Effect of void fraction models on the two-phase friction factor of R134a during condensation in vertical downward flow in a smooth tube

The void fraction of R134a condensing inside a vertical smooth tube is experimentally investigated in this study. The vertical test section is a 0.5 m long countercurrent flow double tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing down the inner tube and cooling water flowing upward in the annulus. The inner tube is made from smooth copper tubing and has an 8.1 mm inner diameter. The test runs are done at an average saturated condensing temperature of 40 °C. The average qualities are between 0.8 and 0.99 while the mass fluxes are 300 kg m^− 2s^− 1 and the heat fluxes are between 22 and 39.8 kW m^− 2. The void fractions are indirectly determined using relevant measured data together with various void fraction models and correlations reported in the open literature. The friction factors obtained from various void fraction models and correlations are compared with each other and also with those determined from graphical information provided by Bergelin et al. The effect of void fraction alteration on the momentum pressure drop is also presented.     

Validation of void fraction models and correlations using a flow pattern transition mechanism model in relation to the identification of annular vertical downflow in-tube condensation of R134a

This paper reports the experimental investigation of a model for predicting flow pattern transitions and for the validation of void fraction models and correlations proposed in the authors' previous publications and for the identification of flow regimes in data corresponding to annular flow downward condensation of R134a in a vertical smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 8.1 mm and a length of 500 mm. R134a and water are used as working fluids on the tube side and annular side, respectively, of a double tube heat exchanger. Condensation experiments are done at mass fluxes of 260 and 515 kg m^− 2 s^− 1 in the high mass flux region of R134a. The condensing temperatures are between 40 and 50 °C; heat fluxes are between 10.16 and 66.61 kW m^− 2. A mathematical model proposed by Soliman based on the models of Kosky and Lockhart–Martinelli is used to determine the condensation film thickness of R134a. Comparative void fraction values are determined indirectly using the measured data under laminar and turbulent flow conditions together with various void fraction models and correlations reported in the literature. There is good agreement between the void fraction results obtained from the theoretical model and those obtained from the void fraction models of Soliman, Chisholm and Armand, Turner and Wallis, Smith, Spedding and Spence previously proposed in the authors' publications and tested against their experimental database. Various well-known flow regime correlations from the literature are investigated to identify the flow regime occurring in the test tube, the correlations of Taitel and Dukler, Dobson, Akbar et al., Breber et al., Cavallini et al., and Sardesai et al. can provide accurate estimates of the annular flow conditions in spite of their different working conditions.     

Two-phase friction factor in vertical downward flow in high mass flux region of refrigerant HFC-134a during condensation

The two-phase pressure drop of the pure refrigerant HFC-134a during condensation inside a vertical tube-in-tube heat exchanger was investigated. The double tube test section was 0.5 m long with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube was constructed from smooth copper tubing of 8.1 mm inner diameter and 9.52 mm outer diameter. The test runs were performed at average condensing temperatures of 40–50 °C. The mass fluxes were between 260 and 515 kg m^− 2 s^− 1 and the heat fluxes between 11.3 and 55.3 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section was calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section was directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. A new correlation for the two-phase friction factor of R134a flow is proposed by means of the equivalent Reynolds number model. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and condensation temperature on the pressure drop are also discussed.     

Experimental investigation of heat transfer coefficient of R134a during condensation in vertical downward flow at high mass flux in a smooth tube

The two-phase heat transfer coefficients of pure HFC-134a condensing inside a smooth tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 0.5 m long double tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is constructed from smooth copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 8.1 mm inner diameter. The test runs are performed at average saturation condensing temperatures between 40–50 °C. The mass fluxes are between 260 and 515 kg m^− 2s^− 1 and the heat fluxes are between 11.3 and 55.3 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The average heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerant is determined by applying an energy balance based on the energy transferred from the test section. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and condensation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients are also discussed. Eleven well-known correlations for annular flow are compared to each other using a large amount of data obtained from various experimental conditions. A new correlation for the condensation heat transfer coefficient is proposed for practical applications.     

