Experimental study of the condensation heat transfer characteristics of CO2 in a horizontal microfin tube with a diameter of 4.95?mm

The condensation heat transfer characteristics for CO₂ flowing in a horizontal microfin tube were investigated by experiment with respect to condensation temperature and mass flux. The test section consists of a 2,400?mm long horizontal copper tube of 4.6?mm inner diameter. The experiments were conducted at refrigerant mass flux of 400–800?kg/m²s, and saturation temperature of 20–30?°C. The main experimental results showed that annular flow was highly dominated the majority of condensation flow in the horizontal microfin tube. The condensation heat transfer coefficient increases with decreasing saturation temperature and increasing mass flux. The experimental data were compared against previous heat transfer correlations. Most correlations failed to predict the experimental data. However, the correlation by Cavallini et al. showed relatively good agreement with experimental data in the microfin tube. Therefore, a new condensation heat transfer correlation is proposed with mean and average deviations of 3.14 and ?7.6?%, respectively.     

Pressure drop, heat transfer and performance of single-phase turbulent flow in spirally corrugated tubes

The paper presents the results of an experimental study that was carried out to determine turbulent friction and heat transfer characteristics of four spirally corrugated tubes, which have various geometrical parameters, with water and oil as the working fluids. Experiments were performed under conditions of Reynolds number varying from 6000 to 93,000 for water, and from 3200 to 19,000 for oil, respectively. The results show that the thermal performance of these tubes was superior compared to a smooth tube, but the heat transfer enhancements were not as large as the friction factor increases. Friction factors and heat transfer coefficient in these rough tubes were analyzed on the basis of momentum and heat transfer analogy, and the correlations obtained were compared with the present data and also the results of previous investigators. A mathematical model to evaluate the performance of spirally corrugated tube, which takes account of the large variation of fluid Prandtl number with temperature, was developed by the extension of previous work of Bergles and Webb. The results reported enable practical designs with standard products and optimization of tube geometry for specific conditions.     

基于蒙特卡罗随机有限元方法的随机多孔介质内流体自然对流不确定性研究

为分析孔隙率不确定性对多孔介质方腔内自然对流换热的影响,发展了一种基于KL（Karhunen-Loeve展开）-蒙特卡罗随机有限元算法的随机多孔介质内自然对流不确定性分析数理模型及有限元数值模拟程序框架。通过K-L展开及基于拉丁抽样法生成多孔介质孔隙率随机实现,并耦合多孔介质自然对流有限元程序,进行随机多孔介质内自然对流传热数值模拟,得出了多孔介质内流场与温度场平均值与标准偏差,并分析了孔隙率不确定性条件下Da数对Nu数的影响。结果表明,孔隙率不确定性对多孔介质方腔内自然对流有重要影响。随机多孔介质内流场及温度场与确定性条件下的流场及温度场存在一定偏差,Nu数标准偏差随着Da的增大先增大后减小。     

Cross-flow heat transfer in fixed bed

Radial flow reactor operated at cross-flow heat transfer is focused for large scale methanol synthesis. The effects of operating conditions including the reactor inlet air temperature, the heating pipe temperature and the air flow rate on the cross-flow heat transfer were investigated and results show that the temperature profile of the area in front of the heating pipe is slightly affected by all the operating conditions. The main area whose temperature profile is influenced is located behind the heating pipe. The heat transfer direction is related to the direction of the flow. In order to obtain the basic parameters for radial flow reactor designing calculation, the dimensionless number group method was used for data fitting of the bed effective thermal conductivity and the wall heat transfer coefficient which were calculated by the mathematical model with the product of Reynolds number and Prandtl number. The comparison of experimental data and calculated values shows that the calculated values fit the experimental data satisfactorily and the formulas can be used for reactor designing calculation.     

Forced convective boiling heat transfer in microtubes at low mass and heat fluxes

Convective boiling of HCFC123 and FC72 in 0.19, 0.3 and 0.51 mm ID tubes is investigated. The experimental setup as well as the data reduction procedure has carefully been designed, so that the relative uncertainty interval of the measured heat transfer coefficient in microtubes is kept within ±10%. Up to 70 K liquid superheat over the saturation temperature is observed at low heat and mass fluxes. The onset of the superheat is found to be dependent on the mass flux and the boiling number of the refrigerant examined. In the saturated boiling regime, the heat transfer characteristics are much different from those in conventional-size tubes. The heat transfer coefficient is monotonically decreased with increasing the vapor quality, and becomes independent of the mass flux. Most empirical formulas are not in accordance with the present experimental data. Since the prediction using the nucleate boiling term of Kandlikar’s empirical correlations coincides with the present results, the convection effect should be minor in microtubes. On the other hand, the pressure loss characteristics are qualitatively in accordance with the conventional correlation formula while quantitatively much lower. These phenomena can be explained by the fact that the annular flow prevails in microtubes.     

