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The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, July 2009. Copyright 2009 American
Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for
educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in
paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

System Design for

Compressor Reliability
BY MILTON W. GARLAND, P.E., FELLOW ASHRAE

REPRINTED FROM ASHRAE JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 1974

This paper examines the evaporation of a refrigerant in various types of heat transfer structures by (a) relating refrigerant evaporation to control with load changes; (b) evaluating the effect of large volume increases
at low temperatures; and (c) reviewing specific examples of compressor damage and the corrections made.

he compressor is a vapor
pump and must have, as a part
of the system, foolproof means
for protection against damage from
hydraulics such as liquid refrigerant or
oil. Positive displacement compressors
for refrigeration service are designed for
pumping a refrigerant vapor at a temperature above 10F above the satura-

tion temperature at the compressor inlet

pressure. But only a correctly designed
evaporation system, adequately controlled for all load changes, will provide
the required inlet conditions.

CONTROL LIMITATION
Control limitation may be compared to a pan of water on a stove

(Fig. 1). The pan is illustrated as

about 1/3 full and as having, at the
left side, a float device attached for
the purpose of maintaining a predetermined level. Heat applied to the
bottom of the pan causes the water to
boil, and the resulting vapor release
causes an increase in the overall volume and a rise of the surface level.
However, the weight of the water and
vapor has not changed and excessive
heat under the bottom will cause the

MILTON W. GARLAND, P.E., FELLOW ASHRAE

MILTON W. GARLAND, P.E., was honored in 1998 as the nations
oldest worker, having begun his career in 1920 at the Frick Co.,
now part of York/Johnson Controls.
He was known as Mr. Refrigeration for his work in refrigeration systems for gold mines in South Africa and in the
ice cream factories of Philadelphia. Mr. Garland held
some 40 patents of refrigeration-related items, ranging
from icemakers to screw compressor volume controls.
His work in refrigeration aided in the construction of
the Hoover Dam for which he designed systems to cool
the water, sand and rock used to make the concrete to build it.
At ASHRAEs Centennial Meeting in 1995, Mr. Garland
was recognized as a pioneer in technology. In 1989, ASHRAE
endowed an award in his honorthe Milton W. Garland
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Commemorative Refrigeration Award for Project Excellence,

which recognizes the designer and owner of a non-comfort
cooling refrigeration application that highlights innovation and/
or new technologies. He was also a member of several SPCs and
SSPCs. He was a recipient of the ASHRAE F. Paul Anderson
Award, the Distinguished 50-Year Member Award and the
Louise and Bill Holladay Distinguished Fellow Award.
In 1996, he received the first Andy Ammonia
Award from the International Institute of Ammonia
Refrigeration for his paper, The Influence of Vapor
Pressure in the Condensing Process of the Ammonia
Refrigeration Cycle. Garland died in July 2000 at age 104. He
was inducted into the ASHRAE Hall of Fame at the Societys
2003 Winter Meeting.
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contents to overflow. The float device, while responsive to

heat, has in itself no means for preventing the overflow.
The thermal control shown on the right side of the figure
would sense the boil-over and cut off the feed, but it cannot correct the cause.
Using ammonia R-717 in an example (Fig. 2), it can be
seen that the ratio of liquid to vapor for one ton of refrigeration at an evaporating temperature of 30F is 1 to 192;
at an evaporating temperature of 0F it is 1 to 380, and at
an evaporating temperature of 40F it is 1 to 1,071. Note
that the liquid temperatures used were assumed at levels
normally found in plants operating at the evaporation temperatures given.
The purpose of the illustration in Fig. 2 is to show that
evaporators, with their control, when designed for service
at 0F are not suitable for service at 40F. This error is one
most often committed in refrigeration application. Peculiar
to providing an inadequate vapor releasing area is that it
results in evaporator starvation and that to accomplish the
work desired an operator will have to bypass the normal
automatic control by hand control, causing a liquid refrigerant return to the compressor.
Fig. 3 shows the horizontal shell and tube flooded type
chiller. It has a large vapor releasing area, and because of
that a fixed float device will maintain a reasonably stable
refrigerant level, provided the load is maintained within
the anticipated design range.