Experimental analysis for the determination of the convective heat transfer coefficient by measuring pressure drop directly during annular condensation flow of R134a in a vertical smooth tube

This study investigated the direct relationship between the measured condensation pressure drop and convective heat transfer coefficient of R134a flowing downward inside a vertical smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 8.1 mm and a length of 500 mm during annular flow. R134a and water were used as working fluids on the tube side and annular side of a double tube heat exchanger, respectively. Condensation experiments were performed at mass fluxes of 260, 300, 340, 400, 456 and 515 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ in the high mass flux region of R134a. The condensing temperatures were around 40 and 50 °C; the heat fluxes were between 10.16 and 66.61 kW m⁻². Paliwoda’s analysis, which focused mainly on the determination of the two-phase flow factor and two-phase length of evaporators and condensers, was adapted to the in-tube condensation phenomena in the test section to determine the condensation heat transfer coefficient, heat flux, two-phase length and pressure drop experimentally by means of a large number of data points obtained under various experimental conditions.     

Condensation pressure drop characteristics of various refrigerants in a horizontal smooth tube

The two-phase pressure drop characteristics of the pure refrigerants R410a, R502, and R507a during condensation inside a horizontal tube-in-tube heat exchanger were investigated to determine the two-phase friction factor, the frictional pressure drop, and the total pressure drop. The two-phase friction factor and frictional pressure drop are predicted by means of an equivalent Reynolds number model. Eckels and Pate's experimental data, presented in Choi et al.'s study provided by NIST, were used in the analysis. In their experimental setup, the horizontal test section was a 3.81 m long countercurrent flow double tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner smooth copper tube (8.01 mm i.d.) and cooling water flowing in the annulus (13.7 mm i.d.). Their test runs were performed at saturated condensing temperatures from 38.33 °C to 51.78 °C while the mass fluxes were between 119 and 617 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ for the horizontal test section. The separated flow model was modified by ten different void fraction models and correlations, as well as six different correlations of friction factors, in order to determine the best combination for the validation of the experimental pressure drop values. Carey's friction factor was found to be the most predictive. The refrigerant side total and frictional pressure drops were determined within ± 30% using the above friction factor and the void fraction combinations of Carey, Baroczy, and Armand for R410a; and those of Carey, Spedding and Spence, and Rigot for R502 and R507a. The equivalent Reynolds number model was modified using the void fraction correlation of Rigot in order to determine the frictional condensation pressure drop and the two-phase friction factor. The effects of vapor quality and mass flux on the pressure drop are discussed in this paper. The importance of using the alternative void fraction and friction factor models and correlations for the separated flow model is also addressed.     

Artificial neural network techniques for the determination of condensation heat transfer characteristics during downward annular flow of R134a inside a vertical smooth tube

In this study, the best artificial intelligence method is investigated to estimate the measured convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R134a flowing downward inside a vertical smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 8.1 mm and a length of 500 mm during annular flow numerically. R134a and water are used as working fluids in the tube side and annular side of a double tube heat exchanger, respectively. The ANN training sets have the experimental data of in-tube condensation tests including six different mass fluxes of R134a such as 260, 300, 340, 400, 456 and 515 kg m^− 2 s^− 1, two different saturation temperatures of R134a such as 40 and 50 °C and heat fluxes ranging from 10.16 to 66.61 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated considering the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. Input of the ANNs are the measured values of test section such as mass flux, heat flux, the temperature difference between the tube wall and saturation temperature, average vapor quality, while the outputs of the ANNs are the experimental condensation heat transfer coefficient and measured pressure drop in the analysis. Condensation heat transfer characteristics of R134a are modeled to decide the best approach using several artificial neural network (ANN) methods such as multilayer perceptron (MLP), radial basis networks (RBFN), generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Elimination process of the ANN methods is performed by means of 183 data points, divided into two sets randomly, obtained in the experiments. Sets of test and training/validation include 33 and 120/30 data points respectively for the elimination process. Validation process, in terms of various experimental conditions, is done by means of 368 experimental data points having 68 data points for test set and 300 data points for training set. In training phase, 5-fold cross validation is used to determine the best value of ANNs control parameters. The ANNs performances were measured by means of relative error criteria with the usage of unknown test sets. The performance of the method of multi layer perceptron (MLP) with 5-13-1 architecture and radial basis function networks (RBFN) were found to be in good agreement, predicting the experimental condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop with their deviations being within the range of ± 5% for all tested conditions. Dependency of outputs of the ANNs from input values is also investigated in the paper.     

