Effect of tube diameter on pressure drop characteristics of refrigerant–oil mixture flow boiling inside metal-foam filled tubes

The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of tube diameter on pressure drop characteristics of refrigerant–oil mixture flow boiling in metal-foam filled tubes. Experiments on metal-foam filled tubes with an inner diameter of 7.9 mm were performed, and the analysis of the diameter effect was done based on the experimental data of 7.9 mm tubes together with those of 13.8 mm and 26.0 mm from literature. The research results show that, the pressure drop increases with increasing PPI, and the impact of PPI becomes insignificant as the tube diameter decreases. When the diameter decreases from 13.8 mm to 7.9 mm, the pressure drop decreases due to the incomplete cells and randomly chopped ligaments nearby tube wall, and the maximum decrements are 22% and 35% for 5 PPI and 10 PPI metal-foam filled tubes, respectively. A new pressure drop correlation was developed, and it agrees well with the experimental data for different diameter tubes.     

Numerical investigation of refrigerant flow through non-adiabatic capillary tubes

A mathematical model is developed to study flow characteristics in non-adiabatic capillary tubes. The theoretical model is based on conservation of mass, energy and momentum of fluids in the capillary tube and suction line. The mathematical model is categorized into three different cases, depending on the position of the heat exchange process. The first case is considered when the heat exchange process starts in the single-phase flow region, the second case is determined when the heat exchange process starts at the end of the single-phase flow region, and the last case is considered when the heat exchange process takes place in the two-phase flow region. A set of differential equations is solved by the explicit method of finite-difference scheme. The model is validated by comparing with the experimental data obtained from previous works. The results obtained from the present model show reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The present non-adiabatic capillary tube model can be used to integrate with system models working with alternative refrigerants for design and optimization.     

A parametric study of refrigerant flow in non-adiabatic capillary tubes

This paper presents a parametric analysis of refrigerant flow through capillary tube–suction line heat exchangers, used in domestic refrigeration systems. The analysis is based on a homogeneous model developed by the authors. The model is based on the numerical solution of fundamental equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy of refrigerant flow. The refrigerant flow characteristics are investigated by varying thermodynamic (e.g. condensing temperature, evaporating temperature, inlet sub-cooling, suction line superheat) and geometric parameters (e.g. inlet adiabatic length, heat exchanger length and internal diameter of the capillary tube) of the capillary flow. The source of divergence in the numerical solution process is found to be the discontinuity in non-adiabatic capillary tube flow characteristics caused by re-condensation of the refrigerant within the capillary heat exchanger.     

Numerical modeling of two-phase refrigerant flow through adiabatic capillary tubes

Literature shows that the homogeneous flow assumption has been commonly used in most of the adiabatic capillary tube modeling studies due to its simplicity. The slip effect between the two phases was often not considered in this small diameter capillary tube. This paper attempts to exploit the possibility of applying the equilibrium two-phase drift flux model to simulate the flow of refrigerant in the capillary tube expansion devices. Attempts have been made to compare predictions with experimental results. The details flow characteristics of R134a in a capillary tube, such as distribution of pressure, void fraction, dryness fraction, phase’s velocities and their drift velocity relative to the center of the mass of the mixture are presented.     

A general correlation for flow boiling in tubes and annuli

A new general correlation for forced convection boiling has been developed with the aid of a large data bank. This data bank consists of over 4300 data points for water, refrigerants and ethylene glycol, covering seven fluids and 28 authors, mostly for saturated boiling in vertical and horizontal tubes, but with significant information also for subcooled boiling and for annuli. The new correlation is simpler to apply and overall gives a closer fit to the data than existing correlations. The mean deviation between the calculated and measured boiling heat transfer coefficient is 21.4% for saturated boiling and 25.0% for subcooled boiling.     

