Pool boiling of ammonia/water and its pure components: Comparison of experimental data in the literature with the predictions of standard correlations

Although ammonia/water has been used for decades as a working pair in absorption cycles for industrial refrigeration, very limited data are available on boiling heat transfer of this mixture. The intention of this work is to carry out a bibliographic revision of the information available in the open literature about nucleate pool boiling of the ammonia/water mixture and its pure components. The experimental data have been compared with existing prediction correlations for the pure components and also for their mixtures.For water, all the pure component pool boiling correlations gave similar predictions and were in good agreement with experimental data. For ammonia the prediction of the correlation and the experimental data showed more differences.At a given heat flux, the experimental data show that the mixture pool boiling heat transfer coefficient is lower than that obtained with pure components. Three of the well-known correlations for mixtures were compared against the experimental data. None of these correlations provided a good prediction of the mixture pool boiling heat transfer coefficient over a wide range of mass fraction. Furthermore, a new correlation has been proposed.     

Influence of ultrasound on pool boiling heat transfer to mixtures of the refrigerants R23 and R134A

The effect of ultrasound on pool boiling heat transfer to mixtures of the refrigerants R23 and R134a has been investigated in a wide range of heat flux and saturation pressure. The enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient, which can be achieved by ultrasound, is much more pronounced for mixtures than for pure substances. It is, however, limited to rather small heat fluxes ( ). Especially remarkable is the fact, that the maximum influence of ultrasound on the heat transfer coefficient of the mixtures occurs at medium saturation pressures (p/p_c ≈ 0.2); the effect is markedly less for higher and for lower saturation pressures. Obviously, the improvement of the heat transfer to mixtures is mainly caused by a decrease of the local saturation temperature near the heating wall, due to a better mixing in the liquid boundary. This explanation is supported by evaluating important parameters of bubble formation from high-speed photographs of the heating surface. It is further noticeable, that the well known hysteresis effect at the beginning of pool boiling is reduced to a great extent by exposure to ultrasound.     

The effect of lubricant concentration, miscibility, and viscosity on R134a pool boiling

This paper presents pool boiling heat transfer data for 12 different R134a/lubricant mixtures and pure R134a on a Turbo-BII™-HP surface. The mixtures were designed to examine the effects of lubricant mass fraction, viscosity, and miscibility on the heat transfer performance of R134a. The magnitude of the effect of each parameter on the heat transfer was quantified with a regression analysis. The mechanistic cause of each effect was given based on new theoretical interpretation and/or one from the literature. The model illustrates that large improvements over pure R134a heat transfer can be obtained for R134a/lubricant mixtures with small lubricant mass fraction, high lubricant viscosity, and a large critical solution temperature (CST). The ratio of the heat flux of the R134a/lubricant mixture to that of the pure R134a for fixed wall superheat was given as a function of pure R134a heat flux for all 12 mixtures. The lubricant that had the largest CST with R134a exhibited the greatest heat transfer: 100%±20% greater than that of pure R134a. By contrast, the heat transfer of the mixture with the lubricant that had the smallest viscosity and the smallest CST with R134a was 55%±9% less than that of pure R134a. High-speed films of the pure and mixture pool boiling were taken to observe the effect of the lubricant on the nucleate boiling.     

Prediction of evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures in horizontal tubes

A study on the prediction of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures is reported. Heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops of prospective mixtures to replace R12 and R22 are predicted on the same cooling capacity basis assuming evaporation in horizontal tubes. Results indicate that nucleate boiling is suppressed at qualities greater than 20% for all mixtures, and evaporation becomes the main heat transfer mechanism. For the same capacity, some mixtures containing R32 and R152a show 8–10% increase in heat transfer coefficients. Some mixtures with large volatility difference exhibit as much as 55% reduction compared to R12 and R22, caused by mass transfer resistance and property degradation due to mixing (32%) and reduced mass flow rates (23%). Other mixtures with moderate volatility difference exhibit 20–30% degradation due mainly to reduced mass flow rates. The overall impact of heat transfer degradation, however, is insignificant if major heat transfer resistance exists in the heat transfer fluid side (air system). If the resistance in the heat transfer fluid side is of the same order of magnitude as that on the refrigerant side (water system), considerable reduction in overall heat transfer coefficient of up to 20% is expected. A study of the effect of uncertainties in transport properties on heat transfer shows that transport properties of liquid affect heat transfer more than other properties. Uncertainty of 10% in transport properties causes a change of less than 6% in heat transfer prediction.     