Mapping of horizontal refrigerant two-phase flow patterns based on clustering of capacitive sensor signals

A capacitive void fraction sensor was developed to study the objectivity in flow pattern mapping of horizontal refrigerant two-phase flow in macroscale tubes. Sensor signals were gathered with R410A and R134a in a smooth tube with an inner diameter of 8 mm at a saturation temperature of 15 °C in the mass velocity range of 200–500 kg/m² s and vapour quality range from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.025. A visual classification based on high speed camera images is made for comparison reasons. A statistical analysis of the sensor signals shows that the average, the variance and a high frequency contribution parameter are suitable for flow regime classification into slug flow, intermittent flow and annular flow by using the fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. This soft-clustering algorithm predicts the slug/intermittent flow transition very well compared to our visual observations. The intermittent/annular flow transition is found at slightly higher vapour qualities for R410A compared to the prediction of Barbieri et al. (2008) [20]. An excellent agreement was obtained with R134a. This intermittent/annular flow transition is very gradual. A probability approach can therefore better describe such a transition. The membership grades of the cluster algorithm can be interpreted as flow regime probabilities. Probabilistic flow pattern maps are presented for R410A and R134a in an 8 mm ID tube.     

Prediction of dryout and post-dryout heat transfer at high pressures using a one-dimensional three-fluid model

A set of closure relations, in the context of a one-dimensional three-fluid model, is presented for the prediction of dryout and post-dryout heat transfer at high pressure (P/P_cr>0.3) conditions. It is shown that the traditional models based on low pressure data for interfacial friction, droplet size and the transition criteria for onset of annular flow cannot be readily extended to high pressure situations. The proposed new relations are validated by comparing with literature data in the pressure range of 30-200 bar, mass flux range of 500-3000 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ and tube inner diameters in the range of 10-25 mm. Good agreement is obtained for the dry out quality and the tube wall temperature in the post-dry out region except for cases of low mass flux at high pressures. The predictions show that at high pressure, high mass flux conditions, annular flow may prevail for low gas phase volume fraction, the droplet and the liquid film volume fractions being an order of magnitude higher than those encountered in typical air-water experiments.     

Prediction of two-phase pressure drop and void fraction in microchannels using probabilistic flow regime mapping

Probabilistic two-phase flow map pressure drop and void fraction models are developed for 6-port microchannels in order to provide a more accurate and common means of predicting void fraction and pressure drop. The models are developed for R134a, R410A, and air–water in 6-port microchannels at 10 °C saturation temperatures, qualities from 0 to 1, and mass fluxes varying from 50 to 300 kg/m² s. The probabilistic flow map models developed are found to accurately predict void fraction and pressure drop for the entire quality range and for all three fluids.     

New proposed two-phase multiplier and evaporation heat transfer coefficient correlations for R134a flowing at low mass flux in a multiport minichannel

New correlations of the two-phase multiplier and heat transfer coefficient of R134a during evaporation in a multiport minichannel at low mass flux are proposed. The experimental results were obtained from a test using a counter-flow tube-in-tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and hot water in the gap between the outer and inner tubes. Test section is composed of the extruded multiport aluminium inner tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 1.2 mm and an acrylic outer tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 25.4 mm. The experiments were performed at heat fluxes between 10 and 35 kW/m², and a refrigerant mass flux between 45 and 155 kg/(m² s). Some physical parameters that influenced the frictional pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient are examined and discussed in detail. The pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient results are also compared with existing correlations. Finally, new correlations for predicting the frictional pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient at low mass fluxes are proposed.     

Pressure drop studies on two-phase flow in a uniformly heated vertical tube at pressures up to the critical point

Measurements of two-phase flow pressure drop have been made during a phase-change heat transfer process with refrigerant (R-134a) as a working fluid for a wide range of pressures right up to the critical pressure. The experiments were conducted in a uniformly heated vertical tube of 12.7 mm internal diameter and 3 m length over a heat flux range of 35–80 kW/m², mass flux range of 1200–2000 kg/m² s, exit quality range of 0.19–0.81 and for reduced pressures ranging from 0.24 to 1 with a fixed inlet subcooling of 3 °C. The measurements were compared with the predictions from the homogeneous flow model, a separated flow model using correlations drawn from the literature for void fraction and frictional pressure drop, and finally, using a flow pattern-based predictive method accounting specifically for bubbly, slug and annular flow regimes. It was found that the best results were obtained with the flow pattern-based approach with a mean deviation of ±20% over the entire pressure range.     

