Centrifugal Machines
ASHRAE Technical Committee 8.2

The ASHRAE Handbook is published in a series of four volumes, one of which is revised each year, ensuring that no volume is older than four years.

TC 8.2, along with TC 8.1, is responsible for the following handbook chapters:

HVAC Systems and Equipment: Compressors
A compressor is one of the four essential components of the basic vapor compression refrigeration system; the others are the condenser, evaporator, and expansion device. The compressor circulates refrigerant through the system and increases refrigerant vapor pressure to create the pressure differential between the condenser and evaporator. This chapter describes the design features of several categories of commercially available refrigerant compressors.

HVAC Systems and Equipment: Liquid Chilling
Liquid-chilling systems cool water, brine, or other secondary coolant for air conditioning or refrigeration. The system may be either factory-assembled and wired or shipped in sections for erection in the field. The most frequent application is water chilling for air conditioning, although brine cooling for low-temperature refrigeration and chilling fluids in industrial processes are also common. The basic components of a vapor-compression, liquid-chilling system include a compressor, liquid cooler (evaporator), con-denser, compressor drive, liquid-refrigerant expansion or flow-control device, and control center; it may also include a receiver, economizer, expansion turbine, and/or subcooler. In addition, auxiliary components may be used, such as a lubricant cooler, lubricant separator, lubricant-return device, purge unit, lubricant pump, refrigerant transfer unit, refrigerant vents, and/or additional control valves.

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Technical committees develop and sponsor technical sessions at the winter and annual conferences. Information about their future technical program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Program Subcommittee meeting

ASHRAE publishes papers and transactions from presentations at its conference events. In addition, ASHRAE records most of the seminar sessions from its conferences on DVD. These DVDs are ideal for use at chapter meetings, in university courses, or company lunch and learns. Products available from the most recent conference may be found here.

TC 8.2 sponsored the following technical sessions at the St Louis 2016 meeting.

SEMINAR 10 (INTERMEDIATE)
Performance Monitoring and Systems Testing per ASHRAE Standards 184, 30 and the 41 Series

Chair: Frederick Betz, Member, Life Member, Hall Consultants, LLC, Worthington, OH

In order to be able to evaluate and maintain the efficiency of a chilled water system, you must know how to measure the many variables for comparing the operation. ASHRAE has developed standard methods of testing field performance and test stand performance of liquid chilling equipment and systems. These Standards are Standard 184 and 30. The 41 Series of Standards describes methods for testing system variables such as liquid and airflow, temperature and humidity. The presenters in this seminar describe these Standards and their development and use.

1. ASHRAE Standard 30
Philipp Johnson, P.E, Member, Daikin Applied, Stanton, VA
2. ASHRAE Standard 184
Robert Blanton, P.E, Member, Johnson Controls, Inc., York, PA
3. 41 Series Standards
Richard Hall, Member, Hall Consultants, LLC, Worthington, OH

SEMINAR 31 (BASIC)
Centrifugal Chiller Design: Back to Basics

Chair: Rick Heiden, Member, Trane, Inc, Lacrosse, WI

Centrifugal chillers are broadly employed in building air conditioning systems. Recent advances in chiller component performance have substantially reduced chiller power consumption, improved machine responsiveness and reduced footprint. This presentation provides HVAC professionals more technical insight into the chiller components along with design practices used by heat transfer, controls and systems engineers in developing state of the art equipment. This seminar builds on Seminar 21 from the 2015 ASHRAE Annual Conference in Atlanta, “Centrifugal Compressor Design: Back to Basics.”

1. Chiller Heat Exchanger Components
Thomas Kelly, Carrier Corporation, Kirkville, NY
2. Chiller System Operation
Seth Gladfelter, Associate Member, Johnson Controls, Inc., York, PA
3. Chiller Controls
Scott Munns, Member, Ingersoll Rand, La Crosse, WI

TC 8.2 sponsored the following technical sessions at the Atlanta 2015 meeting.

