Principles of Tropical Air Conditioning

© 2013 Chris A. Ibe and Emmanuel E. Anyanwu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the authors.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/23/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4772-4218-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-4219-3 (e)

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Contents

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

PREFACE TO THE 2nd EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION TO REFRIGERATION

1.1   BRIEF HISTORY OF REFRIGERATION

1.2   REFRIGERATION APPLICATIONS

1.4   EARLY AIR CONDITIONING

1.5   AIR CONDITIONING APPLICATIONS

1.6   AIR CONDITIONING IN TROPICAL AFRICA

CHAPTER TWO

2.0   SYSTEM OF UNITS AND CONVERSION FACTORS

2.1   BASE UNITS

2.2   SUPPLEMENTARY UNITS

2.3   DERIVED UNITS

2.4   S.I. Prefixes and Multiplication Factors

2.5   CONVERSIONS

2.6   SOME CONVERSION EXAMPLES

2.7   SOME BASIC RULES APPLIED IN SI UNITS

CHAPTER THREE

3.0   BASIC CONCEPTS OF THERMAL COMFORT

3.1   FACTORS AFFECTING THERMAL COMFORT

3.2   THERMAL EXCHANGES BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE SURROUNDING AIR

3.4   THE GENERAL HEAT BALANCE EQUATION

3.5   METABOLIC HEAT PRODUCTION

3.6   THERMAL RESISTANCE OF CLOTHING

3.7   DRY BULB TEMPERATURE (DBT)

3.8   AIR HUMIDITY

3.9   MEAN RADIANT TEMPERATURE (MRT)

3.10   AIR MOVEMENT

3.11   ENVIRONMENTAL INDICES

3.12   THE FANGER COMFORT EQUATION

3.13    Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD).

3.14   SELECTING THE INTERIOR DESIGN CONDITIONS OF AN ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0   CLIMATIC DATA AND BUILDING DESIGN

4.1   DESIGN CONDITIONS

4.2   SOLAR RADIATION

4.3   SUNSHINE DURATION

4.4   LOCAL WINDS

4.5   AIR TEMPERATURE

4.6   HUMIDITY

4.7   PRECIPITATION

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0   HEAT TRANSMISSION IN BUILDING FABRICS