Critical heat flux performance for flow boiling of R-134a in vertical uniformly heated smooth tube and rifled tubes

In the present paper, critical heat flux (CHF) experiments for flow boiling of R-134a were performed to investigate the CHF characteristics of four-head and six-head rifled tubes in comparison with a smooth tube. Both of rifled tubes having different head geometry have the maximum inner diameter of 17.04 mm while the smooth tube has the average inner diameter of 17.04 mm. The experiments were conducted for the vertical orientation under outlet pressures of 13, 16.5, and 23.9 bar, mass fluxes of 285-1300 kg/m²s and inlet subcooling temperatures of 5-40 °C in the R-134a CHF test loop. The parametric trends of CHF for the tubes show a good agreement with previous understanding. In particular, CHF data of the smooth tube for R-134a were compared with well-known CHF correlations such as Bowring and Katto correlations. The CHF in the rifled tube was enhanced to 40-60% for the CHF in the smooth tube with depending on the rifled geometry and flow parameters such as pressure and mass flux. In relation to the enhancement mechanism, the relative vapor velocity is used to explain the characteristics of the CHF performance in the rifled tube.     

Visual study of flow patterns during condensation inside a microfin tube with different tube inclinations

In this paper, flow patterns and their transitions for refrigerant R-134a condensing in a microfin tube are visually observed and analyzed. The microfin tube has been provided with different tube inclination angles of the direction of fluid flow from horizontal, α. The experiments were performed for seven different tube inclinations, α, in a range of − 90° to + 90° and refrigerant mass velocities in a range of 53 to 212 kg/m²s for each tube inclination angle during condensation of R-134a vapor. From analysis of acquired data, it was found that the tube inclination strongly influenced the vapor and condensate liquid distribution. Annular flow was the dominant flow pattern for vertical downward flow, α = − 90°. Annular flow, semi annular flow and stratified flow were observed for α = − 60°and − 30°. Annular flow, wavy-annular flow and stratified-wavy flow exist in sequence for horizontal tube. Annular flow and wavy-annular flow were observed for α = + 30°and + 60°. Annular flow, annular-wavy flow, churn flow and slug flow occurred for α = + 90°.     

Experimental study of condensation heat transfer of R-134a flow in corrugated tubes with different inclinations

This experimental study is performed to investigate condensation heat transfer coefficient of R-134a flow inside corrugated tube with different inclinations. Different inclinations of test condenser ranging from − 90^° to + 90^° and various flow mass velocities in the range of 87 to 253 [kg/m²s] are considered in this study. Data analysis showed that change in the tube inclination had a significant effect on condensation heat transfer behavior. At low mass velocities, and low vapor qualities, the highest condensation heat transfer coefficient was obtained for α = + 30^° which was 1.41 times greater than the least one obtained for α = − 90^°. The results also showed that at all mass velocities, the highest average heat transfer coefficients were achieved for α = + 30^°. Based on the experimental results, a new empirical correlation is proposed to predict the condensation heat transfer coefficient of R134a flow in corrugated tubes with different inclinations.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop during flow boiling of pure refrigerants and refrigerant/oil mixtures in tube with porous coating

The experimental stand and procedure for flow boiling investigations are described. Experimental data for pure R22, R134a, R407C and their mixtures with polyester oil FUCHS Reniso/Triton SEZ 32 in a tube with porous coating and smooth, stainless steel reference tube are presented. Mass fraction of oil was equal to 1% or 5%. During the tests inlet vapour quality was set at 0 and outlet quality at 0.7. Mass velocity varied from about 250 to 500 kg/m²s. The experiments have been conducted for average saturation temperature 0 °C. In the case of flow boiling of pure refrigerants, the application of a porous coating on inner surface of a tube results in higher average heat transfer coefficient and simultaneously in lower pressure drop in comparison with the flow boiling in a smooth tube for the same mass velocity. Correlation equation for heat transfer coefficient calculation during the flow boiling of pure refrigerants inside a tube with porous coating has been proposed.     

