Cascade Refrigeration Cycle

This is a system that has 2 or more refrigeration cycles operating in series.

Cascade cycle is used where a very wide range of temperature between T L and
TH is required. As shown the figure, the condenser for the low temperature refrigerator is
used as the evaporator for the high temperature refrigerator.
Cascading improves the COP of a refrigeration cycle. Moreover, the refrigerants
can be selected to have reasonable evaporator and condenser pressures in the two or
more temperature ranges.
The two cycles are connected through the heat exchanger in the middle, which
serves as evaporator for cycle X and condenser for cycle Y. For the analysis of the
whole cascaded cycle:
Let: mX = mass flow rate of refrigerant in cycle X
mY = mass flow rate of refrigerant in cycle Y
The refrigeration capacity of the cycle, Q A
QA = mY (h1 - h4)
The heat rejected by the cycle, QR
QR = mX (h6 - h7)
The total input work in the cycle, W T
WT = WY + WX
W T = mY (h2 - h1) + mX (h6 - h5)
The coefficient of performance of the cycle, COP
𝑄 𝑚𝑌 (ℎ1 −ℎ4 )
𝐶𝑂𝑃 = 𝑊𝐴 = 𝑚
𝑇 𝑌 (ℎ2 −ℎ1 ) + 𝑚𝑋 (ℎ6 −ℎ5 )