Influence of nucleation on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of a refrigerant mixture under varied heat flux conditions

The influence of nucleation on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of R-134a/R-290/R-600a refrigerant mixture is experimentally studied in a smooth horizontal tube of 12.7 mm diameter. The heat transfer coefficients are experimentally measured for stratified flow patterns under a varied heat flux condition; a condition found in the evaporator of refrigerators and deep freezers. The experiments are conducted in a counter-current heat exchanger test section. By regulating the flow rate and inlet temperature of acetone, which is the heating fluid flowing in the outer tube, a varied heat flux is provided to the refrigerant flowing in the inner tube. The refrigerant mass flow rate is fixed between 3 and 5 g s⁻¹ and its inlet temperature between −8.59 and 5.33°C, which corresponds to a pressure of 3.2 to 5 bar. The significance of nucleate boiling prevailing in the above-mentioned evaporators is highlighted. The experimental heat transfer coefficients are also compared with well known heat transfer correlations.     

BOILING CHARACTERISTICS OF R-11 IN COMPACT TUBE BUNDLES WITH SMOOTH AND ENHANCED TUBES

This study presents new data on nucleate boiling heat transfer obtained in compact horizontal tube bundles with small tube gaps. The experiment investigates the heat transfer enhancement effects by the restricted spaces comprising the compact tube bundles and the enhanced heat transfer tubes for nucleate boiling heat transfer of R-11 at atmospheric pressure. A roll-worked tube was used as a new type of enhanced heat transfer tube. The experimental results show that the small tube gaps can greatly enhance boiling heat transfer in a smooth tube bundle, while enhancement effects of small gaps were not quite significant for the enhanced tube bundle. There is a compound effect from the enhanced surface and the restricted space only for the enhanced tube bundle with the tube gap of 0.5 mm. The effects of the tube positions within both compact tube bundles on the boiling heat transfer were minor.     

Vertical forced convective boiling of refrigerant binary mixtures

The present research focused on the forced convective boiling heat transfer of a binary mixture of refrigerant R 12/R 114. The test section is an industrial stainless steel pipe (AISI 316), circular duct, uniformly heated (Joule effect) over a length of 2 300 mm, with an inner diameter of 7.57 mm and a wall thickness of 0.975 mm. The test section instrumentation consists of 0.5 mm, K-type insulated thermocouples distributed along the tube on the wall and inside the channel, and connected to give directly, at each location, the temperature difference between the wall and the bulk fluid. The fluid flow is upwards, with subcooled inlet conditions. The experiments were performed using three different mixture compositions, four different pressures ranging between 1.0 and 2.5 MPa, three specific mass flow rates between 500 and 1500 kg.m⁻².s⁻¹ and three heat fluxes between 18 and 40 kW.m⁻². The experimental results show a relevance of the heat transfer regime identification in the evaluation of mixture heat transfer performance as referred to the pure components.     

Heat Transfer Characteristics for Condensation of R134a in a Vertical Smooth Tube

In this study, condensation of pure refrigerant R134a vapor inside a smooth vertical tube was experimentally investigated. The test section was made of a copper tube with inside diameter of 7.52 mm and length of 1 m. Experimental tests were conducted for mass fluxes in the range of 20–175 kg/m²s with saturation pressure ranging between 5.8 and 7 bar. The effects of mass flux, saturation pressure, and temperature difference between the refrigerant and tube inner wall (ΔT) on the heat transfer performance were analyzed through experimental data. Obtained results showed that average condensation heat transfer coefficient decreases with increasing saturation pressure or temperature difference (ΔT). In addition, for the same temperature difference (ΔT), heat can be removed from the refrigerant at a higher rate at relatively low pressure values. Under the same operating conditions, it was shown that average condensation heat transfer coefficient increases as mass flux increases. Finally, the most widely used heat transfer coefficient correlations for condensation inside smooth tubes were analyzed through the experimental data. The best fit was obtained with Akers et al.'s (1959) correlation with an absolute mean deviation of 22.6%.     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HEAT TRANSFER FROM A DISCRETE SOURCE TO A CIRCULAR LIQUID JET WITH ANNULAR COLLECTION OF THE SPENT FLUID