Influence of thermophysical properties on two-phase flow convective boiling of refrigerant mixtures

In this paper, an analytical study on the influence of thermophysical properties on heat transfer characteristics of two-phase flow boiling of some refrigerant mixtures in air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented.Correlations were proposed to predict the thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures such as thermal conductivity and viscosity as well as their impact on the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficients, and pressure drops of R-507, R-404A, R-410A, and R-407C in two-phase flow boiling inside enhanced surface tubing. In addition, it was found that the refrigerant mixture's pressure drop is a weak function of the mixture's composition.It was also evident that the proposed improved correlations for predicting the thermophysical properties were applicable to the entire heat and mass flux, investigated in the present study. The deviation between the experimental and predicted value using new and improved correlations for the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were <±20 %, for the majority of data.     

Numerical simulation of gas-contaminated refrigerant two-phase flow through adiabatic capillary tubes

An unfavorable effect of gas impurities on the throttling process inside a small-diameter tube, i.e. a capillary tube, has been studied in detail. A special testing capillary tube equipped with precise temperature and pressure sensors has been used for an experimental investigation of the capillary flow of a saturated fluorocarbon refrigerant, R218, contaminated by dissolved nitrogen. The gas impurities significantly affected the throttling process, since the two-phase flow started notably earlier than in the case of pure refrigerant flow. Moreover, the gas contamination resulted in a decreased mass flow rate of refrigerant delivered through the capillary tube. A comprehensive numerical model has been developed to simulate the capillary flow of gas-contaminated refrigerant. The model takes into account two coincident thermodynamic events: the throttling process of the refrigerant (solvent) and the gradual release of the dissolved gas impurities (solute) from the refrigerant liquid phase. The gas release is in principle described by using the temperature correlation of the Henry’s law constant. The model considers adiabatic, thermodynamically equilibrated capillary flow with homogeneous two-phase flow. The numerical simulation is in good agreement with our experimental data measured for R218 contaminated by nitrogen.     

Hydrodynamic cavitation and boiling in refrigerant (R-123) flow inside microchannels

This research article investigates the effect that hydrodynamic cavitation has on heat transfer. The fluid medium is refrigerant R-123 flowing through 227 μm hydraulic diameter microchannels. The cavitation is instigated by the inlet orifice. Adiabatic tests were conducted to study the two-phase cavitating flow morphologies and hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow. Diabatic experiments were performed resulting in surface temperatures under heat fluxes up to 213 W/cm² and mass velocities from 622 kg/m² s to 1368 kg/m² s. Results were compared to non-cavitating flows at the same mass velocities. It was found that the cavitating flows can significantly enhance the heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient of the cavitating flows was larger than the non-cavitating flows by as much as 84%. Single-phase and two-phase heat transfer coefficients have been elucidated and employed to deduce the heat transfer mechanism prevailing under boiling conditions with and without the presence of cavitation.     

The heat transfer heterogeneities of bends in flow boiling of hairpin tubes

A series of visual experiments were conducted for liquid– vapor two‐phase flow in hairpin tubes, and it was observed that most of the nucleation sites were located at the outer tube wall of the bend. From the simulation, it was concluded that the uneven velocity distribution in the bend induced the heat transfer heterogeneity. Furthermore, the nucleation of both the inner and outer tube wall of the bend and the wall temperature distribution were discussed to understand the physical phenomena. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20269     

Numerical analysis of refrigerant flow along non-adiabatic capillary tubes using a two-fluid model

This work presents a numerical model to simulate steady state refrigerant flow along capillary tube-suction line heat exchangers, commonly used in small refrigeration systems. The flow along the straight and horizontal capillary tube is divided into two regions: a single-phase and a two-phase flow region. The flow is taken as one-dimensional and the metastable flow phenomenon is neglected. The two-fluid model is employed for the two-phase flow region, considering the hydrodynamic and the thermodynamic non-equilibrium between the liquid and vapor phases. Comparisons are made with experimental measurements of the mass flow rate and temperature distribution along capillary tube-suction line heat exchangers working with refrigerant R134a in different operating conditions. The results indicate that the present model provides a good estimation of the refrigerant mass flow rate. Moreover, comparisons with a homogeneous model are also made. Some computational results referring to the quality, void fraction and velocities of each phase are also presented and discussed.     

