Support Areas: Thermodynamics

This chapter covers thermodynamics, which is an important subject area used in the design and analysis of heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. After a brief introduction in Sect. 3.1, thermodynamic properties and their units are covered in Sect. 3.2. Ideal gas equation and gas constants are covered in Sect. 3.3. Section 3.4 covers thermodynamic processes including isentropic process and throttling process, which are of particular importance in refrigeration cycles. Section 3.5 covers the first law of thermodynamics with applications to compressors and isentropic efficiencies of compressors, which are energy-consuming devices used in refrigeration cycles. Thermodynamic properties of refrigerants and obtaining them from different sources (tables, charts, and online) are discussed in Sect. 3.6, which also includes P–h diagrams for R-134a. Section 3.7 covers Reversed Carnot Cycle and coefficient of performance (COP) for refrigeration cycles and heat pumps.