This study reports an experimental investigation of evaporative heat transfer and pressure drop of R-134a flowing downward inside vertical corrugated tubes with different corrugation pitches. The double tube test section is 0.5 m long with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and hot water flowing in the annulus. The inner tubes are comprised of one smooth tube and three corrugated tubes with different corrugation pitches of 6.35, 8.46, and 12.7 mm. The test runs are performed at evaporating temperatures of 10°C, 15°C, and 20°C; heat fluxes of 20, 25, and 30 kW/m²; and mass fluxes of 200, 300, and 400 kg/m²s. The experimental data obtained from the smooth tube are plotted with flow pattern map for vertical flow. Comparisons between smooth and corrugated tubes on the heat transfer and pressure drop are also discussed. It is observed that the heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop obtained from the corrugated tubes are higher than those from the smooth tube. Furthermore, the heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop increase as the corrugation pitch decreases. The maximum heat transfer enhancement factor and penalty factor are up to 1.22 and 4.0, respectively.     

BOILING HEAT TRANSFER OF WATER AND R-11 ON HORIZONTALLY SMOOTH AND ENHANCED TUBES ENCLOSED BY A CONCENTRIC OUTER TUBE WITH TWO HORIZONTAL SLOTS

An experimental investigation was carried out on the boiling heat transfer characteristics of water and R-11 on the outside of a horizontal heated tube in narrow spaces. Two kinds of heat transfer surfaces (roll-worked and smooth surfaces) were tested. The test section consisted of a narrow annular space formed by enclosing the heated tube in an isolated concentric outer tube with two horizontal slats on the top and bottom. The nucleate boiling heat transfer characteristics were investigated experimentally at atmospheric pressure. The experimental results indicated that a single roll-worked tube in bulk liquid showed better boiling heat transfer than a single smooth tube. In the narrow spaces, the boiling heat transfer coefficients for the smooth tube were considerably enhanced when the gap size was so selected as to take an optimum value. There was no clear optimum gap size for heat transfer enhancement for the roll-worked tube in the narrow spaces. Enhancement of boiling heat transfer in the narrow spaces for the roll-worked tube was not clearly observed in this experiment. Finally, the critical heat flux (CHF) for boiling heat transfer in narrow spaces can be predicted by using a proposed CHF correlation.     

Effect of Coolant Temperature on the Condensation Heat Transfer in Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Applications

This article directly investigates the effect of a cooling medium's coolant temperature on the condensation of the refrigerant R-134a. The study presents an experimental investigation into condensation heat transfer, vapor quality, and pressure drop of R-134a flowing through a commercial annular helicoidal pipe under the severe climatic conditions of a Kuwait summer. The quality of the refrigerant is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. Measurements were performed for refrigerant mass fluxes ranging from 50 to 650 kg/m²s, with a cooling water flow Reynolds number range of 950 to 15,000 at a fixed gas saturation temperature of 42°C and cooling wall temperatures of 5°C, 10°C, and 20°C. The data shows that with an increase of refrigerant mass flux, the overall condensation heat transfer coefficients of R-134a increased, and the pressure drops also increased. However, with the increase of mass flux of cooling water, the refrigerant-side heat transfer coefficients decreased. Using low mass flux in a helicoidal tube improves the heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, selecting low wall temperature for the cooling medium gives a higher refrigerant-side heat transfer coefficient.     

