Research Lab

Overview

The Research Lab focuses on refrigeration and air-conditioning technology, energy efficiency and sustainable cooling. Teams of students and faculty design and build their own experimental rigs, instrument them, and publish the results as papers, patents and final-year projects.

Project-based research of this kind develops technical depth together with teamwork, project management and reporting skills, and it gives an institution a strong platform for funded research and industry collaboration. ASFAN supplies the instrumentation, components and fabrication support such rigs need.

Facilities and Equipment

Typical research rigs

• Solar thermal adsorption refrigeration system – solar-driven cooling with an adsorbent–refrigerant pair
• Multi heat-exchanger test facility – comparison of heat-exchanger designs
• Three-stage vapour-compression system – ultra-low-temperature refrigeration
• Free-piston Stirling cooler – alternative cooling cycle
• VCR systems with dedicated and integrated mechanical sub-cooling – performance improvement
• IoT-based air-conditioning trainer with four-way reversing valve – heat-pump operation and remote monitoring
• Psychrometric processes test rig – training and demonstration of air-conditioning processes
• Ice-slurry generator – thermal storage and secondary refrigerants
• Air conditioner with air sterilisation, and double-skin AHU with active purification – indoor air quality
• Ejector-expansion and two-phase-ejector refrigeration rigs – work recovery in the cycle
• Cascade refrigeration system – low-temperature applications
• Phase-change-material assisted cooling system – cold storage for food applications

Instrumentation

• Temperature, pressure and flow sensors with data loggers – accurate test data
• Power and energy meters – COP and efficiency calculations
• Cycle-analysis software – thermodynamic modelling and comparison

Learning Objectives

By the end of the training, learners will be able to:

• Plan a research project from literature review to test results.
• Design, fabricate and instrument an experimental refrigeration or air-conditioning rig.
• Analyse test data and compare it with thermodynamic models.
• Report findings in papers, patents and technical reports.

Career Relevance

Research experience of this kind supports placements, internships, scholarships, postgraduate study and industry partnerships.