Studies on convective heat transfer through helical coils

An experimental investigation on steady state convection heat transfer from vertical helical coiled tubes in water was performed for laminar flow regime. Three coils with curvature ratios as 0.0757, 0.064, 0.055 and range of Prandtl number from 3.81 to 4.8, Reynolds number from 3,166 to 9,658 were considered in this work. The heat transfer data were generated from 30 experiments conducted at constant water bath temperature (60 °C) for different cold water flow rates in helical coils. For the first time, an innovative approach of correlating Nusselt number with ‘M’ number is proposed which is not available in the literature and the developed correlations are found to be in good agreement with the work of earlier researchers. Thus, dimensionless number ‘M’ was found to be significant to characterize the hydrodynamics of fluid flow and heat transfer correlations in helical coils. Several other correlations based on experimental data are developed. To cover wide range of industrial applications, suitable generalized correlations based on extended parameters beyond the range of present experimental work are also developed. All these correlations are developed by using least-squares power law fit and multiple-regression analysis of MATLAB software. Correlations so developed were compared with published correlations and were found to be in good agreement. Comparison of heat transfer coefficients, friction factor and Nusselt number for different geometrical conditions is presented in this paper.     

Experimental coating and heat transfer studies in a vibrating fluidized bed

This work presents an experimental study of the heat transfer in a vibrofluidized bed and an investigation of the vibrofluidized bed coating process of thin copper plates.At superficial velocities close to that of minimum fluidization the heat transfer coefficient increases with the air flow rate and also with the immersion depth in the bed. It is independent of the initial object temperature.For different experimental conditions the obtained vibrofluidized bed coating thicknesses increase with the initial object temperature and immersion time. When compared with the theoretical predictions calculated for a regular fluidized bed, they show a good agreement. The temperature-time histories of the coated object are also recorded and compared to theoretical results.     

Effect of porosity and the inlet heat transfer fluid temperature variation on the performance of cool thermal energy storage system

This paper discusses the results of numerical and experimental study of an encapsulated cool thermal energy storage system. The storage system is a cylindrical storage tank filled with phase change material encapsulated in spherical container, placed in a refrigeration loop. A simulation program was developed to evaluate the temperature histories of the heat transfer fluid and the phase change material at any axial location during the charging period. The present analysis aims at studying the influence of the inlet heat transfer fluid temperature and porosity on system performance. An experimental setup was designed and constructed to conduct the experiments. The results of the model were validated by comparison with experimental results of temperature profiles for different inlet heat transfer fluid temperatures and porosity. The results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The results reported are much useful for designing cool thermal energy storage systems.     

Local heat transfer coefficients around a horizontal heated tube immersed in a gas fluidized bed

The heat transfer characteristics around a single horizontal heated tube immersed in air fluidized bed was investigated, to clarify the mechanism of heat transfer in a fluidized bed heat exchanger. The local heat transfer coefficient around the tube was measured at various fluidization velocities and five different solid particles. The experimental values of the local heat transfer coefficient at the minimum fluidization velocity condition were correlated with the particle size in two empirical equations. The predicted results were in good agreement with the experiment data.     

Experimental and numerical investigations on the performance of dehumidifying desiccant beds composed of silica-gel and thermal energy storage particles

Enhanced efficiency of the adsorption process in the dehumidifier is a key element for improved performance of desiccant cooling systems. Due to the exothermic nature of the adsorption process, the dehumidification and cooling capacity are limited by significant temperature changes in the adsorption column. In the present study, the effects of integration of sensible and latent heat storage particles in the desiccant bed for in situ management of released adsorption heat are investigated. For this purpose, column experiments are performed using an initially dry granular bed made of silica-gel particles or a homogeneous mixture of silica gel and inert sensible or latent heat storage particles. The packed bed is subject to a sudden uniform air flow at selected values of temperature and humidity. Also, a packed bed numerical model is developed that includes the coupled non-equilibrium heat and moisture transfer in the solid and gas phases. Investigations of the heat and mass transfer characteristics are reported using the composite structure and the results are compared with the base case of simple silica gel bed. Improved desiccant cooling system performance can be obtained by appropriate adjustment of desiccant cycle operation and proper choice of the volume ratio of thermal energy storage particles.     

