Hey! Engineering student checking in...

[twophase]

Hello everyone. Just figured I'd introduce myself here. I'm kind of between junior and senior year studying for mechanical engineering, and find most any engineering topic, including refrigeration, very interesting. I'm also quite mechanically inclined, esp for car repair and custom fabrication. I've come across good threads here on hvac talk googling for information in the past, so I decided to join for full access to some good tech reading.

I work at an ice rink for about 3.5 years and counting, and keep an eye on a pair of York millenium reciprocating liquid chillers...just logging readings and telling the pm tech when things don't sound right, but that's kind of spiked more of an interest in refrigeration. I'm definitely the hands on type, really like to learn how things work, and like to fabricate custom projects to do so. I got my 608 type I certification a few weeks ago so I can legally tear into some small scale refrigeration to learn more about it (currently found an old R22 dehumidifier slated for a project that definitely won't live in a little plastic box on wheels). I'm also hoping do do a project for senior design in a year that will involve building a small liquid chiller for a working scale model indirect cooled "smart" ice rink slab project. I'll try to keep the "will an R22 compressor work with an R12 TXV, pumping R152a with mineral oil?" questions to a minimum, but may post some more general theory based questions if I can't find it here already.

[dandyme]

welcome,

i thought we already had an icemiester here

[Cooked]

Welcome aboard and bring it on brother, we just might be cut from the same cloth. ME is certainly a versitile avocation and your "capstone" project sounds intruiging and I'd actually like to know more.

[snewman24]

welcome,

i thought we already had an icemiester here

Yes, we already have "icemeister" . This will create confusion.

[lynn comstock]

Yes, we already have "icemeister" . This will create confusion.

Welcome. Perhaps you can change the name slightly before you get to attached to it.

[snewman24]

Welcome. Perhaps you can change the name slightly before you get to attached to it.

How about Nicemiester???? We need lots more nice people on here to make up for all the "gruppys"........

[dandyme]

How about Nicemiester???? We need lots more nice people on here to make up for all the "gruppys"........

you're just jealous!

[Dad]

I sent an email to this user. I will have to change the name. With Ice assisting the membership the two names will be way too confusing.

[Dad]

Names were changed to protect the innocent.

[snewman24]

Names were changed to protect the innocent.

Nobody's innocent on this board...............

[Dad]

Nobody's innocent on this board...............

Got me there.....

[pbharvey]

twophase, are you attending Maryland? Is Dr. Forney still the ME department chair?

[twophase]

Actually, going to Virginia Commonwealth University.

I haven't really fleshed out the details of my future project yet. Just thinking of possibilities now. The "smart" has to do with my current idea of having the cooling grid divided up into zones possibly with temp sensors at the inlet and outlet of each zone to map out heat load, since a 80'x200' sheet of ice in a building with people, air handlers, doors, leaky insulation, etc. can often experience uneven heating meaning uneven ice hardness, uneven depth maintenance, etc. It would use a control system using proportioning valves and operating a speed controller for the brine pump to use only as much cooling and flow as needed and only where it is needed.

For cooling, I'm thinking of a chiller plant with 4 stages, using ~1/2 ton compressors, each it's own system with a txv but with each evaporator contained whithin the same shell and tube heat exchanger (or divided between two, much like the pair of York millenium packs at work). I may build a minature evap. cooling tower depending on how awesome I'm feeling then. How big the ice slab will be would primarily be determined by how much ~1/2 thick ice can be maintained with about 2-4kW of electricity, but that's a heat transfer problem, which isn't until the spring.

There's alot I wouldn't mind doing for a living, but commercial and industrial process refrigeration system design is something I would not turn down.

P.S. I've already been attached to Icemeister from my line of work, but that's ok. I know my job cold and am constantly pushing the state of the art at my workplace(es), hence why adressing the design requirements would be much more intuitive for an ice rink design project.

[kdb4]

Sounds like you have some great ideas already on your project.

[Ford3517]

Welcome from a fellow new guy. I am interested in refrigeration system engineering as well, however I am still pretty low on the totem pole lol. I am just about to graduate an HVAC program and the theory has just peaked my interest. Hopefully someday soon I will be able to attend school for engineering as well and I will definitely be following your posts here because I believe you will spark some intelligent conversations for me to learn from!

[gourdhead]

Okay! I have a dumb question. They use chillers for ice rinks? I have dealt with chillers in conditioned spaces using circulated chilled water for conditioning the space, but how do chillers work in making ice? Is it more of a water cooled condensor type situation or what?

[gourdhead]

Okay! I have a dumb question. They use chillers for ice rinks? I have dealt with chillers in conditioned spaces using circulated chilled water for conditioning the space, but how do chillers work in making ice? Is it more of a water cooled condensor type situation or what?

Sorry, I guess this would be considered a site question. I will ask it in the appropriate forum.