Boiling characteristics of alternatives to R‐502 inside air/refrigerant enhanced surface tubing

In this paper, an experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow boiling of alternative zeotropic refrigerant mixtures to R‐502, on air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented. The new alternatives considered in this study are: R‐507, R‐404A, R‐407B, and R‐408A. It was evident from the experimental data that R‐502 has the lowest heat transfer rate compared to the other blends in the range investigated. Furthermore, it was also quite evident from these data that R‐407B has the highest pressure among the blends under investigation. However, at a Reynolds number less than 3.6×10⁴, it appears from the data that R‐404A has the lowest pressure drop compared to other refrigerants under investigation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation of two phase flow condensation of alternatives to HCFC-22 inside enhanced surface tubing

This paper presents an experimental study of two phase flow condensation of some alternative zeotropic refrigerant mixtures to R-22, inside air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing. The alternatives considered in this study are; R-507, R-404A, R-407C, and R-408A as well as R-410A. It was evident from the condensation experimental data that R-408A has the highest heat transfer rate compared to the other blends under the investigated range of refrigerant mass flow rates and heat flux. However, when the thermophysical properties are factored in, the condensation data showed that R-410A has the highest heat transfer rate at Reynolds number higher than 2.35E+7 Furthermore, experimental data of two phase condensation pressure gradient data across the test section at different Reynolds numbers showed that R-410A has the highest convective pressure drop among the blends under investigation.     

Prediction of two‐phase condensation characteristics of some alternatives to R‐22 inside air/refrigerant enhanced surface tubing

The results of an experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow condensation of some azeotropic refrigerant mixtures, proposed as alternatives to R‐22, on air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing are presented. The condensation data indicated that the heat transfer coefficient of the blend R‐408A has the highest heat transfer rate among the blends under investigation. The condensation data also showed that R‐507 and R‐404A have similar heat transfer rates to that of R‐22 when plotted against the refrigerant mass flow rate. It can also be observed that, as the mass flux increases, the heat transfer coefficient increases. Correlations were proposed to predict the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficients as well as pressure drops of alternatives to R‐22 such as R‐507, R‐404A, R‐407C and R‐408A, as well as R‐410A in two‐phase flow condensation inside enhanced surface tubing. In addition, proposed correlations were found to fairly predict the two‐phase flow heat transfer condensation data. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heat transfer prediction of air‐to‐refrigerant two‐phase flow boiling of alternatives to HCFC‐22 inside air/refrigerant enhanced surface tubing

In this paper, an experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow boiling of some alternative refrigerants to HCFC‐22, on air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing, is presented. Correlations have been proposed to predict the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficients, as well as pressure drops of alternatives to R‐22; such as R‐507, R‐404A, R‐407C, R‐410A and R‐408A 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 found that the correlations were applicable to the entire heat and mass flux, investigated in the present study, for the proposed blends under question. The deviation between the experimental and predicted values for the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were less than ±20, and ±35 per cent, respectively, for the majority of data. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance study on the evaporation and pressure drop of low‐temperature refrigerant blends in porous media

An experimental investigation on the performance of different low‐temperature refrigerant blends is presented in this work. Five different low‐temperature refrigerant blends are put on display to replace the R22 refrigerant, which has a high ozone depletion potential. These five blends are R404A, R407C, R410A, R417A, and R422A. Different performance studies have been performed on these alternative refrigerants to replace R22. A comparative experimental performance study is performed during the evaporation of these refrigerant blends in porous media. A porous metallic heat transfer medium is used with different porosities (40%, 43%, and 45%) in the evaporator during the test experiments. The evaporator superheat and the condenser subcool are maintained constant throughout the experiments at 8°C (±0.5°C) and 6°C (±0.5°C), respectively. The condensing temperature is kept constant at 38.5°C, and the mean evaporating temperatures were selected to be from ?33 to ?18°C. The effect of the above‐mentioned given operating conditions on the compressor discharge temperature, evaporation pressure drop, evaporation capacity, and coefficient of performance of these five low‐temperature refrigerant blends has been analyzed for different porosities. This experimental study showed that the refrigerant R422A can give a similar or greater performance to R22 and R404A with a global warming effect and zero ozone depleting potential.     