5.1   MEANS OF HEAT TRANSFER

5.2   APPLICATIONS OF HEAT TRANSFER MODES IN AIR CONDITIONING AND REFRIGERATION

5.3    STEADY STATE HEAT CONDUCTION IN BUILDING FABRICS

5.4    THERMAL RESISTANCE ( Rth )

5.5    THERMAL TRANSMITTANCE (U-VALUE)

5.6   THERMAL CONDUCTANCE

CHAPTER SIX

6.0   AIR CONDITIONING HEAT GAIN

6.1   LOAD ESTIMATING

6.2    CLASSIFICATION OF HEAT GAINS

6.3   TRANSMISSION HEAT GAIN THROUGH BUILDING FABRICS

6.4    SOL-AIR TEMPERATURE

6.5   EQUIVALENT TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE METHOD

6.6    THE CIBS METHOD

6.7    HEAT GAIN THROUGH ROOFS

6.8   UNCONDITIONED INTERIOR PARTITIONS

6.9    GROUND TEMPERATURE

6.10    GLAZING

6.11    ELECTRIC LIGHTING, MOTORS AND OTHER APPLIANCES

6.12    PEOPLE

6.13   OUTSIDE AIR LOAD

6.14    SAFETY FACTOR

6.15    SUMMARY OF LOAD ESTIMATION PROCEDURE

CHAPTER SEVEN

7.0   BASIC PROPERTIES OF MOIST AIR PSYCHROMETRY

7.1   The Constituents of Outdoor Air

7.2   Ideal Gas Laws

7.3   BASIC TERMINOLOGIES USED IN PSYCHROMETRY

7.4   The Psychrometric Chart

CHAPTER EIGHT

8.0   PSYCHROMETRIC PROCESSES IN AIR CONDITIONING APPLICATION

8.1    SENSIBLE COOLING OF AIR

8.2   SENSIBLE HEATING OF AIR

8.3   COOLING with DEHUMIDIFICATION

8.4   CHEMICAL DEHUMIDIFICATION

8.5   HUMIDIFICATION

8.6   STEAM ADDITION

8.7   MIXTURE OF TWO AIR STREAMS

8.8    ADIABATIC SATURATION

8.9    AIR CONDITIONING APPLICATIONS

8.10   CHOICE OF SUPPLY AIR CONDITIONS

8.11   SENSIBLE HEAT FACTOR

8.12    TYPICAL AIR CONDITIONING LAYOUT

8.13    REHEATING

8.14   CONTACT FACTOR

CHAPTER NINE

9.0    AIR DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

9.1    MAIN COMPONENTS OF AN AIR DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

9.2   DEFINITIONS

9.3   Methods of Air Distribution

9.4   TYPES OF AIR DIFFUSION EQUIPMENT

9.5   RETURN AIR GRILLES

9.6   NOISE LEVELS IN ROOM AIR DISTRIBUTION

CHAPTER TEN

10.0    DUCTWORK DESIGN

10.1   Bernoulli Equation

10.2   OBJECTIVES OF A GOOD DUCT DESIGN

10.3   GENERAL RULES FOR DUCT DESIGN

10.4   IMPORTANT FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN DUCT DESIGN

10.5   PRESSURE LOSSES IN FITTINGS

10.6   SUPPLY VELOCITY

10.7   DUCT HEAT GAIN AND AIR LEAKAGE

10.8   FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL

10.9   CAPITAL AND RUNNING COST OF DUCTWORK

10.10   SYSTEM BALANCING

10.11   DUCT SIZING

10.12   VELOCITY REDUCTION METHOD

10.13   EQUAL FRICTION METHOD

10.14   THE STATIC REGAIN METHOD

10.15   RETURN AIR DUCT SIZING

10.16   STEPS IN DUCTWORK DESIGN

10.17   DUCT INSULATION

10.18   TYPES OF DUCT INSULATING MATERIALS

10.19    FANS

10.20   CENTRIFUGAL FANS

10.21   AXIAL (PROPELLER) FANS

10.22   FAN AND SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

10.23   FAN SELECTION

CHAPTER ELEVEN

11.0   PRINCIPLES OF THE VAPOUR COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION

11.1    CARNOT CYCLE

11.2    VAPOUR COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION CYCLE

11.3    COEFFICIENT OF PERFORMANCE, COP

11.4    LIMITS TO COP

11.5    PRACTICAL VAPOUR COMPRESSION CYCLE

11.6    Analysis of Cycle

11.7    REFRIGERANTS

11.8    SELECTION OF REFRIGERANTS

11.9    SECONDARY REFRIGERANTS

11.10    REFRIGERATION LUBRICATING OILS

11.11    PROPERTIES OF OIL

CHAPTER TWELVE

12.0   REFRIGERATION LOAD ESTIMATING

12.1   INTRODUCTION

12.2   SOURCES OF HEAT GAIN

12.3   TRANSMISSION LOAD

12.4   PRODUCT LOAD

12.5   INFILTRATION LOAD

12.6   RADIATION LOAD

12.7   MISCELLANEOUS LOADS

12.8   SAFETY FACTOR

12.9   EQUIPMENT SELECTION

12.10 COMPRESSOR OPERATING TIME

12.11   Cold Room Insulation

12.12   Types of Insulating Materials

Appendices

DEDICATION

This book is humbly dedicated to:

Mrs. Charity Ngozi Ibe (1952-1987) whose memory will always be evergreen,

Chief (Mrs.) Olive Chinna Ibe

Dr. (Mrs.) Patience N. Anyanwu

And all our children

FOREWORD

Improving standard of living has, almost everywhere, pushed mankind into taking comfort air conditioning as a vital normal aspect of life. In consequence, refrigeration and air conditioning have become the entire pursuit of some industries; hence universities and polytechnics include these as part of their syllabuses.

This book will be found invaluable to students, useful to practicing air conditioning personnel and helpful to teachers of the subject. The S. I. system of units is adopted with some conversion multipliers included for the benefit of those still operating in the B. S. system of units.

The opening chapters, though general, are as important to practitioners as they are to students. Similar observations may be made on Air Distribution Systems and Ductwork Design of Chapters 9 and 10 respectively. The rest of the book is no less important.

As Nigerians, the authors constantly keep the humid tropics in view, thus the emphasis is on cooling and dehumidification.

This book contains a reasonable number of worked examples and some unsolved problems. They are all realistic and will appeal to students.

With some 30 years of teaching the subject, I strongly recommend this book to students and engineers throughout the English-speaking areas within the Tropics.

Professor Clifford C. O. Ezeilo

B.Sc., Ph.D (Leeds), Brown Snr. Sch., MNSE, FSESN,

Member, ASEE, ASHRAE, I.S.E.S., and Tech. Committee,

Nigerian Standards on Refrigeration and Air Conditioning.