F I G . 1 Control limitation.

F I G . 2 Example of using ammonia R-717.

F I G . 3 Horizontal shell and tube flooded type chiller.

MISUSE
An example of misuse resulting in compressor damage was an installation specified and engineered to chill
brine from 30F to 35F. The gpm was given and the
overall tons of refrigeration were about 150. Investigation
revealed that some of the brine was used in the coils and
jacket of a large reaction tank. No brine was being used
during the reaction time and, as a result, the brine in the
coils and in the jacket reached 90F. After a given length of
time the 90F brine in the coils and jacket was returned to
the chiller. This suddenly applied hot load caused a liquid
refrigerant return to the compressor, resulting in broken
compressor valves.
The mechanism was simply the normal decrease of
vapor volume at the time of reduced load, thus permitting an increase of liquid volume in the chiller. The sudden return of the 90F brine generated an overall volume
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increase in the refrigerant in the chiller, which when it

reached the outlet level, was carried as liquid refrigerant
into the compressor. The float device may have cut off any
of the incoming liquid refrigerant, but that did not protect
the compressor. Protection for the compressor was later
added in the form of a separator in the return line, at a
height sufficient to return the separated liquid refrigerant
by gravity into the chiller.
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Fig. 4 shows the chiller in a vertical position. The physical dimensions are unchanged, but control of the refrigerant
cannot be obtained by a float level device positioned on
the shell because the area for vapor release has been greatly
reduced from that in the horizontal position. The overall
liquid lift caused by boiling is inversely proportional to
the reduction in area. Thus, control of the pressure head
for refrigerant feed must be accomplished externally of the
shell.
Fig. 5 depicts a commonly used evaporator for all types of
refrigerated storage and freezer service. It is operated as a flooded
unit, very often consisting of a bank of vertically mounted serpentine coils connected in parallel by a bottom feed and top
vapor header. Unlike the horizontal flooded chiller, this unit has
a relatively high vapor releasing velocity. The vapor bubbles cannot rise vertically, but must be caused to flow horizontally. This
gravity flow recirculation system, when properly proportioned,
has excellent performance character. The height of the float above
the coil is calculated from the load, internal pipe area, and the
resulting leaving vapor velocity. When fixed for one set of conditions, it is correctly placed for that set of conditions only. The fan
is representative of the fact that the product being cooled is air.

FIG.4

Vertical shell and tube flooded type chiller.

FIG.5

Evaporator for all types of refrigerated storage and freezer service.

FIG.6

Dry expansion type chiller simulation.

LOAD LOSSES
An excessive liquid refrigerant return will always occur if
product flow is stopped, in this or any other type of evaporator, without stopping the refrigerant flow, the reason being
that refrigerant feed is at a fixed head established for full
heat load. Stopping the fan (product flow) causes a loss of
load; the evaporator feed, if permitted to continue, will fill
the coil, and on a restart of the fan the excess refrigerant will
be returned to the separator at a rate higher than normal
design. A carryover to the compressor will then occur.
A basic design rule should be that refrigerant flow must
be stopped when product flow is stopped.
Fig. 6 illustrates a dry expansion type chiller and simulates an installation situation which resulted in serious
damage to three compressors during the first month of
operation. After corrections were made, this same installation had no compressor damage of a serious nature in ten
years of operation. The design specification for the system
called for multistage R-22 refrigeration at 80F evaporation to chill a nitrogen vapor from 40F to 60F, and to
be suitable for continuous operation. Investigation following reported compressor failures showed that the product
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flow was being stopped because of production problems,

but the refrigeration was being continued because a product flow was to be expected any minute. In consequence
to a no heat load, the bottom tubes of the chiller filled
with liquid refrigerant. When the product flow resumed,
the excess liquid was forced out of the chiller and back to
the compressor.
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UNDERSTANDING THE CONDENSER-RECEIVER SYSTEM