Comparison of frictional pressure drop models during annular flow condensation of R600a in a horizontal tube at low mass flux and of R134a in a vertical tube at high mass flux

This study compares well-known two-phase pressure drop models with the experimental results of a condensation pressure drop of (i) R600a in a 1 m long horizontal smooth copper tube with an inner diameter of 4 mm, outer diameter of 6 mm and (ii) R134a in a 0.5 m vertical smooth copper tube with an inner diameter of 8.1 mm and outer diameter of 9.52 mm. Different vapour qualities (0.45–0.9 for R600a and 0.7–0.95 for R134a), various mass fluxes (75–115 kg m^?2 s^?1 for R600a and 300–400 for R134a kg m^?2 s^?1) and different condensing temperatures (30–43 °C for R600a and 40–50 °C for R134a) were tested under annular flow conditions. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section was calculated considering the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section was directly measured with a differential pressure transducer. The most agreeable correlations of various available options were then identified according to the results of analysis during annular flow regime.     

Comparison of CHF measurements in horizontal and vertical tubes cooled with R-134a

An experimental study of the critical heat flux (CHF) in horizontal and vertical tubes cooled with R-134a has been completed. The investigated ranges of flow parameters in R-134a were outlet pressures of 1.31, 1.67 and 2.03 MPa (8, 10 and 12 MPa in water-equivalent values), mass flux from 500 to 3000 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ (700-4300 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ in water-equivalent values), and critical quality from −0.1 to +0.9. The wide range of qualities was achieved using tubes of different heated lengths and two-phase flow at the test-section inlet.The R-134a CHF data obtained in the vertical orientation agreed with the R-134a-equivalent CHF values from the water-based CHF look-up table. The effect of orientation on CHF was found to depend on mass flux, quality and pressure, as well as the limiting critical quality. This effect is strong at low mass fluxes, but disappears at high mass fluxes. At qualities higher than the limiting critical qualities, the CHF in horizontal flow can be greater than the corresponding value in vertical flow at the same critical quality conditions. A maximum reduction in CHF due to flow stratification was observed at qualities between the limiting critical qualities for horizontal and vertical flows.The orientation effect on CHF appears to be much stronger for R-134a than for water flow at the same critical quality, equivalent mass flux (based on vertical flow fluid-to-fluid modeling relationships) and density ratio. This behavior is primarily due to the larger density difference between liquid and vapor and the lower vapor velocity in R-134a.     

Experimental Investigation on Flow Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of HFC-134a inside a Vertical Helically Coiled Tube

An investigation on flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a inside a vertical helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger has been experimentally carried out. The test section is a six-turn helically coiled tube with 5.786-m length, in which refrigerant HFC-134a flowing inside the inner tube is heated by the water flowing in the annulus. The diameter and the pitch of the coil are 305 mm and 45 mm, respectively. The outer diameter of the inner tube and its thickness are respectively 9.52 and 0.62 mm. The inner diameter of the outer tube is 29 mm. The average vapor qualities in test section were varied from 0.1 to 0.8. The tests were conducted with three different mass velocities of 112, 132, and 152 kg/m²-s. Analysis of obtained data showed that increasing of both the vapor qualities and the mass fluxes leads to higher heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops. Also, it was observed that the heat transfer coefficient is enhanced and also the pressure drop is increased when a helically coiled tube is used instead of a straight tube. Based on the present experimental results, a correlation was developed to predict the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient in vertical helically coiled tubes.     

Condensation heat transfer and flow characteristics of R-134a flowing through corrugated tubes

This article presents the condensation heat transfer and flow characteristics of R-134a flowing through corrugated tubes experimentally. The test section is a horizontal counter-flow concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger 2000 mm in length. A smooth copper tube and corrugated copper tubes having inner diameters of 8.7 mm are used as an inner tube. The outer tube is made from smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 21.2 mm. The corrugation pitches used in this study are 5.08, 6.35, and 8.46 mm. Similarly, the corrugation depths are 1, 1.25, and 1.5 mm, respectively. The test conditions are performed at saturation temperatures of 40–50 °C, heat fluxes of 5–10 kW/m², mass fluxes of 200–700 kg/m² s, and equivalent Reynolds numbers of 30000–120000. The Nusselt number and two-phase friction factor obtained from the corrugated tubes are significantly higher than those obtained from the smooth tube. Finally, new correlations are developed based on the present experimental data for predicting the Nusselt number and two-phase friction factor for corrugated tubes.