PREFACE TO THE 2nd EDITION

Within the last five decades, the role of air conditioning (and of course refrigeration) in creating a thermally comfortable and stimulating indoor climate has assumed new dimensions in developing third-world countries located in the tropics. These include Central and South America, the Caribbean Islands, West and Central Africa, Indo-China, the Philippines and Burma. Consequently, governments, organizations and indeed private individuals have made heavy investments in this apparently new but rapidly expanding industry.

However, there is an amazing dearth of information on air conditioning practice in the tropics, where incidentally air conditioning should find its widest acceptance. The problem has been further compounded by the prohibitive prices of the few foreign texts (mainly of United States origin) that are available in these third-world countries. The former Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA), Mr. Paul M. Nyambala, lists the problem of the non-availability of technical texts as a major draw-back to tertiary education in the continent. According to Mr. Nyambala, African scholars were yet to publish books on technical subjects and the shortage of foreign exchange had slowed down the importation of such books. This book is an attempt to address the issue.

Against this background, the warm reception which the first edition of this book received all over Nigeria and the tropics, provided the impetus for this revision. All the chapters have been painstakingly revised and updated including a number of worked examples and unsolved problems to illustrate application of the basic principles.

The scope of the present edition is well within the needs of students working for Diploma, degree and/or professional examinations in Building Services and Refrigeration.

It is particularly suitable for students in the new Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) degree approved by the National Universities Commission. For the practicing engineer, in addition, parameters and data are provided as quick reference materials to facilitate his work in practice

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge the kind assistance of a number of persons and organizations who contributed to the production of this work.

Sincere thanks are expressed to successive generations of colleagues and students at the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria where most of the information published were developed from the authors’ lecture notes.

While references to published works are acknowledged where they occur, the authors would wish to particularly mention the underlisted organizations for their kind permission in the use of technical data from their sources for this work:

The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE)

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE),

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),

Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, NY

Thomas Publishing Services, Andover, Hants, U.K.

Grateful thanks are extended to Professor Cliford C.O. Ezeilo of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for not only permitting the generous use of his psychometric chart and tables, but also for actually suggesting the commencement of the initial work. Helpful comments were received from Engr. Uche U. Oteh of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. Special mention is made of Messrs Ambrose Okoro and Herbert Onyewuchi who assisted in procuring useful reference materials from USA.

The authors sincerely thank Miss Leticia Ebom of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, for word processing the manuscript, Engr. Ekundayo Oluwole for his painstaking efforts at proofreading the text, and AuthorHouse UK Ltd., for their immense cooperation in the publication of the book.

Finally, but not the least, the authors are indebted to all members of their family for their kind help and understanding during the period of putting together this work.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION TO REFRIGERATION

Refrigeration is the process of reducing and maintaining the temperature of a space or product below that of its immediate surroundings. It involves extraction of heat from the space or product and the discharge of the heat to a sink at a higher temperature. Such discharged heat energy may be used for space or water heating applications. In this regard, the refrigeration system is called a heat pump. This is because heat is transfered from low to high temperature contrary to the normal flow. Refrigeration can be accomplished by various methods, using different types of energy ranging from electrical to mechanical or even purely thermal energy. Thermal energy could be either fossil fuel or biomass or solar radiation derived.

The current unit of refrigeration is expressed in the Standard International (SI) metric units, which is kW or kJs-1 Other units encountered in refrigeration instrumentation include linear measurement in metres or its decimals, mass in kilogram (kg), temperature in degree celcius (⁰C) or degree Kelvin (K), pressure in newton per metre squared (Nm-2) or paschal(Pa), heat in joules (J) etc. All these units derive from the units of measurements and formula developed by the early inventors of motive systems like horse power, automobile, steam engines, etc.

1.1   BRIEF HISTORY OF REFRIGERATION

The need for refrigeration became apparent when man could no longer be self sufficient in feeding himself from within his immediate environment. It became necessary to obtain perishable food commodities from outside his locality. This often involved movement over a period of days or even weeks in unfavourable weather. Therefore, it became imperative to device convenient means of maintaining the quality of such food. Keeping the food cold preserves it from deterioration by inhibiting the multipllication and growth of micro organisms responsible for spoilage.