A clarification of the actual performance in the condenser-receiver
system, which should enable application engineers to properly
specify the requirements for such systems.
There has been a tendency to consider the condenserreceiver system (when the latter is used) as two independent
components and it has often been installed without consideration of the definite relationship between them. These components must be treated as a single unit: The condenser is a source
for generation of a condensate and the receiver is the collector
of said condensate. The condensate in the receiver must be
maintained at the condenser outlet temperature for maximum
system efficiency.
Fig .10 represents a refrigeration system using a receiver. Also
shown is the cycle related to the Mollier diagram for ammonia. A
condenser rated at 96F condensing will have an inlet pressure of
184.2 psig. At C (the outlet of the condenser) the gauge pressure
will be slightly lower than at A. At the same point the temperature will be the lowest of any in the system. C also represents the
area of lowest vapor pressure in the condenser-receiver system.
Because the receiver is often located in a warm machinery
room and the condenser is not, the bad practice evolved of
installing a so-called equalizing line from the top of the
The correction made was the addition of a flow switch in
the product line. When product flow was less than the minimum compressor capacity, the liquid refrigerant feed to the
evaporator was stopped. The compressors were permitted to
cycle on a pressure control, but no refrigerant was permitted
to feed until the product flow was increased above the minimum design level.
Fig. 7 illustrates a scheme of refrigerant temperature
control often used in process work where close regulation of
outlet product temperature is required. This type of control
may present a hazard to the compressor because product
flow may be at such a low level that refrigerant liquid will
replace vapor and, when full product flow is resumed, the
excess liquid and increased vapor volume may cause an
overflow into the return line to the compressor. A refrigerant temperature control of the type shown must always have
a pressure-sensing device in the air line to the refrigerant
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F I G . 1 0 Refrigeration system using a receiver.

receiver to the condenser inlet. The purpose is to permit vapor

in the receiver to pass upward into the condenser.
This misconception is borne out of the fact that the gauge
pressure is greater at A than at C; flow through the condenser is
not obtainable in another manner. Also, the temperature in the
receiver is much lower than the temperature at the entrance to
the condenser. Therefore, the colder vapor in the receiver will
not rise into the hotter area at the entrance to the condenser.
As C is the coldest area in this system, it becomes evident
that vapors in the receiver will migrate to the condenser outlet C.

F I G . 7 Refrigerant temperature control scheme.

pressure regulating device, and have it set at the required

pressure when the valve is approximately 3/4 closed. At that
air pressure the sensing device causes the refrigerant feed line
valve to close.
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Therefore, the receiver must be so located and the drain piping

from C into the receiver must be so designed as to create an
open passage, which will permit condensate drainage into the
receiver without filling the drain line. There must be no traps
so that vapor from the receiver can have open passage into the
coldest area C.
All condensers provide some liquid subcooling. This provides a permissible pressure drop in the liquid feed line to the
system without generating flash gas in the liquid feed at the
evaporator control valve, (Fig. 10 D). Obviously, the open drain
between C and the top of the receiver permits refluxing of the
vapors in the receiver into the area of lowest temperature in
the condenser, thus maintaining the sub-cooling of the liquid
in the receiver. For example: If the condensing temperature of
96F and 184.2 psig in the condenser was reduced to 183.8 psig
through pipe pressure drop in the condenser; and if there was
2F of actual liquid subcooling, the liquid temperature of 94F
in the receiver has a vapor pressure of 178 psig. Therefore, 183.8
to 178 = 5.8 psi permissible liquid line pressure drop (without
any temperature increase) in the liquid delivery line.

PARALLEL DRAINAGE
Parallel condenser drainage, not fully understood, has caused
serious problems in numerous installations. These problems stem
All evaporators have the ability to accumulate excess liquid refrigerant at low load conditions and means must be
provided to prevent this kind of accumulation.

