An Investigation on Heat Transfer to Supercritical Water in Inclined Upward Smooth Tubes

Within the range of pressures from 23 to 30 MPa, mass velocities from 600 to 1200 kg/(m²s), and heat fluxes from 200 to 600 kW/m², experiments have been performed for an investigation on heat transfer to supercritical water in inclined upward smooth tubes with an inner diameter of 26 mm and an inclined angle of 20° from the horizon. The results indicated that heat transfer characteristics of supercritical water are not uniform along the circumference of the inclined tube. An increase in the mass velocity of the working fluid can decrease and even eliminate the non-uniformity. Properties of supercritical fluid acutely vary with the temperature near the pseudocritical point. While the ratio of the mass velocity to the heat flux exceeded 2.16 kg/(kWs), heat transfer enhancement occurred near the pseudocritical point; conversely, heat transfer deterioration occurred while the ratio of the mass velocity to the heat flux was lower than 2.16 kg/(kWs). As the pressure increased far from the critical pressure, the amount of deterioration decreased. Correlations of heat transfer coefficients of the forced-convection heat transfer on the top and bottom of the tube have been provided, and can be used to predict heat transfer coefficient of spirally water wall in supercritical boilers.     

Investigation on the characteristics and mechanisms of unusual heat transfer of supercritical pressure water in vertically-upward tubes

The heat transfer characteristics of supercritical pressure water in a vertically-upward optimized internally-ribbed tube was investigated experimentally to study the mechanisms of unusual heat transfer of supercritical pressure water in the so-called large specific heat region. The experimental parameters were as follows. The pressure at the inlet of the test section ranged from 22.5 to 29.0 MPa, and the mass flux of the fluid was from 650 to 1200 kg/m² s, and the heat flux on the inside wall of the tube varied from 200 to 660 kW/m². According to experimental data, the characteristics of heat transfer enhancement and also the heat transfer deterioration of supercritical pressure water in the large specific heat region was analyzed and based on the comparison and analysis of the current major theories that were used to explain the reasons for unusual heat transfer to occur, the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement and deterioration were discussed, respectively. The enhanced heat transfer was characterized by the gently changing wall temperature, the small temperature difference between the inside-tube-wall and the bulk fluid and the high heat transfer coefficient in comparison to the normal heat transfer. The deteriorated heat transfer could be characterized by the sharply increasing wall temperature, the large temperature difference and a sudden decrease in heat transfer coefficient in comparison to the normal heat transfer. The heat transfer enhancement of the supercritical pressure water in the large specific heat region was suggested to be a result of combined effect caused by the rapid variations of thermophysical properties of the supercritical pressure water in the large specific heat region, and the same was true of the heat transfer deterioration. The drastic changes in thermophysical properties near the pseudocritical points, especially the sudden rise in the specific heat of water at supercritical pressures, might result in the occurrence of the heat transfer enhancement, while the covering of the heat transfer surface by fluids lighter and hotter than the bulk fluid made the heat transfer deteriorated eventually and explained how this lighter fluid layer formed.     

Correlation of the Flow Pattern and Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Microchannels

Flow boiling in microchannels is characterized by the considerable influence of capillary forces and constraint effects on the flow pattern and heat transfer. In this article we utilize the features of gas–liquid flow patterns in rectangular microchannels under adiabatic conditions to explain the regularities of refrigerants flow boiling heat transfer. The flow-pattern maps for the upward and horizontal nitrogen–water flow in a microchannel with the size of 1500 × 720 μm were determined via dual-laser flow scanning and compared with corrected Mishima and Ishii prediction. Flow boiling heat transfer was studied for vertical and horizontal microchannel heat sink with similar channels using refrigerants R-21 and R-134a. The data on local heat transfer coefficients were obtained in the range of mass flux from 33 to 190 kg/m²-s, pressure from 1.5 to 11 bar, and heat flux from 10 to 160 kW/m². The nucleate and convective flow boiling modes were observed for both refrigerants. It was found that heat transfer deterioration occurred for annular flow when the film thickness became small to suppress nucleate boiling. The mechanism of heat transfer deterioration was discussed and a model of heat transfer deterioration was applied to predict the experimental data.     