Heat transfer in subcooled liquid cryogens

Experimental study of heat transfer in helium, hydrogen and nitrogen has been carried out over a wide range of pressures and subcooling. Empirical correlations are obtained to calculate heat transfer coefficients at nucleate boiling, film boiling and single-phase convection. Conditions are determined for transitions from one heat transfer mode to another.     

多元混合工质池核沸腾传热实验研究

对R134a、丙烷（C3H8）、异丁烷（iC4H10）三种纯工质以及它们相应的二元混合物和三元混合物做了池核沸腾传热实验研究。加热面为紫铜表面，压力范围在0．1～0．6MPa。在纯工质实验数据基础上，分析物性、压力对沸腾传热系数的影响。相对于纯工质，非共沸混合工质沸腾传热系数有所降低，并且在高热流下趋势更明显。最后拟合出纯工质和混合工质沸腾传热关联式。     

Nucleate boiling of low-concentration alcohol aqueous solutions for the development of thermal management systems in space

To develop high-performance space thermal management systems using boiling phenomena, the heat transfer characteristics of low concentration alcohol aqueous solutions were investigated on ground. For mixtures of 1-Propanol/Water, 2-Propanol/Water and Water/1-Butanol, i.e. substantially positive mixtures at very low concentration range of alcohol, heat transfer enhancement was observed, while only heat transfer deterioration was reported in most of existing studies for nucleate boiling of mixtures. A concept of coexisting heat transfer enhancement due to Marangoni effect additionally to the heat transfer deterioration due to mass transfer resistance was emphasized. The concept seems to be true for mixture nucleate boiling independent of gravity level.     

Prediction of evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures

A study on the prediction of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures is reported. HTCs and pressure drops of prospective mixtures to replace R12 and R22 are predicted on the same cooling capacity basis. Results indicate that nucleate boiling is suppressed at qualities greater than 20.0% for all mixtures and evaporation becomes the main heat transfer mechanism. For the same capacity, some mixtures containing R32 and R152a show 8.0–10.0% increase in HTCs. Some mixtures with large volatility difference exhibit as much as 55.0% reduction compared with R12 and R22, caused by mass transfer resistance and property degradation due to mixing (32.0%) and reduced mass flow rates (23.0%). Other mixtures with moderate volatility difference exhibit 20.0–30.0% degradation due mainly to reduced mass flow rates. The overall impact of heat transfer degradation, however, is insignificant if major heat transfer resistance exists in the heat transfer fluid side (air system). If the resistance in the heat transfer fluid side is of the same order of magnitude as that on the refrigerant side (water system), considerable reduction in overall HTC of up to 20% is expected. A study of the effect of uncertainties in transport properties on heat transfer shows that transport properties of liquid affect heat transfer more than other properties. Uncertainty of 10.0% in transport properties causes a change of less than 6% in heat transfer prediction.     

Effect of bulk lubricant concentration on the excess surface density during R134a pool boiling