Experimental Investigation of Forced Convective Boiling Flow Instabilities in Horizontal Helically Coiled Tubes

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Influence of liquid injection on two‐phase flow convective boiling of refrigerant mixtures

In this paper, an analytical study on the influence of liquid injection on heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow boiling of some refrigerant mixtures in air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented. Correlations were proposed to predict the impact of the liquid injection the thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures as well as the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficient of R‐507, R‐404A, R‐410A, and R‐407C in two‐phase flow boiling inside enhanced surface tubing. It was also evident that the proposed correlations and the experimental data that the liquid injection has significant impact on the heat transfer coefficient. In addition, the proposed correlations were applicable to the entire heat and mass flux, investigated in the present study under the liquid injection conditions. The deviation between the experimental and predicted under liquid injection were less than ±20, for the majority of data. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerant R-410A in a horizontal annular finned duct

An experiment is conducted here to investigate the saturated flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of ozone friendly refrigerant R-410A in a horizontal annular finned duct. Meanwhile the associated bubble characteristics in the duct are also inspected from the flow visualization. The experimental data are presented in terms of saturated flow boiling curves, boiling heat transfer coefficients and flow photos. In addition, empirical correlation equations for the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and mean bubble departure diameter are proposed. The saturated flow boiling curves show that boiling hysteresis is insignificant in the flow and the wall superheat needed for the onset of nucleate boiling is slightly affected by the refrigerant mass flux. Besides, the boiling curves are mainly affected by the imposed heat flux and refrigerant mass flux. Moreover, the measured saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with the imposed heat flux and refrigerant mass flux. Furthermore, at a higher refrigerant mass flux the departing bubbles are smaller.     

不同纳米流体水平管内沸腾流型的模拟

对以纯水为基液的不同纳米流体管内流动沸腾进行了模拟。利用UDF编程定义流体的沸腾相变源项,将其导入FLUENT软件中分别模拟这四种流体在水平管内的流动沸腾过程。得到了四种流体流动沸腾的速度云图,以及流型分布云图。对比分析了四种流体的速度分布云图、四种流体从初始状态沸腾到1s时的流型分布云图以及四种流体层状流流型的特点。结果表明,四种流体在水平管内沸腾都会出现泡状流、弹状流、层状流以及波状流四种流型,并且沿管长方向含气量逐渐增加。在相同的时间内,纳米流体的沸腾比纯水更剧烈,而且,不同的纳米流体沸腾程度也不同。在相同的体积分数下,纳米颗粒的导热系数越大,其对应的纳米流体沸腾越剧烈。说明纳米颗粒的导热系数是影响纳米流体沸腾传热的主要因素。     

A complete evaluation method for the experimental data of flow boiling in smooth tubes

A complete solution for boiling phenomena in smooth tubes has been giving as a procedure regarding with the calculation of convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop using accurate experimental data validated by flow regime maps and sight glasses on the experimental facility. The experimental study is conducted in order to investigate the effect of operating parameters on flow boiling convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R134a. The smooth tube having 8.62 mm inner diameter and 1100 mm length is used in the experiments. The effect of mass flux, saturation temperature and heat flux is researched in the range of 290–381 kg/m² s, 15–22 °C and 10–15 kW/m², respectively. The experiments revealed that the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are significantly affected by mass flux for all tested conditions. Moreover, the experimental results are compared with well-known heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop correlations given in the literature. In addition, 122 number of heat transfer and pressure drop raw experimental data is given for researchers to validate their theoretical models.     