SEMINAR 7 (INTERMEDIATE)
Chiller Sequencing Challenges

Chair: Jay Eldridge, Member, Daikin Applied, Minneapolis, MN
This session addresses unique challenges and issues associated with sequencing chilled water system equipment in systems that have multiple chillers, water-side economizers, multiple types of chillers and multiple chiller plants. The focus is on strategies to provide stable control while improving plant efficiency.

1. Optimized Control Sequences for Chilled Water Plants with Variable Speed Chillers
Steve Taylor, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, Taylor Engineering, LLC, Alameda, CA
2. Sequencing Chillers with Free Cooling
Susanna Hanson, Member, Trane, Inc., LaCrosse, WI
3. Sequencing Multiple Chiller Plants
Andrew Price, P.E., Member, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Madison, WI

SEMINAR 20 (BASIC)
Centrifugal Compressor Design: Back to Basics

Chair: Frederick W Betz, Life Member, PEDCO E&A Services,Cincinnati, OH
Centrifugal compressors are broadly employed in water chiller applications in the HVAC industry. These compressors share much with the world of turbomachines in other industries, but due to ever-increasing performance standards, the needs of the HVAC commercial applications have driven centrifugal compressor technology to higher performing and
in many cases more reliable levels than their industrial counterparts. This session provides HVAC professionals more technical insight into the inner workings of centrifugal compressors, design practices used by turbomachinery engineers in developing state-of-the-art equipment and why they are used over positive displacement machines.

1. Centrifugal Compressor Aerodynamic Design Basics
Rick Heiden, Member, Trane, Inc., LaCrosse, WI
2. Centrifugal Compressor Mechanical Design Basics
Jeb W Schreiber, Member, Johnson Controls, Inc., York, PA
3. Can Centrifugal Compressors Meet Efficiency Requirements: What’s Next?
Julian DeBullet, Fellow Life Member, deBullet Consulting, Front Royal, VA

Technical Committees are responsible for identifying research topics, proposing research projects, selecting bidders, and monitoring research projects funded by ASHRAE. Information about their specific research program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Research Subcommittee meeting.

 ASHRAE writes standards for the purpose of establishing consensus for: 1) methods of test for use in commerce and 2) performance criteria for use as facilitators with which to guide the industry. ASHRAE publishes the following three types of voluntary consensus standards: Method of Measurement or Test (MOT), Standard Design and Standard Practice. ASHRAE does not write rating standards unless a suitable rating standard will not otherwise be available. ASHRAE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and follows ANSI's requirements for due process and standards development. Standards may be purchased at the ASHRAE Bookstore.

TC 8.2 is co-cognizant for the following guideline:
GDL-22: Instrumentation for Monitoring Central Chilled Plant Efficiency

TC 8.2 is cognizant for the following standards:
Std. 30: Method of Testing Liquid Chilling Packages
SPC -184P: Proposed standard - Method of Test for Field Testing of Liquid-Chilling Systems

TC 8.2 participates in the multidisciplinary task group, MTG.LowGWP.

Lower Global Warming Potential Alternative Refrigerants
MTG.LowGWP is established to coordinate TC/TG/TRG technical activities to help transition the HVAC&R industry to sustainable lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) alternative refrigerants. The MTG will further request participation from US EPA and AHRI. The MTG responsibilities include suggestions for research, development and presentation of technical programs of all types on alternative lower GWP refrigerants, suggestions for Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) systems evaluation for different applications, development of lower GWP solutions for different applications, and a special publication detailing aspects of LCCP applied to the HVAC&R fields. 

ASHRAE Technical FAQs are provided as a service to ASHRAE members, users of ASHRAE publications, and the general public. While every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy and reliability, they are advisory and provided for informational purposes only, and in many cases represent only one person’s view. They are not intended and should not be relied on as an official statement of ASHRAE. Technical questions not addressed may be submitted to the ASHRAE Technical Services department at tse@ashrae.net.