the software.
 The fan speed for the EXP.A was set as 59% of the full speed of the fan. On the other
hand, inlet heater was set at 58% of the full power of the heater.
 Then waited for the setting to make the process stable. For this purpose computer
software was used. This helped to take the readings at particular points with specific
intervals.
 Same steps were repeated for the EXP.B.

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4. CALCULATIONS & RESULTS:
Student I.D = 18894859
Last Digit of the student ID = 9

Heat losses can be calculated with the help of the following equation
¿
∆ Q2−4 =m ( c p 2 T 2−c p 4 T 4 )

And m can be calculated as follows,

¿
m =ρVA

In this equations, m is the mass flow rate. Whereas C p is the coefficient for the performance.
T represents the temperature, and is taken in the kelvin scale. V is the velocity and A is the
area of the duct. Mass flow rate can be calculated as follows,
V =0.66088 m/s
A = 0.04m2
Now the density of the air is calculated by the following formula,
P
ρ=
RT
101325
ρ=
287∗( 25+273 )
3
¿ 1.184727 kg /m
Now the mass flow rate will become
m ¿ =ρVA=¿

m¿ =1.1847∗0.66088∗0.04
¿ kg
m =0.031318
sec

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EXPERIMENT A:
 Fan speed = 50+9 =59%
 Preheater power = 40+2x9 = 58%
 Preheater power = 60+2x9 = 78%
General data for the experiment EXP.A is given in the following table,
TABLE 1: Initial data for the experiments.

Power
Speed
of the
of the
prehea
fan
ter (%)
(%) V1 V2 T1 T2 T3
EXP relativ T4 (°C) T5 (°C)
relativ (m/s) (m/s) (°C) (°C) (°C)
e to
e to
the
full
full
speed
power
0.6608 28.075 28.01
A 59 58 0 25 27.5472 27.0799
8 2 45
0.6629 29.465 29.37
A 59 78 0 25 28.6903 28.0045
9 1 62

Coefficient of the performance is calculated on the basis of the temperature and is given as
follows,
−2 −5 2 −9 3
28.11+0.1967∗10 T + 0.4802∗10 T −0.1966∗10 T
c p=
28.97
The specific heat at the corresponding positions can be calculated as
Coefficient of performance: Coefficient of performance at the different temperature
conditions is given as follows,
TABLE 2: Performance coefficient at different temperatures.

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 cp1 cp2 cp3 cp4 cp5

298 301.07 301.01 300.54 300.07 1.0050 1.0055 1.0055 1.0055 1.0054
52 45 72 99 88 97 87 09 32
298 302.46 302.37 301.69 301.00 1.0050 1.0058 1.0058 1.0056 1.0055
51 62 03 45 88 27 13 99 85

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 Heat losses: heat losses can be calculated with the help of the following formula,
∆ Q2−4 =m¿ ( c p 2 T 2−c p 4 T 4 )

Where as ∆ Q2−4 is the heat losses between the points 2 and 4 and c p∧T ❑ are the
performance coefficient and temperatures at corresponding points.
∆ Q2−4 =0.031318 ( 1.005597∗301.0752−1.005509∗300.5472 )

∆ Q2−4 =¿0.017453kW

Similarly, heat losses for the points 4 and 5 are also calculated as follows,
¿
∆ Q 4−5=m ( c p 4 T 4−c p 5 T 5 )

∆ Q 4−5=0.031318 ( 1.005509∗300.5472−1.005432∗300.0799 )

∆ Q 4−5=0.015444 kW

Heat supplied by preheater : heat supplied for this test is calculated by calculating
the gain in the heat gain between the stage1 and stage 2. Relation for the calculation
of the heat supplied by the heater is calculated as follows,
¿
Qheat supplied =∆ Q 1−2=m ( c p 2 T 2 −c p 1 T 1 )

T 1=298 K

kJ
c p 1=1.005088
kgK
T 2=301.0752 K

kJ
c p 2=1.005597
kgK
Qheat supplied =∆ Q1−2=0.031318372∗( 1.005597∗301.0752−1.005088∗298 )

Qheat supplied =∆ Q1−2=0.101595598kJ

TABLE 3: Heat losses.

Q(2-4) Q(4-5)
Q Q(2-5) % loss
preheater
0.017453 0.015444 0.101596 0.032897 0.323804
0.025704 0.022748 0.148026 0.048451 0.327316

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RESULTS FOR EX. A:
Results for the first experiment EXP.A is given in the following table,
CONCLUSIONS:
 For the EXP.A , increase in the temperature T 2 will results in the loss of the heat at all
points throughout the air duct.
 When the temperature was increases from 28.075C to 29.4651C, then heat loss was
observed in the air duct from 0.01544kJ to 0.02278kJ.
 This concludes that increase in the temperature at any stage will results in the loss of
the heat. Percentage heat losses are given in the above table.

EXPERIMENT B:
 Fan speed = 50+9 =59%
 Preheater power = 40+9 = 49%
 Preheater power = 50+9 = 59%
 Preheater power = 60+9 = 69%
The heat losses between the two stages is calculated by the same methods as done in the
experiment A.
TABLE 4.1: Data for EXP.B

Speed of the fan (%) relative to Power of the preheater (%)

EX
full speed relative to the full power
B 59 49
B 59 59
B 59 69

TABLE 4.2: Data for EXP.B

mass
density flow T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
rate
1.1498 0.0307 307.04 309.83 309.54 309.34 307.61
36 8 28 35 79 85 92
1.1424 0.0306 309.01 312.43 312.08 311.75 309.78
94 44 6 05 24 9 63
1.1345 0.0293 311.19 315.42 315.01 314.52 312.08
04 07 22 57 39 5 07

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 TABLE 5: results for EXP.B

cp1 cp2 cp3 cp4 cp5 Q Q(5-1) Q(4-5) Q(2-3) Q(3-4) Q all
preheat
er
1.0065 1.0070 1.0070 1.0069 1.0066 0.0909 0.0187 0.0563 0.0093 0.0065 0.0909
92 62 13 8 89 42 76 52 12 02 42
1.0069 1.0075 1.0074 1.0073 1.0070 0.1108 0.0249 0.0640 0.0113 0.0105 0.1108
24 01 42 87 54 8 99 62 11 08 8
1.0072 1.0080 1.0079 1.0078 1.0074 0.1316 0.0276 0.0759 0.0128 0.0152 0.1316
91 1 39 56 41 18 03 93 15 06 18

CONCLUSIONS:
 The heat losses for the EXP.B were calculated as about zero.
 This zero heat loss was due to the reason that air was rotated in the cyclic conditions.
 This would make the zero heat loss which is according to conservation of the energy
in the cyclic system.
 Increase in the temperature like T2, there were heat losses. These heat losses was due
to the increase in the temperature.
 On the other hand, cyclic action of the system would make the overall heat losses to
zero.
COMPARISON:
 From the above results, it was concluded that there is heat losses with the increase in
the temperature.
 However, for the EXP.B, the overall heat losses were zero and there is no
conservation of the energy case for the EXP.A.
 temperature values for the EXP.B were high as compared to EXP.A. there was major
difference in the heat losses for the stages 4 and 5.
 For the EXP.A, heat losses for this particular stage, there was less heat losses as
compared to the EXP.B.

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