Two phase flow heat transfer of binary mixtures inside enhanced surface tubing

The primary heat transfer parameters such as coefficient of heat transfer and pressure drop observed during condensation of binary azeotropic refrigerant mixtures R-410a (R125/R32: 50/50), and R-507 (R125/R143a: 50/50) are presented in this paper.Experiments showed that for Reynolds numbers higher than 4.2 E06, R-410a appears to have greater heat transfer rates more than the other blends under investigation. Furthermore, it is quite evident from this data that R-507 has the highest pressure drop among the refrigerants under investigation.     

Two‐phase flow convective condensation of refrigerant mixtures under gas/liquid injection

The influence of gas/liquid injection on two‐phase flow condensation heat transfer characteristics of some refrigerant mixtures in horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented. Correlations were proposed to predict the impact of the gas/liquid injection on the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficient of R‐507, R‐404A, R‐410A, and R‐407C in two‐phase flow condensation inside enhanced surface tubing. The data also revealed that gas, liquid and gas/liquid injection is beneficial at certain gas/liquid injection ratios to the heat transfer coefficient depending upon the Reynolds number and the condensation point of the refrigerant mixtures in question. It was also evident that the proposed condensation correlations and the experimental data were applicable to the entire heat and mass flux, investigated in the present study under gas/liquid injection conditions. The deviation between the experimental and predicted under gas/liquid injection were less than ± 10, for the majority of data. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance analysis of new alternatives to HCFC‐22 inside air/refrigerant‐enhanced surface tubing

In this paper, the test results of a performance analysis of new alternatives; R‐410A, R‐507, R‐407C, R‐408A and R‐404A proposed as substitutes to HCFC‐22 are presented. The test results were obtained using an air‐source heat pump with enhanced surface tubing. Performance tests were conducted according to the ARI/ASHRAE Standards. The performance data demonstrated that as an interim replacement, the R‐404A blend has a superior performance particularly at low temperatures among the proposed blends. Furthermore, the alternatives to R‐22 are characterised by high discharge pressure compared to that of R‐22. In particular, R‐410A has the highest discharge pressure among the blend studied. R‐407C has similar discharge temperature to R‐22 at temperatures lower than −8°C. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental analysis of capillary tubes behaviour with some HCFC‐22 alternative refrigerants

In this paper, an experimental study is presented to enhance our understanding of the capillary tube behaviour using some new alternative refrigerants to HCFC‐22. An experimental setup fully instrumented was used to gather the behaviour of three different capillary tube geometries with R‐410B, R‐407C, and R‐410A under various conditions; saturated, sub‐cooled and two‐phase. Experimental data showed that R‐410B has the highest pressure drop along the capillary tubes compared to the alternatives under question and also has the highest temperature drop along the capillary tube. The data also showed that R‐407C has similar capillary behaviour to that of R‐22. The results clearly demonstrated that the pressure drop is significantly influenced by the diameter of the capillary tube, the type of refrigerant and inlet conditions to the capillary tube. The data also showed that the capillary pressure drop decreases with the increase of the capillary diameter. There is clear evidence that the component concentration of the refrigerant mixture significantly affects the capillary tube behaviour and particularly the pressure drop along the capillary tube length. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiments on the characteristics of evaporation of R410A in brazed plate heat exchangers with different geometric configurations

Experiments on the evaporative heat transfer and pressure drop in the brazed plate heat exchangers were performed with refrigerants R410A and R22. The plate heat exchangers with different 45°, 35°, and 20° chevron angles are used. Varying the mass flux of refrigerant (13–34 kg/m² s), the evaporating temperature (5, 10 and 15 °C), the vapor quality (0.9–0.15) and heat flux (2.5, 5.5 and 8.5 kW/m²), the evaporation heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were measured. The heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing vapor quality and decreasing evaporating temperature at a given mass flux in all plate heat exchangers. The pressure drop increases with increasing mass flux and quality and with decreasing evaporating temperature and chevron angle. It is found that the heat transfer coefficients of R410A are larger than those of R22 and the pressure drops of R410A are less than those of R22. The empirical correlations of Nusselt number and friction factor are suggested for the tested PHEs. The deviations between correlations and experimental data are within ±25% for Nusselt number and ±15% for friction factor.     