A Study on Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics of Acetone on Smooth and Indented Surfaces

This article presents the nucleate boiling heat transfer characteristics of acetone at one bar on smooth and enhanced circular stainless steel surfaces (SS 316) of 20 mm diameter for heat flux between 1 and 4 W cm^? 2, which mimic the operating condition of a typical immersion electronic cooling system. The experimental heat transfer coefficient from the smooth surface is validated against Borishanski correlation [1] within acceptable limits of ± 5%. The steel smooth surface is enhanced by providing 100 equally spaced indents of 0.5 mm diameter and 0.05 mm depth. The experimental results indicate that the enhanced surface shows a good shift in the boiling curve and thus, enhancing the nucleate boiling heat transfer at a lesser wall super heat when compared to the smooth surface by around 35% for tested condition. The effect of subcooling on nucleate boiling in enhanced surface reveal that the heat transfer coefficient degrade by 40 to 55% for a sub cooling of 5 to 10 K. The influence of material is studied by a similar enhanced surface made of brass and compared for the same working condition. The brass enhanced surface showed an improved of around 50% against the steel-enhanced surface. Also, the influence of fluid is studied by comparing acetone and n-pentane, which showed that the latter an enhancement in heat transfer coefficient of 50% over the former.     

Refrigerant-oil mixtures boiling in a planar confined space

In the frame of the JOULE 1 R&D programme of the Commission of the European Communities a project has been carried out on enhanced evaporation heat transfer surfaces. A specific investigation has been realised on refrigerant oil mixtures boiling in a planar confined space.An experimental investigation of the boiling phenomenon in the confined space between a 30 mm wide × 120 mm high, heated plate and an opposing, adiabatic plate was carried out. The heated surface was made of a copper-aluminium-nickel alloy (Ra = 1 micrometer) and a saturated R-113/SUNISO 3GS oil mixture at atmospheric pressure was used as the boiling fluid.The maximum heat flux tested was approximately 90% of CHF. The parameters investigated were the gap size (1–5 mm) and the oil concentration (1–7% by weight). It was again observed that confinement does not improve the nucleate boiling performance of pure R-113 in any significant way, whereas the CHF decreases with decreasing gap size. In addition, while the presence of oil was observed to have only a relatively minor effect on low flux nucleate boiling, it caused a serious degradation of the high flux boiling performance. This deterioration increased with increasing oil concentration and was more severe for smaller gap sizes. However, for a given gap size, the CHF increased with increasing oil concentration accompanied by increasingly larger surface superheats.     

Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer at Downflow Condensation of Refrigerant R-21 in Assemblage of Minichannels

Presented are results of experimental investigation of heat transfer at downflow condensation of refrigerant R-21 in a vertical assemblage of minichannels in a plate-fin heat exchanger with plane fins. Selection of refrigerant was caused by the fact that its physical properties at room temperature are similar to those of cryogenic liquids at low temperatures. A pattern of vapor-liquid downflow in the heat exchanger channels was plotted using the working section with a transparent wall. For the mass velocity in the range of 30 to 50 kg/m²s and the wall subcooling below ?2?C, the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the mass vapor content is determined and a method is proposed to calculate the heat transfer coefficient that is in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Evaporative Heat Transfer Characteristics of R404a and R134a under Varied Heat Flux Conditions

The two-phase heat transfer coefficients of R404A and R134a in a smooth tube of 7.49-mm inner diameter were experimentally investigated at low heat and mass flux conditions. The test section is a 10-m-long counter-flow horizontal double-tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flow inside the tube and hot fluid in the annulus. The heat transfer coefficients along the length of the test section were measured experimentally under varied heat flux conditions between 4 and 18 kW m^?2 and mass flux ranging between 57 and 102 kg m^?2 s^?1 (2.5 to 4.5 g s^?1) for saturation temperatures of ?10°C, ?5°C, and 0°C. The saturation temperatures correspond to pressures of 4.4, 5.2, and 6.1 bar for R404A and 2.0, 2.4, and 3.0 bar for R134a, respectively. The results showed that under the tested conditions, the contribution of the nucleate boiling mechanism is predominant in the heat transfer coefficient throughout the flow boiling process. The Kattan–Thome–Favrat flow pattern maps confirm the occurrence of stratified and stratified-wavy flow patterns for all of the tested conditions. The average heat transfer coefficient of R404A is estimated to be 26 to 30% higher than that of R134a for the same saturation temperature.     

