Introduction
8.03 A natural way of classifying evaporators is based on the state of the heat source: gas, liquid or
solid. Evaporators utilizing gas as heat source are usually referred to as air coolers as air is the
dominating gaseous heat source. Evaporators for liquid heat sources are called liquid coolers.
Note that it is quite common to use indirect systems, both for refrigeration/freezing and for
heat pumps. In these systems the primary heat source may be air, but the heat is transferred to
the evaporator by a brine or secondary refrigerant which is a liquid. The evaporator is thus a
liquid cooler even though the primary heat source is air. Indirect systems are used for two
prime reasons: First, this allows the system to be charged with refrigerant and tested before
leaving the manufacturer, which facilitates installation, and second, the amount of refrigerant in
an indirect system is much smaller than in a direct system. This is advantageous as there is less
risk of damage to the local or global environment in case of a leak. Also, flammable,
poisonous or strongly smelling refrigerants which may cause panic (ammonia) can safely be
used with indirect systems as the refrigerant is confined to the machine room, away from public
areas.
Solid heat sources are rare, but are found in freezers in the food industry and in heat pumps
with bedrock or soil as heat source.
8.04 Independently of the type of heat source, there are two possible ways of arranging the
refrigerant flow through the evaporator:
The first is to force all refrigerant passing through the expansion device to flow through the
evaporator and then on to the compressor. This is called dry expansion, or direct expansion,
often abbreviated DX (see Figure 8.04a). To ensure that liquid does not reach the
compressor, the refrigerant must be superheated a few degrees (usually 5-7°C) at the
evaporator exit. This is achieved by using a thermostatic expansion valve. The drawback of
dry expansion is that the heat transfer coefficients are low in the superheat section. It is
therefore important to keep the superheat as low as possible. However, if the superheat is too
low, the evaporation temperature will start to oscillate. This condition is called hunting and
should be avoided. The minimum superheat which gives stable operation depends on the type
and size of the evaporator and of the cooling load. For a given evaporator and expansion
valve, a curve may be drawn for the minimum superheat as a function of the load. This curve is
called the MSS-curve (Minimum Stable Signal) (c.f. Chapter 10).