A simulation for predicting the refrigerant flow characteristics including metastable region in adiabatic capillary tubes

Assumptions that no metastable flow phenomenon and flow in two-phase region is homogeneous have been used exclusively to study the flow characteristics in capillary tubes used as an expansion and controlling device in refrigerating systems. However, some experimental results show that due to the delay of vapourization, the onset of vapourization may not take place at the end of the sub-cooled liquid region. The two-phase flow in small diameter tubes may be also not entirely homogeneous due to phase interaction. In this paper, a mathematical model based on conservations of mass, energy and momentum is presented to simulate the refrigerant flow in adiabatic capillary tubes. Different from most previous studies, the metastable flow region is accounted in the model and the annular flow is also assumed to take place in the two-phase region. The model is validated by comparing with the experimental data reported in literature. The agreement between experimental and simulation results indicates that the model with appropriate correlations of pressure at vapourization and slip ratio can be used to predict the two-phase flow behaviour of refrigerant in capillary tubes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of coated tubes in cross-flow boiling

The boiling in cross-flow is investigated for coated tubes (low-porosity, flame-sprayed) in this paper. The effect of surface roughness on flow boiling heat transfer for a horizontal tube surface in cross-flow is studied for saturated boiling of water at atmospheric pressure. The parameters varied were for flow velocity up to 3.24 kg/s (G = 258.49 kg/m² s), heat flux from 12 to 45 kW/m², surface roughness (Ra) from 0.3296 to 4.731 μm. Nominal enhancement in heat transfer coefficient at higher mass flux may be attributed to the continued nucleation at the uppermost surfaces (in the wake region of the flow) of the rougher tubes thereby increasing the overall heat transfer rate. The flow boiling data was found to best fit the Kutateladze asymptotic equation h = h_l[1 + (h_npb/h_l)ⁿ]^1/n with the value of n = 2.258 (which is close to the value of n = 2 suggested by Kutateladze).     

Influence of magnetic field on two‐phase flow convective boiling of some refrigerant mixtures

In this paper, an experimental study on the influence of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) on heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow boiling of some refrigerant mixtures in air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented. Correlations were proposed to predict the impact of MHD on the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficients, and pressure drops of R‐507, R‐404A, R‐410A, and R‐407C in two‐phase flow boiling inside enhanced surface tubing. In addition, it was found that the refrigerant mixture's pressure drop is a weak function of the mixture's composition. It was also evident that the proposed correlations for predicting the heat transfer characteristics were applicable to the entire heat and mass flux, investigated in the present study. The deviation between the experimental and predicted value using new and improved correlations for the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were less than ±20%, for the majority of data. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux in small horizontal flattened tubes

This paper presents experimental results for flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux (CHF) in small flattened tubes. The tested flattened tubes have the same equivalent internal diameter of 2.2 mm, but different aspect height/width ratios (H/W) of ¼, ½, 2 and 4. The experimental data were compared against results for circular tubes using R134a and R245fa as working fluids at a nominal saturation temperature of 31 °C. For mass velocities higher than 200 kg/m²s, the flattened and circular tubes presented similar heat transfer coefficients. Such a behavior is related to the fact that stratification effects are negligible under conditions of higher mass velocities. Heat transfer correlations from the literature, usually developed using only circular-channel experimental data, predicted the flattened tube results for mass velocities higher than 200 kg/m²s with mean absolute error lower than 20% using the equivalent diameter to account for the geometry effect. Similarly, the critical heat flux results were found to be independent of the tube aspect ratio when the same equivalent length was kept. Equivalent length is a new parameter which takes into account the channel heat transfer area. The CHF correlations for round tubes predicted the flattened tube data relatively well when using the equivalent diameter and length. Furthermore, a new proposed CHF correlation predicted the present flattened tube data with a mean absolute error of 5%.     

Investigation of flow boiling in horizontal tubes: Part I—A new diabatic two-phase flow pattern map

Several important modifications to the flow pattern map of Kattan-Thome-Favrat [J. Heat Transfer 120(1) (1998) 140-147] made, resulting in a significantly new version of the map. Based on the dynamic void fraction measurements described in [Int. J. Multiphase Flow 30 (2004) 125-137], the stratified-wavy region has been subdivided into three subzones: slug, slug/stratified-wavy and stratified-wavy. Furthermore, annular-to-dryout and dryout-to-mist flow transition curves have been added and integrated into the new flow pattern map, identified by distinct trends of the heat transfer coefficient as a function of vapor quality and by flow pattern observations to determine (and then predict) the inception and completion of dryout in horizontal tubes.