泡沫金属对含油制冷剂管内流动沸腾换热特性的影响

实验研究了制冷剂-润滑油混合流体在内嵌泡沫金属圆管内流动沸腾的换热特性。泡沫金属为10ppi、90%孔隙率;制冷剂为R410A,润滑油为VG68,油浓度为0～5%。实验结果表明:纯制冷剂工况下,泡沫金属强化流动沸腾换热系数,换热系数提高30%～120%;含油工况下,泡沫金属只强化流动沸腾换热系数20%以下,在低质流密度或者高质流密度的高干度情况下出现恶化换热的情况。润滑油总是恶化制冷剂在内嵌泡沫金属圆管内流动沸腾的换热系数,换热系数最多恶化71%,且在低质流密度下对换热的恶化比在高质流密度工况下严重。     

Numerical investigation of EHD effects on heat transfer enhancement and flow pattern of R-134a two phase flow

In this paper the effects of electrohydrodynamics (EHD) on heat transfer enhancement and flow pattern of R134a two-phase mixture, flowing in a horizontal tube, were numerically investigated. A uniform DC electric field was applied through a circular stainless steel rod along the centerline of tube, while the tube was considered as a grounded electrode. The simulations, in order to investigate the EHD mechanism, were performed for a constant heat flux 2000 W/m², voltages between 0 and 5 kV, inlet volume fractions 65% and 85%, mass fluxes from 30 kg/m²s to 50 kg/m²s and electrode diameters between 1.57 mm and 2.4 mm. These flow conditions correspond to stratified flow. The flow regime redistributions under the applied electric field was obtained. The results show that the steady state condition was occurred at the time about 900 ms. According to the results, enhancement ratio is directly proportional to voltage, and it is reversely proportional to electrode diameter, mass flux and inlet volume fraction.     

Forced Convective Condensation of R134A Vapor Inside a Vertical Microfin Tube

In this study, condensation of pure refrigerant R134a vapor inside a vertical 18° helical microfin tube was experimentally investigated. Tests were performed at saturation pressure of 5.7–5.9 bar with mass fluxes of 20–100 kg/m²s and heat fluxes of 1.7–5.3 kW/m². The effects of mass flux and the temperature difference between the refrigerant and tube wall (ΔT) on the heat transfer performance were analyzed throughout experimental data. For experiments in which ΔT is more than 2.5°C, the average condensation Nusselt number showed a tendency to be independent from ΔT. Heat transfer enhancement ratio was found to be 1.59–1.71, which is always higher than the heat transfer area enhancement factor (1.55). Fins always act as a turbulence promoter in the given experimental data range. Finally, the most widely used heat transfer coefficient correlations for condensation inside microfin tubes were analyzed through the experimental data. Best fit was obtained with Yu and Koyama's correlation with an absolute mean deviation of 17% and Kedzierski and Goncalves's correlation with an absolute mean deviation of 19%.     

Non-Uniform Onset of Nucleate Flow Boiling of R-134a Inside a Glass Minichannel

The present work is an experimental investigation of the incipient boiling of R134a inside a circular glass minichannel mounted horizontally and equipped with a series of transparent indium tin oxide heaters. The effects of heat flux input levels and refrigerant mass fluxes on the onset nucleate boiling process and on the saturated boiling heat transfer rate are quantitatively explored. The flow pattern visualizations, carried on by means of a high-speed camera, show that the nucleation process is oddly non-uniform: the first vapor bubbles are always generated on the upper side of the tube and lead to a first wall temperature drop. A further increase in the heat flux values results in an increased wall superheat until bubble nucleation also originates on the lower side of the tube, causing a second wall temperature drop. Finally, at higher heat input levels, the boiling process becomes uniformly distributed on the inner tube surface. This phenomenon occurred also after a 180° rotation of the glass tube, and, after a critical analysis of the potential origins, it remains presently unexplained. An evaluation of heat transfer coefficients for low vapor quality regimes is finally presented.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of R-134a inside the flattened tubes at high mass flux and different saturation temperature