DELAYS
Product freezers designed for a 30F freezing level
are often brought down to temperature prior to product
entrance. Very often a product arrival estimated for 7:00
a.m. may extend to 8:00 a.m. Meanwhile, under many
present-day control arrangements, the freezer will remain
on line and continue to lower in temperature. There is very
little heat load, the liquid content of the coils becomes excessive, and immediately when the warm product load arrives
there is a serious liquid refrigerant return to the compressor.
A proper control would have stopped refrigerant flow the
instant 30F was obtained, and a two degree differential
thermostat would renew refrigerant flow at 28F.
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F I G . 1 1 Horizontal drain line.

from the fact that no two condensers will have the exact same
leaving condensate temperature. There will be a migration problem
unless proper structure is used, which will permit migration without
drainage flow interruption. The horizontal drain line (Fig. 11) shown
enlarged from condenser 2 has become filled because of the necessary head required to cause horizontal flow. Assuming that the
outlet temperature of condenser 2 is lower than that of condenser
1, there will be migration flow from 1 to 2 and the pipe line being
filled with liquid acts as a dam against migration flow from condenser 1 to condenser 2. Condenser 2 will thus stop draining and
becomes bottleda term generally applied to that situation.
A plate type of freezer may, by virtue of the operational
program, cause serious compressor damage. An excess liquid
refrigerant return in the operational program occurs when
the freezing day is discontinued, the freezer is left filled with
product, and refrigeration is continued during the night
without any limitation of the amount of liquid refrigerant
being accumulated and stored. When this freezer is opened
and warm product added, the excess liquid thrown out may
well exceed the capabilities of the separator and thereby pass
directly to the compressor. A corrective measure is to limit
the liquid supply during the night so that the evaporator
area will not be filled with liquid at the time of starting the
next freezing day.

COMPRESSOR DAMAGE
Fig. 8 illustrates the low temperature section of a pump
recirculation system. The pumping tank, at evaporator presa s h r a e. o rg

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F I G . 12 Ideal parallel condenser-to-receiver drainage.

IDEAL
Fig. 12 represents the ideal parallel condenser-to-receiver
drainage. Horizontal drain piping is avoided and the pitch to
be used is such that liquid drainage will occur without filling
the drain line more than 1/2 of the cross-section. Thus, natural
migration can occur from any area of the condenser-receiver
system into either of the condensers. In this structure of Fig. 12
independent liquid drains are provided into the receiver.
Additional condensers are often added to an existing installation, which has one receiver. The existing inlet connection should
be used to avoid recertification of this pressure vessel. Fig. 13 shows
how to use this receiver inlet with multiple condensers. The size
of the existing receiver inlet may be marginal for the total drainsure, is the separator for the mixture of vapor and unevaporated
liquid returning from the evaporator. It is the collector of liquid
returned during defrost. It is the flash area for reduction of liquid temperature from condensing or any pre-cooler temperature to the evaporator temperature. It must have no less than
three controls. The top control senses the highest permissible
liquid refrigerant level and must sound an alarm of sufficient
intensity to attract responsible personnel for the adjustments
necessary to avoid compressor damage if the level builds higher.
The vapors from the evaporators contain unevaporated liquid
and this unevaporated liquid must be separated from the vapor
in the area above the top control. The volume of this area must
be suitable for the maximum vapor flow of the system.
The next lower control must maintain the normal necessary liquid level for operation. Here the important consideration is that the volume between the normal operating level
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F I G . 1 3 Using the receiver inlet with multiple condensers.

age from all condensers. Usually, when it is a direct vertical flow

into the receiver, as shown, the acceleration of gravity will ensure
complete liquid drainage. But vapor flow upward could be impeded.
Therefore, the receiver vent line is added to ensure that all vapor
areas communicate freely with the area of lowest vapor pressure.
A large single condenser structure with many parallel coils
(Fig. 14), will have internal bottling and in complete drainage if a horizontal liquid outlet is used. The horizontal line
may fill with liquid because of the level of build-up required
for generation of flow. Warm vapors from the receiver, seeking the area of lowest vapor pressure, will back this liquid into
the collecting header and thus prevent drainage from many
of the parallel circuits.

F I G . 8 Illustration of low temperature section of a pump recirculation system.

and the top safety switch be the maximum volume necessary

to accommodate the maximum liquid volume returned
because of defrost or any other pumpout situation.
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F I G .14 Large single condenser structure with many parallel coils.