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.     

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

An analytical study on the influence of gas/liquid injection on heat transfer characteristics of two‐phase flow boiling of some refrigerant mixtures in horizontal enhanced surface tubing is presented. Correlations were proposed to predict the impact of the gas/liquid injection on 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. The data also revealed that gas/liquid injection is beneficial at certain gas/liquid injection ratios to the heat transfer coefficient depending upon the Reynolds number and the boiling point. It was also evident that the proposed correlations and the experimental data that the gas/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 gas/liquid injection conditions. The deviation between the experimental and predicted under gas/liquid injection were less than ±20, for the majority of data. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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 and pressure drop of refrigerant R-410A in a vertical plate heat exchanger

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer and the associated frictional pressure drop of the ozone friendly refrigerant R-410A (a mixture of 50 wt% R-32 and 50 wt% R-125) flowing in a vertical plate heat exchanger (PHE) are investigated experimentally in the study. In the experiment two vertical counter flow channels are formed in the exchanger by three plates of commercial geometry with a corrugated sinusoidal shape of a chevron angle of 60°. Upflow boiling of saturated refrigerant R-410A in one channel receives heat from the downflow of hot water in the other channel. The experimental parameters in this study include the refrigerant R-410A mass flux ranging from 50 to 125 kg/m² s and imposed heat flux from 5 to 35 kW/m² for the system pressure fixed at 1.08, 1.25 and 1.44 MPa, which respectively correspond to the saturated temperatures of 10, 15 and 20 °C. The measured data showed that both the boiling heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop increase almost linearly with the imposed heat flux. Furthermore, the refrigerant mass flux exhibits significant effect on the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient only at higher imposed heat flux. For a rise of the refrigerant pressure from 1.08 to 1.44 MPa, the frictional pressure drops are found to be lower to a noticeable degree. However, the refrigerant pressure has very slight influences on the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient. Finally, empirical correlations are proposed to correlate the present data for the saturated boiling heat transfer coefficients and friction factor in terms of the Boiling number and equivalent Reynolds number.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of R134a in annular helicoidal pipe at different orientations

Experimental investigations were conducted to determine the condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerant R134a in annular helicoidal pipe at three inclination angles. The experiments were performed with the Reynolds number of R134a ranging from 60 to 200, and that of cooling water from 3600 to 22 000; temperatures of R134a at 30 °C and 35 °C, and cooling water at 16 °C, 20 °C and 24 °C. The experimental results indicated that the refrigerant Nusselt number was larger at lower refrigerant saturation temperature, and would increase with the increase of mass flow rates of refrigerant and cooling water. It was found that the refrigerant heat transfer coefficient of annular helicoidal pipe could be two times larger than that of equivalent plain straight pipe when the refrigerant Reynolds number was larger than 140. Comparison with identical helicoidal pipe with opposite flow channel arrangement revealed that the refrigerant heat transfer rate was larger when the refrigerant was flowing in the annular section at the cooling water Reynolds number larger than 4000, but the pressure drop was always larger in this flow channel arrangement.     

Numerical modelling of alternative refrigerants to HCFC‐22 through capillary tubes

In this paper, a numerical model is presented for predicting capillary tube performance using new alternative refrigerants to HCFC‐22. The model has been established after the fluid flow conservation equations written for a homogeneous refrigerant fluid flow under saturated, sub‐cooled and two‐phase conditions. Numerical results showed that the proposed model in question fairly simulated our experimental data and fairly predicted the capillary tube behaviour under different conditions. The results also indicated that a system using R‐407C would experience smaller pressure drop compared to R‐410A and R‐410B. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of condensation characteristics of alternatives to R-502 inside air–refrigerant enhanced surface tubing