Experimental study on saturated flow boiling heat transfer of R290/R152a binary mixtures in a horizontal tube

An experimental study on the saturated flow boiling heat transfer for a binary mixture of R290/R152a at various compositions is conducted at pressures ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 MPa. The heat transfer coefficients are experimentally measured over mass fluxes ranging from 74.1 to 146.5 kg/(m²·s) and heat fluxes ranging from 13.1 to 65.5 kW/m². The influences of different parameters such as quality, saturation pressure, heat flux, and mass flux on the local heat transfer coefficient are discussed. Existing correlations are analyzed. The Gungor-Winterton correlation shows the best fit among experimental data for the two pure refrigerants. A modified correlation for the binary mixture is proposed based on the authors’ previous work on pool boiling heat transfer and the database obtained from this study. The result shows that the total mean deviation is 10.41% for R290/R152a mixtures, with 97.6% of the predictions falling within ±30%.     

Pressure Drop,Boiling Heat Transfer and Flow Patterns during Flow Boiling in a Single Microchannel

The boiling heat transfer and two-phase pressure drop of water in a microscale channel were experimentally investigated. The tested horizontal rectangular microchannel had a hydraulic diameter of 100 μ m and length of 40 mm. A series of microheaters provided heat energy to the working fluid, which made it possible to control and measure the local thermal conditions in the direction of the flow. Both the microchannel and microheaters were fabricated using a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technique. Flow patterns were obtained from real-time flow visualizations made during the flow boiling experiments. Tests were performed for mass fluxes of 90, 169, and 267 kg/m²s and heat fluxes from 200 to 500 kW/m². The effects of the mass flux and vapor quality on the local flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and two-phase frictional pressure gradient were studied. The evaluated experimental data were compared with existing correlations. The experimental heat transfer coefficients were nearly independent of the mass flux and vapor quality. Most of the existing correlations did not provide reliable heat transfer coefficient predictions for different vapor quality values, nor could they predict the two-phase frictional pressure gradient except under some limited conditions.     

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer of Refrigerant R-134a in Copper Microchannel Heat Sink

In this paper we present experimental data on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics at flow boiling of refrigerant R-134a in a horizontal microchannel heat sink. The primary objective of this study was to experimentally establish how the local heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop correlate with the heat flux, mass flux, and vapor quality. The copper microchannel heat sink contains 21 microchannels with 335 × 930 μm² cross section. The microchannel plate and heating block were divided by the partition wall for the local heat flux measurements. Distribution of local heat transfer coefficients along the length and width of the microchannel plate was measured in the range of external heat fluxes from 50 to 500 kW/m²; the mass flux varied within 200–600 kg/m²-s, and pressure varied within 6–16 bar. The obvious impact of heat flux on the magnitude of heat transfer coefficient was observed. It showed that nucleate boiling is the dominant mechanism for heat transfer. A new model of flow boiling heat transfer, considering nucleate boiling suppression and liquid film evaporation, was proposed and verified experimentally in this paper.     

Numerical Investigation of Jet Impingement Cooling of a Flat Plate with Carbon Dioxide at Supercritical Pressures

Confined round jet impingement cooling of a flat plate at constant heat flux with carbon dioxide at supercritical pressures was investigated numerically. The pressure ranged from 7.8 to 10.0 MPa, which is greater than the critical pressure of carbon dioxide, 7.38 MPa. The inlet temperature varied from 270 to 320 K and the heat flux ranged from 0.6 to 1.6 MW/m². The shear-stress transport turbulence model was used and the numerical model was validated by comparison with experimental results for jet impingement heating with hot water at supercritical pressures. Radial conduction in the jet impingement plate was also considered. The sharp variations of the thermal-physical properties of the fluid near the pseudocritical point significantly influence heat transfer on the target wall. For a given heat flux, the high specific heat near the wall for the proper inlet temperature and pressure maximizes the average heat transfer coefficient. For a given inlet temperature, the heat transfer coefficient remains almost unchanged with increasing surface heat flux at first and then decreases rapidly as the heat flux becomes higher due to the combined effects of the thinner high specific heat layer and the smaller thermal conductivity at higher temperature.     

