Refrigeration is an important part of engineering and life generally. It is a process of extracting heat from a confinement using a medium called a refrigerant.
A Refrigerator is a device that is use to reduce the temperature of a confined area to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room.
Its no suprise that most people have refrigerator at homes, office etc but not too many people knows how it works. In this post, I'll be explaining just how the parts of a refrigerator works to produce it cooling effect.
see also how an air conditioner works
The refrigerator has four important parts, they are the compressor, condenser, capilliary tube (aka expansion valve or throttle valve) and the evaporator.
Gas is drawn at low pressure and low temperature through a line. The gas is compressed by the compressor using electricity to a higher pressure and its temperature rises (just like a bicycle pump which gets warmer when you are pumping up a tyre). It is then transferred to a condenser where the heat is removed and a phase change is experienced as the gas begins to condense into a liquid. The heat is released via cooling fins on the back of the refrigerator unit, that is why the condenser is always placed outside.
The liquid refrigerant then goes through an expansion valve and its pressure is suddenly lowered as well as the temperature, it expands and some of the liquid turns very quickly into a vapour.
This change of state has a cooling effect. Now the vapour and liquid refrigerant exchange it coldness for heat by absorbing the heat in the cabinet of the refrigerator through an evaporator. The liquid refrigerant turns back into a low temperature and low pressure gas on absorption of heat. The cycle starts over again from the compressor.
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