Experimental investigation of forced convective heat transfer coefficient in nanofluids of Al2O3/EG and CuO/EG in a double pipe and plate heat exchangers under turbulent flow

Nanofluid is the term applied to a suspension of solid, nanometer-sized particles in conventional fluids; the most prominent features of such fluids include enhanced heat characteristics, such as convective heat transfer coefficient, in comparison to the base fluid without considerable alterations in physical and chemical properties. In this study, nanofluids of aluminum oxide and copper oxide were prepared in ethylene glycol separately. The effect of forced convective heat transfer coefficient in turbulent flow was calculated using a double pipe and plate heat exchangers. Furthermore, we calculated the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids using theoretical correlations in order to compare the results with the experimental data. We also evaluated the effects of particle concentration and operating temperature on the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids. The findings indicate considerable enhancement in convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids as compared to the base fluid, ranging from 2% to 50%. Moreover, the results indicate that with increasing nanoparticles concentration and nanofluid temperature, the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid increases. Our experiments revealed that in lower temperatures, the theoretical and experimental findings coincide; however, in higher temperatures and with increased concentrations of the nanoparticles in ethylene glycol, the two set of results tend to have growing discrepancies.     

Condensation heat transfer characteristics of R-22, R-134a and R-410A in small diameter tubes

The condensation heat transfer of pure refrigerants, R-22, R-134a and a binary refrigerant R-410A flowing in small diameter tubes was investigated experimentally. The condenser is a countflow heat exchanger which refrigerant flows in the inner tube and cooling water flows in the annulus. The heat exchanger is smooth, horizontal copper tube of 1.77, 3.36 and 5.35 mm inner diameter, respectively. The length of heat exchanger is 1220, 2660 and 3620 mm, respectively. The experiments were conducted at mass flux of 200–400 kg/m² s and saturation temperature of 40°C. The main results were summarized as follows: in case of single-phase flow, the single-phase Nusselt Number measured by experimental data was higher than that calculated by Gnielinski and Wu and Little correlation. The new single-phase correlation based on the experimental data was proposed in this study. In case of two-phase flow, the condensation heat transfer coefficient of R-410A for three tubes was slightly higher than that of R-22 and R-134a at the given mass flux. The condensation heat transfer coefficient of R-22 showed almost a similar value to that of R-134a. The condensation heat transfer coefficient for R-22, R-134a and R-410A increased with increasing mass flux and decreasing tube diameter. Most of the existing correlations which were proposed in the large diameter tube failed to predict condensation heat transfer. Therefore, the new condensation heat transfer correlation based on the experimental data was proposed in the present study.     

Bed-to-surface heat transfer in a circulating fluidized bed

 The heat transfer characteristics between a circulating fluidized bed and a surface immersed inside it are investigated. This paper presents a statistical model describing the mechanism of heat transfer and the relationship between the heat transfer coefficient and the main parameters of the bed. The proposed model yields a satisfactory representation of heat transfer process in the circulating fluidized bed (CFB), it is consistent with experimental results and other researchers results. Received on 13 December 1999 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Experimental investigation on performance of ice storage air-conditioning system with separate heat pipe

An experimental study on operation performance of ice storage air-conditioning system with separate helical heat pipe is conducted in this paper. The experimental system of ice storage air-conditioning system with separate heat pipe is set up. The performance parameters such as the evaporation pressure and the condensation pressure of refrigeration system, the refrigeration capacity and the COP (coefficient of performance) of the system, the IPF (ice packing factor) and the cool storage capacity in the cool storage tank during charging period, and the cool discharge rate and the cool discharge capacity in the cool storage tank, the outlet water temperature in the cool storage tank and the outlet air temperature in room unit during discharging period are investigated. The experimental results show that the ice storage air-conditioning system with separate helical heat pipe can stably work during charging and discharging period. This indicates that the ice storage air-conditioning system with separate helical heat pipe is well adapted to cool storage air-conditioning systems in building.     

