Simple explaination
Refrigerators… refrigerators… refrigerators. They refrigerate our food.
Why? All food has bacteria and under cool temperatures bacterial growth is slowed resulting in longer lasting food. Many don't think about how this cooling works or why it works, but this cooling feature is more complex and interesting than many think. Refrigeration is undoubtedly tied in with thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is what makes refrigeration work. |
Cycle
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Refrigerants are the main component in a refrigerator that enables refrigerators to stay cool. Refrigerants are liquids that have a low boiling temperature, close to that of the target temperature, and a high heat of vaporization. Think of water on your hands after washing them. As time goes on they get colder, right? This is because of evaporation. Evaporation causes the molecules to escape into the air taking some of the heat transferred to them with it. This is somewhat how refrigerants work.
It starts with the liquid line solenoid valve that holds the refrigerant and insures that it doesn't leak into other parts of the refrigerator. Once electricity begins activating the valve to allow refrigerant to begin flowing into the system. From there, the liquid flows into the thermal expansion valve a "security guard" that regulates the amount of refrigerant going into the evaporator. It does this by determining the superheat (vapor temperature - saturation temperature) using sensing bulbs making for a perfect guard.
After passing the thermal expansion valve, the liquid goes into the evaporator. Heat is absorbed by the evaporator which heats the liquid resulting in it turning into a gas. The heat is then transferred to the gas as it begins to heat up.
The gas is then pushed to the compressor which captures the vapor from the evaporator and then pushes it on to the condenser which pressurizes the vapor, increasing its boiling point, making the refrigerant turn back into a liquid. Think of a single molecule of water all it is, is just a group of vapor molecules together. The condenser essentially pushes these floating vapor molecules together, making a liquid. During this process the refrigerant will give up its latent heat, or heat added to boil liquids, which flows out to the air outside.
Once back into a liquid, it is contained so that it can be reused in the next contiguous process that is refrigeration. This is where thermodynamics all comes together providing energy from an outside sources to move and activate mechanisms in the refrigerator and where the energy is used and how it affects the heat, pressure, and temperature of the mechanisms in the refrigerator.
It starts with the liquid line solenoid valve that holds the refrigerant and insures that it doesn't leak into other parts of the refrigerator. Once electricity begins activating the valve to allow refrigerant to begin flowing into the system. From there, the liquid flows into the thermal expansion valve a "security guard" that regulates the amount of refrigerant going into the evaporator. It does this by determining the superheat (vapor temperature - saturation temperature) using sensing bulbs making for a perfect guard.
After passing the thermal expansion valve, the liquid goes into the evaporator. Heat is absorbed by the evaporator which heats the liquid resulting in it turning into a gas. The heat is then transferred to the gas as it begins to heat up.
The gas is then pushed to the compressor which captures the vapor from the evaporator and then pushes it on to the condenser which pressurizes the vapor, increasing its boiling point, making the refrigerant turn back into a liquid. Think of a single molecule of water all it is, is just a group of vapor molecules together. The condenser essentially pushes these floating vapor molecules together, making a liquid. During this process the refrigerant will give up its latent heat, or heat added to boil liquids, which flows out to the air outside.
Once back into a liquid, it is contained so that it can be reused in the next contiguous process that is refrigeration. This is where thermodynamics all comes together providing energy from an outside sources to move and activate mechanisms in the refrigerator and where the energy is used and how it affects the heat, pressure, and temperature of the mechanisms in the refrigerator.