A sloping (dashed) line to drain the condensate at a maximum

filling of 1/2 of the cross-sectional area will eliminate the drainage
problem and ensure condensate in the receiver at the condenser
outlet header temperature. This open drain-condenser-toreceiveralso provides the simplest, most effective and least
sensitive structure for removal of noncondensibles. In freezer
plants where low temperature operation causes system evaporator pressure to be lower than atmospheric pressure, the entrance
of air may be unnoticed until an excessive condensing pressure
occurs. In the system with an open drain-condenser-to-receiver
the noncondensibles fall into the receiver and are removable from
the top of the receiver without interrupting plant operations.

SURFACE REDUCTION
In any system where a trap is used in the drain line between
the condenser and the receiver, the noncondensibles remain in the
condenser, thus reducing effective condensing surface. Also, the
limited internal volume of the condenser causes a much faster rise
in operating condensing pressure than in the open drain system.
The bottom control is for pump protection. It is used
to stop the pump in the event of a low liquid level before
it has lost its prime. On a restart, after the level rises, the
pump will deliver liquid without cavitation.
Compressor damage was caused in this type of system
from an improperly controlled defrost program. A very large
freezer with a more than usual surface was capable of maintaining temperatures at 30F from Monday to Saturday
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F I G . 1 5 System with sloping drains.

Plants with multiple parallel condensers require a reduction

in effective condensing surface during cold weather operation
to maintain a condensing pressure sufficient to ensure the
necessary pressure difference at the evaporator feed devices.
Fig. 15 shows such a system with the sloping drains, sized for
not over 50% of pipe cross-section being filled with liquid. This
design will permit any one or more condenserswith air and
water turned off for evaporative condensers and no water flow
through shell and tube condensersto perform at maximum
efficiency.
In conclusion, the condenser is a condensate generator and the
receiver simply serves to accommodate the condensates normal
operational requirements. This reservoir of condensate must be
maintained at the temperature of the condensers outlet for maximum system efficiency. Maintaining open communication, receiverto-condenser outlet provides for this desired low condensate
temperature, eliminates parallel condenser drainage problems and
provides best noncondensible separation and purging without interruption of operation and with least effect on condensing pressure.
morning. At that time, the remaining frozen product was
removed into storage areas and the freezer feed was manually
closed. Compressor operation was from pressure control. A
night attendant was assigned to the defrosting and general
freezer cleanup. He manually closed the necessary valves
to isolate the evaporator and manually opened the hot gas.
Having (and taking) all night to do the job permitted the
flow of hot gas to continue long after the coils were freed
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of frost. The result was a sufficient accumulation of liquid

in the separator to shut down the compressors because of
high liquid level. However, other areas of the plant needed
refrigeration, and that prompted the attendant to short out
the safety switch, thus getting a compressor on line. Serious
compressor damage resulted from this maneuver.
Fig. 9 shows a typical defrost system using hot gas and
depending on accumulating a partial amount of liquid in
the separator. Separators are not always of sufficient size to
accomodate the volume of liquid to be returned from the
the coil. Many installations rely on a timed pumpout so
as to decrease the liquid volume to a safe level. The fault
associated with this pumpout method is the variable of
heat transfer because of frost buildup. A frost buildup of
50% of fin space closure might provide for a sufficient liquid pumpout in one hour. But if the fin space is permitted
to become fully closed with frost it could require as much
remove the volume of liquid normally as four hours to
pumped out in one hour with 50%
fin frost closure. A recent investigation of a compressor problem, after
five years of trouble-free operation,
showed that a change in the number
of defrosts was the cause. For five
years the programming system caused
three defrosts every 24 hours. New
management changed the defrost
programming to two defrosts every
24 hours. The result was an insufficient liquid removal in the one-hour
pumpout. The separator was overfilled
at each defrost and a severe liquid
return to the compressor resulted with
each defrost.
The volume of liquid returning to
any compressor may not in itself be
sufficient to damage the compressor,
but liquid in any small quantity may
cause oil foaming and thus lower the
lubricating quality of that oil.

F I G . 9 Typical defrost system using hot gas.

trolled for all possible load changes, programmed for defrost

before excess frost accumulation, and with a main line suction line separator for collection and prompt disposition of
any accidental returned liquid refrigerant.

SUMMARY
Positive action for full compressor
protection begins by designing into the
system correctly sized evaporators, conwww.info.hotims.com/25206-9

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