Thermal expansion valve

A thermal expansion valve or thermostatic expansion valve (often abbreviated as TEV, TXV, or TX valve) is a component in refrigeration and air conditioning systems that controls the amount of refrigerant released into the evaporator thereby keeping superheat, that is, the difference between the current refrigerant temperature at the evaporator outlet and its saturation temperature at the current pressure, at a stable value, ensuring that the only phase in which the refrigerant leaves the evaporator is vapor, and, at the same time, supplying the evaporator's coils with the optimal amount of liquid refrigerant to achieve the optimal heat exchange rate allowed by that evaporator. In addition, some thermal expansion valves are also specifically designed to ensure that a certain minimum flow of refrigerant can always flow through the system. Thermal expansion valves are often referred to generically as 'metering devices'. A thermal expansion valve or thermostatic expansion valve (often abbreviated as TEV, TXV, or TX valve) is a component in refrigeration and air conditioning systems that controls the amount of refrigerant released into the evaporator thereby keeping superheat, that is, the difference between the current refrigerant temperature at the evaporator outlet and its saturation temperature at the current pressure, at a stable value, ensuring that the only phase in which the refrigerant leaves the evaporator is vapor, and, at the same time, supplying the evaporator's coils with the optimal amount of liquid refrigerant to achieve the optimal heat exchange rate allowed by that evaporator. In addition, some thermal expansion valves are also specifically designed to ensure that a certain minimum flow of refrigerant can always flow through the system. Thermal expansion valves are often referred to generically as 'metering devices'. Flow control, or metering, of the refrigerant is accomplished by use of a temperature sensing bulb, filled with a gas or liquid charge similar to the one inside the system, that causes the orifice in the valve to open against the spring pressure in the valve body as the temperature on the bulb increases. As the suction line temperature decreases, so does the pressure in the bulb and therefore on the spring, causing the valve to close. An air conditioning system with a TX valve is often more efficient than other designs that do not use one. Also, TX valve air conditioning systems don't require an accumulator (a refrigerant tank placed downstream of the evaporator's outlet), since the valves reduce the liquid refrigerant flow when the evaporator's thermal load decreases, so that all the refrigerant completely evaporates inside the evaporator (in normal operating conditions such as a proper evaporator temperature and airflow). However, a liquid refrigerant receiver tank needs to be placed in the liquid line before the TX valve so that, in low evaporator thermal load conditions, any excess liquid refrigerant can be stored inside it, preventing any liquid from backflowing inside the condenser coil from the liquid line. At heat loads which are very low compared to the valve's ton of refrigeration rating, the orifice can become oversized for the heat load, and the valve can begin to repeatedly open and close, in an attempt to control the superheat to the set value, making the superheat oscillate. Cross charges, that is, sensing bulb charges composed of a mixture of different refrigerants or also non-refrigerant gases such as nitrogen (as opposed to a charge composed exclusively of the same refrigerant inside the system, known as a parallel charge), set so that the vapour pressure vs temperature curve of the bulb charge 'crosses' the vapour pressure vs temperature curve of the system's refrigerant at a certain temperature value (that is, a bulb charge set so that, below a certain refrigerant temperature, the vapour pressure of the bulb charge suddenly becomes higher than that of the system's refrigerant, forcing the metering pin to stay into an open position), or even different kinds of bleed passages that generate a minimum refrigerant flow at all times, help to reduce the superheat hunt phenomenon by preventing the valve orifice from completely closing, at the cost, however, of determining a certain flow of refrigerant that won't reach the suction line in a fully evaporated state while the heat load is particularly low, and that the compressor must be designed to handle. A thermal expansion valve is a key element to a heat pump; this is the cycle that makes air conditioning, or air cooling, possible. A basic refrigeration cycle consists of four major elements: a compressor, a condenser, a metering device and an evaporator. As a refrigerant passes through a circuit containing these four elements, air conditioning occurs. The cycle starts when refrigerant enters the compressor in a low-pressure, moderate-temperature, gaseous form. The refrigerant is compressed by the compressor to a high-pressure and high-temperature gaseous state. The high-pressure and high-temperature gas then enters the condenser. The condenser cools the high-pressure and high-temperature gas to a high-pressure liquid by transferring heat to a lower temperature medium, usually ambient air. In order for the higher temperature liquid to cool down, the flow of refrigerant entering inside the evaporator must be reduced, to keep the pressure low and allow an isenthalpic expansion back into the gas phase to take place. The high-pressure liquid is therefore sent through an expansion device, which only allows a portion of the liquid refrigerant to enter the evaporator. A TXV type expansion device has a sensing bulb that is connected to the suction line of the refrigerant piping so that the temperature of the refrigerant that leaves the evaporator can be sensed. The gas pressure in the sensing bulb provides the force to open the TXV, therefore dynamically adjusting the flow of refrigerant inside the evaporator and, as a result, the superheat acquired by the refrigerant that exits the evaporator.