In this paper, an experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of two-phase flow condensation of alternative azeotropic refrigerant mixtures to R-502, on air/refrigerant horizontal enhanced surface tubing, is presented. The condensation data indicated that the heat transfer coefficient on the blend R-408A has the highest heat transfer rate among the blends under investigation. The condensation data also showed that R-502 and R-407B have similar heat transfer rates when plotted against the refrigerant mass flow rate. It also can be observed that, as the mass flux increases, heat transfer coefficient increases. Correlations were proposed to predict the heat transfer characteristics such as average heat transfer coefficients, as well as pressure drops of alternatives to R-502; such as R507, R404A, R407B and R408A in two-phase flow condensation inside enhanced surface tubing. In addition, proposed correlations were found to fairly predict the two-phase flow heat transfer condensation data.     

Experimental Study on Pool Boiling Heat Transfer for R22, R407c,and R410a on a Horizontal Tube Bundle With Enhanced Tubes

An experimental test rig for study of the pooling-boiling heat transfer performance of pure and mixed refrigerants was designed and established. The test section is a horizontal tube bundle evaporator with nine mechanically fabricated porous surface tubes in a triangular layout. With this test system, the heat transfer coefficients of the nucleate boiling in the evaporator were measured for R22, R407c, and R410a. Extensive experimental measures were made for those pure and mixed refrigerants at different heat fluxes from 10 kW m^?2 to 43 kW m^?2 at saturation temperature of 9°C. Comprehensive measured data are presented in this paper. From experimental results, it is found that the pool boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing the heat flux. It is also found that boiling heat transfer coefficients for R410a are 1.25–1.81 times and 6.33–7.02 times higher than that for R22 and R407c, respectively. The experimental correlations for the pool boiling heat transfer coefficients of R22, R407c, and R410a on the present enhanced tubes bundle are developed. The thermal resistance analysis reveals that the thermal resistance of the water side is a controlling factor for the evaporator for R22 and R410a. However, for R407c, the thermal resistance of the refrigerant side is slightly higher than that of the water side. To further improve the overall heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator of R22 and R410a, the enhancement for both the inside and outside is equally important, and the effectively enhanced boiling surface must be developed for the evaporator of R407c.     

Prediction of condensation of refrigerant mixtures under magnetic field inside enhanced surface tubing

Two phase flow heat transfer characteristics observed under magnetic field during condensation of refrigerant mixtures R-404A, R407C and R507 as well as R-410A were observed, analyzed and presented in this paper. Experiments showed that magnetic field tends to enhance the condensation characteristics at lower Reynolds numbers. The data clearly indicated that values of the condensation heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant mixtures under investigation were significantly influenced by the Magnetohyrdodynamic (MHD) effects depending upon the type of refrigerant mixture. The proposed correlation appears to predict the heat transfer coefficient with an average deviation of ± 10.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerant R-410A flow in a vertical plate heat exchanger

Heat transfer and associated frictional pressure drop in the condensing flow of the ozone friendly refrigerant R-410A in a vertical plate heat exchanger (PHE) are investigated experimentally in the present study. In the experiment two vertical counter flow channels are formed in the exchanger by three plates of commercial geometry with a corrugated sinusoidal shape of a chevron angle of 60°. Downflow of the condensing refrigerant R-410A in one channel releases heat to the upflow of cold water in the other channel. The effects of the refrigerant mass flux, imposed heat flux, system pressure (saturated temperature) and mean vapor quality of R-410A on the measured data are explored in detail. The results indicate that the R-410A condensation heat transfer coefficient and associated frictional pressure drop in the PHE increase almost linearly with the mean vapor quality, but the system pressure only exhibits rather slight effects. Furthermore, increases in the refrigerant mass flux and imposed heat flux result in better condensation heat transfer accompanying with a larger frictional pressure drop. Besides, the imposed heat flux exhibits stronger effects on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop than the refrigerant mass flux especially at low refrigerant vapor quality. The friction factor is found to be strongly influenced by the refrigerant mass flux and vapor quality, but is almost independent of the imposed heat flux and saturated pressure. Finally, an empirical correlation for the R-410A condensation heat transfer coefficient in the PHE is proposed. In addition, results for the friction factor are correlated against the Boiling number and equivalent Reynolds number of the two-phase condensing flow.