Boiling heat transfer in a hydrofoil-based micro pin fin heat sink

Flow boiling of R-123 in a hydrofoil-based micro pin fin heat sink was investigated. Average two-phase heat transfer coefficients were obtained over effective heat fluxes ranging from 19 to 312 W/cm² and mass fluxes from 976 to 2349 kg/m² s. The paper presents a flow map, which divides the data into three flow pattern regions: bubbly, wavy intermittent and spray-annular flows. Heat transfer coefficient trends and flow morphologies were used to infer boiling heat transfer mechanisms. Existing conventional scale correlations for circular tubes resulted in large scatter and were not able to predict the heat transfer coefficients accurately.     

Experimental investigation on heat transfer characteristics of low mass flux rifled tube with upward flow

An experiment for heat transfer of water flowing in a vertical rifled tube was conducted at subcritical and supercritical pressure. The main purpose is to explore the heat transfer characteristics of the new-type rifled tube at low mass flux. Operating conditions included pressures of 12–30 MPa, mass flux of 232–1200 kg/(m² s), and wall heat fluxes of 133–719 kW/m². The heat transfer performance and wall temperature distribution at various operating conditions were captured in the experiment. In the present paper, the heat transfer mechanism of the rifled tube was analyzed, the effects of pressure, wall heat flux and mass flux on heat transfer were discussed, and corresponding empirical correlations were also presented. The experimental results exhibit that the rifled tube has an obvious enhancement in heat transfer, even at low mass flux. In comparison with a smooth tube, the rifled tube efficiently prevents Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB) and delays dryout at subcritical pressure, and also improves the heat transfer of supercritical water remarkably, especially near pseudo-critical point. An increase in pressure or wall heat flux impairs the heat transfer at both subcritical and supercritical pressure, whereas the increasing mass flux has a contrary effect.     

Heat transfer characteristics during subcooled flow boiling of a kerosene kind hydrocarbon fuel in a 1 mm diameter channel

The subcooled flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of a kerosene kind hydrocarbon fuel were investigated in an electrically heated horizontal tube with an inner diameter of 1.0 mm, in the range of heat flux: 20–1500 kW/m², fluid temperature: 25–400 °C, mass flux: 1260–2160 kg/m² s, and pressure: 0.25–2.5 MPa. It was proposed that nucleate boiling heat transfer mechanism is dominant, as the heat transfer performance is dependent on heat flux imposed on the channel, rather than the fuel flow rate. It was found that the wall temperatures along the test section kept constant during the fully developed subcooled boiling (FDSB) of the non-azeotropic hydrocarbon fuel. After the onset of nucleate boiling, the temperature differences between inner wall and bulk fluid begin to decrease with the increase of heat flux. Experimental results show that the complicated boiling heat transfer behavior of hydrocarbon fuel is profoundly affected by the pressure and heat flux, especially by fuel subcooling. A correlation of heat transfer coefficients varying with heat fluxes and fuel subcooling was curve fitted. Excellent agreement is obtained between the predicted values and the experimental data.     

Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Refrigerant R32 Flowing in a Small Horizontal Tube

In this study, experiments were performed to examine characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of a low global warming potential refrigerant R32 flowing in a horizontal copper circular tube with 1.0 mm inside diameter for the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small-diameter tubes or minichannels for air conditioning systems. Axially local heat transfer coefficients were measured in the range of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s), qualities from 0.05 to 1.0, and heat fluxes from 2 to 24 kW/m² at the saturation temperature of 10°C. Pressure drops were also measured in the rage of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s) and qualities from 0.05 to 0.9 at the saturation temperature of 10°C under adiabatic condition. In addition, two-phase flow patterns were observed through a sight glass fixed at the tube exit with a digital camera. The characteristics of boiling heat transfer and pressure drop were clarified based on the measurements and the comparison with data of R410A obtained previously. Also, measured heat transfer coefficients were compared with two existing correlations.     