Early refrigeration was achieved by use of natural ice from snow, ponds and lakes. Accounts of use of natural ice to produce refrigeration abound in early Egyptian, Indian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Unpredictable weather conditions and the prohibitive costs of natural ice at the retail outlet due mainly to the cost of transportation from the source(s) of supply led to several efforts to produce artificial ice. However, it was not until the seventeenth century that scientific experimentation on refrigeration was pioneered by people like the English philosopher, Francis Bacon (1561-1626); Italian physicist, Evangelista Torricelle (1608-1647) who was a student of Galileo; Oto Von Guericke (1602-1686) in Holland, and Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) in France.

One of the first known refrigeration machine prototypes was reported by Cullen of Glassgow University in 1755. He observed, following earlier work by Boyle, that low pressure tended to reduce the evaporating temperature of a fluid, and that some fluids evaporated at a faster rate than others. He applied this principle; using ether as the working fluid, to produce ice from water.

In 1790, Thomas Harris and John Long were granted patent in Britain for their refrigeration machine; Jacob Perkins of the United States obtained patent for his own machine in 1834. It is pertinent to note that artificial ice was first realized in an experiment in 1820 and its commercial production commenced in 1834. Jacob Perkins’ apparatus was the forerunner of the conventional vapour compression refrigeration machines. Other workers notably Professor A.C. Twining and Dr. John Gorrie, also of the US, developed their own versions of the refrigeration machine. In 1860, James Harrison of Australia installed the World’s first ever refrigeration equipment for the brewing industry.

By the early 1990s, the art of mechanical refrigeration had become firmly established, leading to the formation of the Refrigeration Machinery Association in 1903, and the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers in 1904.

1.2   REFRIGERATION APPLICATIONS

Refrigeration plays a vital role in modern living, especially in the homes, industry, commerce and transportation (sea, land, rail and air). Its usage in these cases vary markedly in the size of refrigeration system and temperature requirements, ranging from +15 to – 70⁰C. The details are as follows:

(i)   Airconditioning is the most widely utilized form of refrigeration, with the temperature levels not dropping below a lower value of 4⁰C. Thus it satisfies the special requirement of providing a lower temperature than the outdoor environment. Tropical countries like Nigeria which lie within the high sunshine belt of the World require year-round airconditioning,especially for comfort.

(ii)   Domestic refrigeration for preservation and storage of perishable foodstuff in the homes at the appropriate temperature levels. Such refrigeration systems have also been successfully deployed to maintain immunization vaccine cold chains for prevention and eradication of killer diseases in remote rural areas of the country and other similar locations of the world.

(iii)   Commercial refrigeration sustains frozen conditions of fresh foodstuff in the coldrooms and on display in shops and supermarkets. Frozen fish and meat sales at retail outlets thrive because of availability of refrigeration. Here the temperature levels should be as low as -40⁰C. Mortuaries for cold preservation of dead human bodies also belong to commercial refrigeration category.

(iv)   Processing and cold storage of foodstuff from the source(s) of supply/production to the sales distribution outlets are also important applications of refrigeration. Farm produce and medicines requiring low temperature environment must be kept in preserved conditions during transit and subsequent storage until they are consumed.

(v)   Industrial refrigeration for chemical processing and production, manufacturing process cooling, brewing, concrete cooling in dam construction, dairy products, etc. also require appropriate low temperature levels.

(vi)   Transportation refrigeration serves on-board preservation of food and drinks and comfort airconditioning inside the transportation system.

(vii)   Gas liquifaction and similar extra low temperature applications operate at between – 100⁰C and absolute zero (-273⁰C) This is a relatively new field of extremely low temperature refrigeration application known as Cryogenics.

1.4   EARLY AIR CONDITIONING

Whereas mechanical refrigeration had achieved prominence by the turn of the twentieth century, air conditioning (the art of using refrigeration to treat air) was still in its infancy.

Some form of primitive air conditioning was known to have existed in Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt, where water was circulated through the brickwork of buildings in order to cool them. Similar techniques in Medieval Persia involved the combined use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season.

The principle involved was simple. The wind towers had windows that trap the prevailing wind and internal vanes that direct the wind into the building where it flows across the cistern which is a large open water pool in the courtyard. The water evaporates thereby cooling the air which is redirected through a downwind cooling tower into the building space for human comfort.

This technology was of course only available in the palaces and wealthy aristocrats.

Further developments in early air conditioning came from the work of Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley of Cambridge University who in 1758 conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means of rapidly cooling an object.

Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could be used to bring down the temperature of an object past the freezing temperature of water.

In 1820, the famous British inventor and scientist, Michael Faraday, discovered that it was possible to compress and liquify ammonia and subsequently use the liquefied ammonia to chill