This paper investigates the effect that the bulk lubricant concentration has on the non-adiabatic lubricant excess surface density on a roughened, horizontal flat pool-boiling surface. Both pool boiling heat transfer data and lubricant excess surface density data are given for pure R134a and three different mixtures of R134a and a polyolester lubricant (POE). A spectrofluorometer was used to measure the lubricant excess density that was established by the boiling of an R134a/POE lubricant mixture on a test surface. The lubricant is preferentially drawn out of the bulk refrigerant/lubricant mixture by the boiling process and accumulates on the surface in excess of the bulk concentration. The excess lubricant resides in an approximately 40 μm layer on the surface and influences the boiling performance. The lubricant excess surface density measurements were used to modify an existing dimensionless excess surface density parameter so that it is valid for different reduced pressures. The dimensionless parameter is a key component for a refrigerant/lubricant pool-boiling model given in the literature. In support of improving the boiling model, both the excess measurements and heat transfer data are provided for pure R134a and three R134a/lubricant mixtures at 277.6 K. The heat transfer data show that the lubricant excess layer causes an average enhancement of the heat flux of approximately 24% for the 0.5% lubricant mass fraction mixture relative to pure R134a heat fluxes between 5 and 20 kW/m². Conversely, both 1 and 2% lubricant mass fraction mixtures experienced an average degradation of approximately 60% in the heat flux relative to pure R134a heat fluxes between approximately 4 and 20 kW/m². This study is an effort toward generating data to support a boiling model to predict whether lubricants degrade or improve boiling performance.     

Influence of oil on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer of refrigerant on metal foam covers

Nucleate pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant/oil mixture on metal foam covers were experimentally investigated. The refrigerant is R113, and the oil is VG68. The copper foams, having ppi (pores per inch) of 10 and 20, porosity from 90% to 98%, and thickness of 5 mm, are selected in this study. Experimental conditions include a saturation pressure of 101 kPa, oil concentrations from 0 to 5%, and heat fluxes from 0 to 80 kW m⁻². The experimental results indicate that the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient on copper foam covers is larger than that on flat heated surface by a maximum of 160% under the present experimental conditions; the presence of oil deteriorates the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer on copper foam covers by a maximum of 15% under the present experimental conditions, and the deterioration of oil on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer on copper foam covers is lower than that on a flat heated surface. A correlation for predicting the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant/oil mixture on copper foam cover is developed, and it agrees with 95% of the experimental data within a deviation of ±20%.     

Thermal performance of cold storage in thermal battery for air conditioning

This article studies, experimentally and theoretically, the thermal performance of cold storage in thermal battery for air conditioning. Thermal battery utilizes the superior heat transfer characteristics of heat pipe and eliminates drawbacks found in the conventional thermal storage tank. Experimental investigations are first conducted to study the cold storage thermal performance in two experimental systems: the ratio of distance between heat pipes to outer diameter of heat pipe W/D=6 and 2. Different heat transfer mechanisms including nucleate boiling, geyser boiling and natural convection are identified in different experimental systems with various liquid fills. A theoretical model to determine the thermal characteristics of the thermal battery has also been developed. Comparisons of this theory with experimental data show good agreements in the nucleate boiling stage of cold storage process.     

Heat transfer in nucleate boiling of different low boiling substances

Heat transfer coefficients for nucleate boiling of methane, ethane, ethylene, argon and carbon dioxide were determined using an apparatus for the precise investigation of pool boiling heat transfer in the low temperature range. The apparatus used a horizontal cylinder as the heating element. The influence of the thermophysical properties of the boiling liquid was established by comparing the absolute values of the heat transfer coefficients in a normalized boiling state, i.e. a saturation pressure equal to 10% of the critical pressure and a heat flux density equal to 2 × 10⁴ W m⁻². By including the results for a number of higher boiling liquids, which were investigated previously under similar experimental conditions, and using literature data for three very low boiling liquids, an empirical correlation is established which allows an approximate prediction of the absolute value of the heat transfer coefficient at nucleate boiling for substances of different molecular structure.     

Transition from nucleate boiling to convective boiling in compact heat exchangers

The boiling of pure fluids has been experimentally studied in several types of compact heat exchanger channels. Plate fin and corrugated heat exchangers have been studied (seven geometries). Controlling the flow parameters (mass flux and vapour quality), the heat flux and measuring the wall temperature, have allowed characterization of the local heat transfer coefficient.

The results clearly show that the dominant mechanisms occurring could be nucleate or convective boiling. The transition between these two mechanisms depends on the flow characteristics and also on the channel geometry. Based on these measurements, an objective criteria can be established to identify the flow boiling regime. The knowledge of such a criteria is useful if we want to extend the use of compact heat exchanger to boiling of mixtures.     