Evaporation Heat Transfer Coefficients of R-446A

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the evaporation heat transfer coefficients of R-446A, as a low global warming potential alternative refrigerant to R-410A. The evaporation heat transfer coefficients were obtained by measuring the wall temperature of a straight stainless tube and refrigerant pressure. The heat transfer coefficients were measured for the quality range from 0.05 to 0.95, the mass flux from 100 to 400 kg/m²s, heat flux from 10 to 30 kW/m², and saturation temperature from 5 to 10°C. The evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-410A was verified by comparing the measured evaporation heat transfer coefficient with the value predicted by the existing correlation. The evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was measured using a proven experimental apparatus. When the heat flux was 10 kW/m², the evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was always higher than that of R-410A. But, when the heat flux was 30 kW/m², the evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was measured to be lower than that of R-410A near the dry-out point. The effect of the tube diameter on the R-446A evaporation heat transfer coefficient was negligible. The effect of saturation pressure on the evaporation heat transfer coefficient was prominent in the low quality region where the nucleate boiling was dominant.     

Boiling heat transfer and dryout phenomenon of CO2 in a horizontal smooth tube

Evaporation heat transfer characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in a horizontal tube are experimentally investigated. The test tube has an inner diameter of 6.0 mm, a wall thickness of 1.0 mm, and a length of 1.4 m. Experiments are conducted at saturation temperatures of 5 and 10 °C, mass fluxes from 170 to 320 kg/m² s and heat fluxes from 10 to 20 kW/m². Partial dryout of CO₂ occurs at a lower quality as compared to the conventional refrigerants due to a higher bubble growth within the liquid film and a higher liquid droplet entrainment, resulting a rapid decrease of heat transfer coefficients. The effects of mass flux, heat flux, and evaporating temperature are explained by introducing unique properties of CO₂, flow patterns, and dryout phenomenon. In addition, the heat transfer coefficient of CO₂ is on average 47% higher than that of R134a at the same operating conditions. The Gungor and Winterton correlation shows poor prediction of the boiling heat transfer coefficient of CO₂ at low mass flux, while it yields good estimation at high mass flux.     

Heat transfer characteristics of flow boiling in a single horizontal microchannel

Heat transfer characteristics of subcooled flow boiling of FC-72 in a single horizontal circular cross-section microchannel (480 μm i.d., 800 μm o.d., 102 mm long) are presented. Different flow patterns, both in the stable and unstable flow boiling regimes, have been captured using high speed video camera. Data in small, medium, high and very high heat flux cases under small, medium and high mass flux has been presented. Convective heat transfer coefficients in each flow boiling situation have been calculated and presented. Stable flow boiling with alternating bubbly/slug flow, slug/annular flow and annular/mist flow have been observed for heat flux of 150 kW/m² or higher and mass flux of 1500 kg/m² s or higher. Back and forth oscillations with flow instabilities have been observed in cases of lower heat and mass fluxes. However, no complete reverse flow in upstream direction has been observed.     

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 Study on Subcooled Flow Boiling in Horizontal Microtubes and Effect of Heated Length

ABSTRACT

In this study, subcooled flow boiling was investigated in horizontal microtubes. Experiments were conducted using deionized water as the working fluid over a mass flux range of 4000–7000 kg m^?2s^?1 in microtubes with inner and outer diameters of ～600 and ～900 μm, respectively. Microtubes with lengths of 3, 6, and 12 cm were tested to clarify the effect of heated length on flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. A force analysis related to two-phase flow was conducted to understand the effect of forces on bubble dynamics. Pressure drop and heat transfer data in flow boiling were acquired. Experimental heat flux data were compared with partial boiling heat flux correlations, and good agreements were obtained. Pressure drop was larger in longer microtubes in comparison to shorter ones, while higher heat fluxes were obtained in shorter microtubes at the same wall superheat. Two-phase heat transfer coefficient increased with the microtube length due to lower temperature difference between wall temperature and bulk fluid temperature in longer microtubes. Higher heat fluxes achieved in shorter microtubes at the same wall superheat imply higher critical heat fluxes in shorter microtubes.     