In this study, heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops of R-134a inside round and flat tubes are investigated experimentally with mass flux of 450, 550, and 650 kg m^?2 s^?1 at saturation temperatures of 35°, 40°, and 45°C. The effects of mass flux and saturation temperature on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are examined. The maximum enhancement factor and pressure drop penalty are obtained by flat tube (FT-2) up to 2.101 at 450 kg m^?2 s^?1 and 3.01 at 650 kg m^?2 s^?1, respectively. The correlation for flat tubes is proposed to predict the heat transfer coefficient within ±20% error.     

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER AND BURNOUT IN CONDITION OF NONUNIFORM MEGAWATT HEAT FLUXES

Burnout is investigated in tubes under nonuniform heating on the perimeter. Data on heat transfer and critical heat flux (q_cht) in the case of water were obtained for ranges of mass velocity pw = 200-3000 kg/m₂ s, pressure p = 0.1-1 MPa, and inlet water temperature T = 25-98°C. The test section was a horizontal copper tube of 21 mm outer diameter, 8 mm inner diameter with a technically smooth surface and heat transfer-intensifying twisted tape and porous sintered coating. The test section was heated by bombardment with electrons. It is established that a redistribution of heat fluxes and an increase of wall temperature fluctuations occur at burnout. The range of regime parameters to prevent burnout of a heat transfer surface is determined.     

Heat transfer in boiling of refrigerant R-21 in a downward flow in an assembly of minichannels

The paper presents the results of an experimental study of heat transfer in boiling of refrigerant R-21 in a downward flow in a vertical assembly of minichannels of a plate-fin heat exchanger. Characteristic regimes of vapor-liquid flow and heat transfer coefficients have been obtained for the case of plain fins in the ranges of low mass velocities and heat fluxes that are typical of the industry but poorly studied. The obtained data show no significant dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the heat flux density and mass velocity, which may be explained by the decisive effect of the evaporation of thin liquid film on the heat transfer at low heat flux density.     

斜翅型冷凝强化换热管传热性能的实验研究

对一种斜翅型外翅片带内螺纹的冷凝强化换热管进行传热性能的实验研究。管外冷凝换热的制冷剂为R134a,管内对流换热的介质为水。分别在定热流密度与定水流速的条件下进行一系列工况的实验,得到相应的实验数据。在定热流密度条件下,利用Wilson图解法得到管内的换热系数数据及相应的计算关联式。在定水流速的条件下,利用分离方法得到管外冷凝换热系数数据及相应的计算关联式。将强化管换热系数数据与光管换热系数的理论计算值进行了比较,结果表明:冷凝强化换热管管内对流换热的强化倍率为2.4,管外凝结换热系数随壁面过冷度的增加而增大,管外凝结换热的强化倍率为:1.78～3.92。     

Flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerant R21 in microchannel heat sink

Boiling heat transfer in a refrigerant R 21 flow in a microchannel heat sink is studied. A stainless steel heat sink with a length of 120 mm contains ten microchannels with a size of 640×2050 μm at cross-section with a wall roughness of 10 μm. The local heat-transfer coefficient distribution along the heat sink length is obtained. The ranges of parameters are: mass flow from 68 to 172 kg/m²s, heat fluxes from 16 to 152 kW/m², and vapor quality from 0 to 1. The maximum values of the heat transfer coefficient are observed at the inlet of microchannels. The heat transfer coefficients decrease substantially along the length of channels under high heat flux conditions and, on the contrary, change insignificantly under low heat flux condition. A comparison with the well-known models of flow boiling heat transfer is performed and the range of applicability is defined.