竖直狭缝通道中液氮沸腾强化换热的实验研究

实验表明，狭缝间隙对液氮自然对流核态沸腾换热有明显的影响，在低热流密度下，间隙小的狭缝沸腾换热比间隙大的狭缝明显增强，当狭缝间隙小于实验压力下气泡的脱离直径时，对于同样的热流密度，传热温差减小一个数量级以上，沸腾换热系数提高十几倍到二十倍以上，当热流密度增加一定程度（＞4W/cm^2)时，间隙小的狭缝沸腾换热比间隙大的狭缝有所减弱。     

Evaporation of R407C and R410A in a horizontal herringbone microfin tube: heat transfer and pressure drop

Based on experimental data for R134a, the present work deals with the development of a prediction method for heat transfer in herringbone microfin tubes. As is shown in earlier works, heat transfer coefficients for the investigated herringbone microfin tube tend to peak at lower vapour qualities than in helical microfin tubes. Correlations developed for other tube types fail to describe this behaviour. A hypothesis that the position of the peak is related to the point where the average film thickness becomes smaller than the fin height is tested and found to be consistent with observed behaviour. The proposed method accounts for this hypothesis and incorporates the well-known Steiner and Taborek correlation for the calculation of flow boiling heat transfer coefficients. The correlation is modified by introducing a surface enhancement factor and adjusting the two-phase multiplier. Experimental data for R134a are predicted with an average residual of 1.5% and a standard deviation of 21%. Tested against experimental data for mixtures R410A and R407C, the proposed method overpredicts experimental data by around 60%. An alternative adjustment of the two-phase multiplier, in order to better predict mixture data, is discussed.     

Nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficients of flammable refrigerants on various enhanced tubes

In this study, nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) of five flammable refrigerants of propylene (R1270), propane (R290), isobutane (R600a), butane (R600), and dimethylether (RE170) were measured at the liquid temperature of 7 °C on a low fin tube of 1023 fins per meter, Turbo-B, and Thermoexcel-E tubes. All data were taken from 80 to 10 kW m⁻² with an interval of 10 kW m⁻² in the decreasing order of heat flux. Flammable refrigerants' data showed a typical trend that nucleate boiling HTCs obtained on enhanced tubes also increase with the vapor pressure. Fluids with lower reduced pressure such as DME, isobutene, and butane took more advantage of the heat transfer enhancement mechanism of enhanced tubes than those with higher reduced pressure such as propylene and propane. Finally, Thermoexcel-E showed the highest heat transfer enhancement ratios of 2.3–9.4 among the tubes tested due to its sub-channels and re-entrant cavities.     

Effect of bulk lubricant concentration on the excess surface density during R123 pool boiling

This paper investigates the effect that bulk lubricant concentration has on the non-adiabatic lubricant excess surface density on a roughened, horizontal flat (plain) pool-boiling surface. Both pool boiling heat transfer data and lubricant excess surface density data are given for pure R123 and three different mixtures of R123 and a naphthenic mineral oil. A spectrofluorometer was used to measure the lubricant excess density that was established by the boiling of a R123/lubricant mixture on a test surface. The fluorescent technique was used to measure the effect of bulk lubricant concentration on the lubricant excess layer during refrigerant/lubricant mixture boiling. The refrigerant preferentially boils, thus, concentrating and accumulating the lubricant on the surface in excess of the bulk concentration. The excess lubricant resides in a very thin layer on the surface and influences the boiling performance. Accordingly, the ability to measure the effect of bulk lubricant composition on the lubricant excess density and in turn the effect on the heat transfer would lead to a fundamental understanding of the mechanism by which lubricants can degrade or improve boiling performance. In support of this effort, heat transfer data are provided for pure R123 and three R123/lubricant mixtures at 277.6 K. For heat fluxes between approximately 25 to 45 kW/m², an average enhancement of the heat flux of 9 and 5% was achieved for the 0.5 and 1% lubricant mass fractions, respectively, and an average degradation of 5% in the heat flux was obtained for the 1.8% lubricant mass fraction mixture.