Development of a new forced convection heat transfer correlation for CO2 in both heating and cooling modes at supercritical pressures

Experimental and numerical investigations on forced convection heat transfer of carbon dioxide at supercritical pressures in a prototypic printed circuit heat exchanger under both cooling and heating conditions have been performed in this present study. The experiment test section has nine semi-circular channels with a hydraulic diameter of 1.16 mm and a length of 0.5 m. Primary operational parameters include inlet pressure of 7.5–10 MPa, mass fluxes of 326 kg/m² s and 762 kg/m² s, inlet temperatures from 10 °C to 90 °C and the average heat flux was 30 kW/m². Beyond reproducing the regular experimental cases, numerical modeling also implemented higher heat fluxes of 60 kW/m² and 90 kW/m² in order to investigate the effect of heat flux. Good agreement was found between the experiments and FLUENT simulations using an SST k–w model with the near-wall region being completely resolved. The distinctive behavior of convection heat transfer at supercritical pressures between heating and cooling modes was systematically analyzed. A more physically reasonable property-averaging technique, Probability Density Function (PDF)-based time-averaged property, was developed to account for the effect of nonlinear dependency of properties on instantaneous local temperature. Furthermore, experimental and computational data were compared to empirical predictions by the Dittus–Boelter and Jackson correlations. The results showed that Dittus–Boelter correlation has better precision for the average value of the predicted heat transfer coefficient but cannot take account of the effect of heat flux. In contrast, the Jackson correlation, with property ratio correction terms to account for the distribution of the properties in the radial direction, could predict the distinction of heat transfer characteristics under heating and cooling conditions. However, it overestimates the average value of heat transfer coefficient in the whole range of the experiment conditions. Finally, a new correlation evaluated by PDF-based time-averaged properties for forced convection heat transfer of CO₂ in both heating and cooling mode at supercritical pressures was developed. Comparison of experimental and computational data with the prediction results by the new developed correlation reveals that it works quite well; i.e., more than 90% data in either heating or cooling mode with various heat fluxes are predicted within an accuracy of ±25%.     

Falling film evaporation heat transfer of water/salt mixtures from roll-worked enhanced tubes and tube bundle

An experimental study is carried out for enhancement of falling film evaporation heat transfer of pure water and water/salt mixtures on horizontal smooth tube and two kinds of structured tube bundles under atmospheric pressure. The experimental results show that the low-cost roll-worked tube can greatly enhance the evaporation heat transfer performance of the falling film, and make it comparable to that of expensive commercial enhanced tubes such as GEWA-T tubes, TE tubes and HF tubes, even at low and moderate heat flux levels. The average evaporation heat transfer coefficients for the roll-worked tube bundle are basically independent from the parameters tested such as flow and heating conditions, salt-concentrations, as well as geometries of the tube bundles. The present experimental data result in a constant heat transfer coefficient; α≈20 kW/m² K, in the convective heat transfer range of the heat fluxes <10⁵ W/m².     

An experimental investigation of convection heat transfer to supercritical carbon dioxide in miniature tubes

Experimental results of convection heat transfer to supercritical carbon dioxide in heated horizontal and vertical miniature tubes are reported in this paper. Stainless steel circular tubes having diameters of 0.70, 1.40, and 2.16 mm were investigated for pressures ranging from 74 to 120 bar, temperatures from 20 to 110 °C, and mass flow rates from 0.02 to 0.2 kg/min. The corresponding Reynolds numbers and Prandtl numbers ranged from 10⁴ to 2×10⁵ and from 0.9 to 10, respectively. It is found that the buoyancy effects were significant for all the flow orientations, although Reynolds numbers were as high as 10⁵. The experimental results reveal that in downward flow, a significant impairment of heat transfer was discerned in the pseudocritical region, although heat transfer for both horizontal and upward flow was enhanced. The experimental results further indicate that in all the flow orientations, the Nusselt numbers decreased substantially as the tube diameter shrunk to <1.0 mm. Based on the experimental data, correlations were developed for the axially-averaged Nusselt number of convection heat transfer to supercritical carbon dioxide in both horizontal and vertical miniature heated tubes.