Question

Refrigerant-134a enters an adiabatic compressor as saturated vapor at -24°C and leaves at 0.8 MPa and 60°C. The mass flow rate of the refrigerant is 1.2 kg/s. Determine: (a) The power input to the compressor, and (b) The volume flow rate of the refrigerant at the compressor inlet.

Answer 1

(a) The power input to the compressor:
`\dot{W}=73.07 kJ/s = 73.07 kW`

(b) The volume flow rate of the refrigerant at the compressor inlet:
`\dot{v}=0.209 m^(3)/s`

Step-by-step explanation:

(a)

We need to check the values of enthalpy (as we have an open system) for both states, being the inlet, state 1 and the outlet, state 2. We will know these values by checking the vapor charts of R134a, I used the ones found in Thermodynamics of Cengel, 7th edition.

Then, our values are:

`h_(1)=235.92kJ/kg\\h_(2)=296.81kJkg`

Now we proceed to know the work with the following expression:

`\dot{W}=\dot{m}(h_(2)-h_(1))`

Now we replace values and our result is:

`\dot{W}=73.07 kJ/s = 73.07 kW`

(b)

To know the volume rate at the compressor inlet, we need to know the specific volume in that phase, as we have that is saturated and at -24°C, we can read our table:

`\\u=0.1739m^(3)/kg`

With our specific volume and the mass rate, we can calculate the volume rate:

`\dot{v}=\\u * \dot{m}\\\dot{v}=0.209 m^(3)/s`