Experimental determination of correlations for average heat transfer coefficients in heat exchangers on both fluid sides

This paper presents an experimental–numerical method for determining heat transfer coefficients in cross-flow heat exchangers with extended heat exchange surfaces. Coefficients in the correlations defining heat transfer on the liquid- and air-side were determined based on experimental data using a non-linear regression method. Correlation coefficients were determined from the condition that the weighted sum of squared liquid and air temperature differences at the heat exchanger outlet, obtained by measurements and those calculated, achieved minimum. Minimum of the sum of the squares was found using the Levenberg–Marquardt method. The uncertainty in estimated parameters was determined using the error propagation rule by Gauss. The outlet temperature of the liquid and air leaving the heat exchanger was calculated using an analytical model of the heat exchanger.     

Analysis on heat transfer correlations of supercritical CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> cooled in horizontal circular tubes

The objective of the present study is to analyze the heat transfer correlations of supercritical CO₂ cooled in horizontal circular tubes. In the paper, heat transfer correlations are first reviewed and compared with the experimental data at different heat fluxes. The results show that most of the previous correlations agree well with the experimental data under lower heat flux, but fail to predict the heat transfer coefficient well when the heat flux is as high as 33 kW/m². The study of buoyancy effect on convective heat transfer shows that buoyancy effect significantly affects the heat transfer with the increase of heat flux, and both free and forced convections operate in the turbulence flow during supercritical CO₂ cooling process. The influencing factors on heat transfer coefficient are summarized and the new correlation can be developed with the four dimensionless numbers.     

Two phase flow and heat transfer characteristics of a separate-type heat pipe

Two phase flow and heat transfer characteristics of a separate-type heat pipe have been studied experimentally and theoretically. The experimental apparatus have the same geometry for the evaporator and the condenser which consist of 5-tube-banks, with working temperature ranges of 80–125°C. The experimental working fluid is dual-distilled water with corrosion-resistant agents. Heat transfer coefficients for boiling and condensation along with heat flux and working temperature are measured at different filling ratio. According to the results of the experiments, the optimized filling ratio ranges from 16 to 36%. Fitted correlations of average heat transfer coefficients of the evaporator and Nusselt numbers of the condenser at the proposed filling ratio are obtained. Two phase flow characteristics of the evaporator and the condenser as well as their influence on heat transfer are described on the basis of simplified analysis. Reasons for the pulse-boiling process remain to be studied.     

Condensing heat transfer characteristics of hydrocarbon refrigerants in 9.52 and 12.7 mm smooth tube

Experimental results for heat transfer characteristic and pressure gradients of hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants and R-22 during condensing inside horizontal double pipe heat exchangers are presented. The test sections which have one tube diameter of 12.70 mm with 0.86 mm wall thickness, another tube diameter of 9.52 mm with 0.76 mm wall thickness are used for this investigation. The local condensing heat transfer coefficients of HC refrigerants were higher than that of R-22. The average condensing heat transfer coefficient increased with the increase of the mass flux. It showed the higher values in HC refrigerants than R-22. Comparing the heat transfer coefficient of experimental results with that of other correlations, the presented results had a good agreement with most of the Cavallini’s correlations.     

Determination of heat transfer correlations for plate-fin-and-tube heat exchangers

This paper presents a numerical method for determining heat transfer coefficients in cross-flow heat exchangers with extended heat exchange surfaces. Coefficients in the correlations defining heat transfer on the liquid- and air-side were determined using a non-linear regression method. Correlation coefficients were determined from the condition that the sum of squared fluid temperature differences at the heat exchanger outlet, obtained by measurements and those calculated, achieved minimum. Minimum of the sum of the squares was found using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The outlet temperature of the fluid leaving the heat exchanger was calculated using the mathematical model describing the heat transfer in the heat exchanger. Since the conditions at the liquid-side and those at the air-side are identified simultaneously, the derived correlations are valid in a wide range of flow rate changes of the air and liquid. This is especially important for partial loads of the exchanger, when the heat transfer rate is lower than the nominal load. The correlation for the average heat transfer coefficient on the air-side based on the experimental data was compared with the correlation obtained from numerical simulation of 3D fluid and heat flow, performed by means of the commercially available CFD code. The numerical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Kinetic model of heat transfer processes in a fluidized bed

In the present paper equations are obtained for determining the temperature field in a fluidized layer. The heat and mass transfer processes in a fluidized bed depend significantly on the motion of the solid particles which form the bed. In any small volume of a fluidized bed with nonuniform thermal conditions there are particles with different average temperatures. Therefore it is natural to resort to the statistical representation of such a system, developed previously in [1, 2], for the study of the heat transfer processes. The expression obtained here for the heat conductivity coefficient of the bed is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental data.The author wishes to thank V. G. Levich for his interest and valuable discussions.