Résumé

This paper investigates the effect that bulk lubricant concentration has on the non-adiabatic lubricant excess surface density on a roughened, horizontal flat (plain) pool-boiling surface. Both pool boiling heat transfer data and lubricant excess surface density data are given for pure R123 and three different mixtures of R123 and a naphthenic mineral oil. A spectrofluorometer was used to measure the lubricant excess density that was established by the boiling of a R123/lubricant mixture on a test surface. The fluorescent technique was used to measure the effect of bulk lubricant concentration on the lubricant excess layer during refrigerant/lubricant mixture boiling. The refrigerant preferentially boils, thus, concentrating and accumulating the lubricant on the surface in excess of the bulk concentration. The excess lubricant resides in a very thin layer on the surface and influences the boiling performance. Accordingly, the ability to measure the effect of bulk lubricant composition on the lubricant excess density and in turn the effect on the heat transfer would lead to a fundamental understanding of the mechanism by which lubricants can degrade or improve boiling performance. In support of this effort, heat transfer data are provided for pure R123 and three R123/lubricant mixtures at 277.6 K. For heat fluxes between approximately 25 kW/m² to 45 kW/m², an average enhancement of the heat flux of 9% and 5% was achieved for the 0.5% and 1% lubricant mass fractions, respectively, and an average degradation of 5% in the heat flux was obtained for the 1.8% lubricant mass fraction mixture.     

Boiling hysteresis at low temperature on enhanced tubes

The boiling hysteresis phenomenon is studied for a real scale enhanced evaporator tube (2 m long Turbo-B type) with R134a refrigerant used in the flooded evaporator of a centrifugal brine chiller for the ice-making facility. Unlike previous studies of the boiling heat transfer with uniform heat flux and uniform wall temperature, the wall temperature varies along the tube in the present experiment. To see if the similar hysteresis occurs as in the case of uniform wall temperature, a careful control of refrigerant temperature and heat flux is made. We have found hysteresis of the temperature overshoot (TOS) at the onset of nucleate boiling initially at the inlet section of the tube, before it gradually moved downstream section of the tube until the nucleate boiling occupied the whole section of the tube as the inlet temperature increased. The hysteresis became stronger at low refrigerant temperatures. The decreasing trend of heat flux after the contents of the whole tube boiled was different from the increasing trend. This paper provides a guideline how to design the evaporator in order to avoid the abnormal operation of the chillers.     

Flow boiling heat transfer to carbon dioxide: general prediction method

An updated version of the Kattan–Thome–Favrat flow pattern based, flow boiling heat transfer model for horizontal tubes has been developed specifically for CO₂. Because CO₂ has a low critical temperature and hence high evaporating pressures compared to our previous database, it was found necessary to first correct the nucleate pool boiling correlation to better describe CO₂ at high reduced pressures and secondly to include a boiling suppression factor on the nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient to capture the trends in the flow boiling data. The new method predicts 73% of the CO₂ database (404 data points) to within ±20% and 86% to within ±30% over the vapor quality range of 2–91%. The database covers five tube diameters from 0.79 to 10.06 mm, mass velocities from 85 to 1440 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, heat fluxes from 5 to 36 kW m⁻², saturation temperatures from −25 °C to +25 °C and saturation pressures from 1.7 to 6.4 MPa (reduced pressures up to 0.87).     

Refrigerant R134a vaporisation heat transfer and pressure drop inside a small brazed plate heat exchanger

This paper presents the experimental heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop measured during refrigerant R134a vaporisation inside a small brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE): the effects of heat flux, refrigerant mass flux, saturation temperature and outlet conditions are investigated. The BPHE tested consists of 10 plates, 72 mm in width and 310 mm in length, which present a macro-scale herringbone corrugation with an inclination angle of 65° and corrugation amplitude of 2 mm.The experimental results are reported in terms of refrigerant side heat transfer coefficients and frictional pressure drop. The heat transfer coefficients show great sensitivity both to heat flux and outlet conditions and weak sensitivity to saturation temperature. The frictional pressure drop shows a linear dependence on the kinetic energy per unit volume of the refrigerant flow.The experimental heat transfer coefficients are also compared with two well-known correlations for nucleate pool boiling and a correlation for frictional pressure drop is proposed.