Boiling of ammonia/lubricant mixture on a horizontal enhanced tube in a flooded evaporator with inlet vapor quality

In a flooded evaporator of an ammonia vapor-compression refrigeration system, boiling commonly takes place with ammonia mixed with compressor lubricant and subjected to a vapor quality at the inlet of the evaporator. In the present study, flooded boiling tests of ammonia on an enhanced tube under simultaneous influence of a miscible lubricant and inlet quality were conducted. The results suggest that the boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with both saturation temperature and heat flux. The coefficient slightly increases or does not significantly vary with the inlet quality. The coefficient in general is decreased by adding lubricant to the refrigerant, but the coefficient does not necessarily decrease as the lubricant concentration increases. The lubricant effect is generally more significant than the inlet quality effect. A correlation was developed based on the present data for flooded boiling of lubricant/ammonia mixture on an enhanced horizontal tube under the influence of inlet quality.     

A numerical study on the heat-transfer characteristics of an array of alternating horizontal or vertical oval cross-section pipes placed in a cross stream

In this paper, a numerical study on the flow of an array of alternating horizontal or vertical oval cross-section pipes placed in a cross stream, resembling that encountered in a real cross-flow heat exchanger, is presented. The results include temperature contours and velocity vectors on the surface of the pipe and at several selected cross-sections, the local and sectional averaged Nusselt number distributions, and the overall Nusselt number variations versus the internal and external flow Reynolds numbers. The computation shows that the wall temperature varies dramatically along both the circumferential and the axial directions of the pipe, and is far different from a constant wall temperature distribution assumed in most previous studies. In general, the portion of the pipe with external wall facing forwards the cross-flow stream has lower temperature and higher local heat-transfer rate than the portion with wall facing backwards the cross-flow stream. At the maximum external flow Reynolds number, Re = 40, considered in this paper, the magnitude of pipe's overall Nusselt number is about one-sixth the magnitude of that calculated based on the ideal constant wall temperature assumption.     

A semi-theoretical model for predicting refrigerant/lubricant mixture pool boiling heat transfer

This paper outlines the framework of a semi-theoretical model for predicting the pool boiling heat transfer of refrigerant/lubricant mixtures on a roughened, horizontal, flat pool-boiling surface. The predictive model is based on the mechanisms involved in the formation of the lubricant excess layer that exists on the heat transfer surface. The lubricant accumulates on the surface in excess of the bulk concentration via preferential evaporation of the refrigerant from the bulk refrigerant/lubricant mixture. As a result, excess lubricant resides in a thin layer on the surface and influences the boiling performance, giving either an enhancement or degradation in heat transfer. A dimensionless excess layer parameter and a thermal boundary layer constant were derived and fitted to data in an attempt to generalize the model to other refrigerant/lubricant mixtures. The model inputs include transport and thermodynamic refrigerant properties and the lubricant composition, viscosity, and critical solution temperature with the refrigerant. The model predicts the boiling heat transfer coefficient of three different mixtures of R123 and lubricant to within ±10%. Comparisons of heat transfer predictions to measurements for 13 different refrigerant/lubricant mixtures were made, including two different refrigerants and three different lubricants.     

Current and future prospects of enhanced heat transfer in ammonia systems

In the last decade a moderate headway has been made in the application of enhanced surface heat exchangers in ammonia refrigeration systems. This has been a result of the persistent issue of ozone and global warming which has resulted in keen interest in natural refrigerants such as ammonia that has played a prominent role in the refrigeration industry for years, particularly in the field of food, beverage and marine. The only drawback with ammonia is the toxicity; hence, if smaller heat exchangers could be introduced in order to reduce ammonia charge, this negative aspect about ammonia can be addressed to a great extent. In order to achieve this goal, novel and compact heat exchangers with enhanced surfaces have to be introduced. This paper presents an over view of the status of ammonia as a refrigerant and discusses the present and the future trends in the development of compact heat exchangers for use in ammonia refrigeration.     

Pool boiling heat transfer to hydrocarbons and ammonia: A state-of-the-art review

Interest has grown in recent years to extend the use of hydrocarbons and ammonia as working fluids in refrigeration to new domains of application, despite their flammability. In the context of pool boiling heat transfer, this has created increasing research activities, particularly with regard to hydrocarbons. In contrast with this, only a few new experimental results have been added to the data set existing for ammonia in the literature. So this review will concentrate on hydrocarbons, while ammonia will be treated in a comparatively brief part.The review starts with the state-of-the-art that had been reached at about 1990. It continues with the data set for propane being taken as an example to highlight various reasons for the experimental data scatter that is found when different sources are compared for the same substance. In the main part, new results of 12 (aliphatic) hydrocarbons are discussed regarding the influence of heat flux q and reduced saturation pressure p^* = p_s/p_c on the heat transfer coefficient α, and also the variation in α₀ caused by the differences in the thermophysical properties of the 12 hydrocarbons at constant q₀ and . It is shown that the dependencies of the heat transfer coefficient α on heat flux q and reduced pressure p^*, and on the thermophysical properties of the various fluids at constant values q₀ and can be correlated by general semi-empirical functions with comparatively narrow limits of error that do not reach far beyond the experimental scatter occurring when different sources are compared for the same substance. Before treating ammonia in a final section, the review on hydrocarbons closes with short discussions for mixtures of hydrocarbons, for the bundle effect, and for the behaviour of enhanced tubes.     

Heat transfer characteristics of flat plate finned-tube heat exchangers with large fin pitch

The objective of this study is to provide experimental data that can be used in the optimal design of flat plate finned-tube heat exchangers with large fin pitch. In this study, 22 heat exchangers were tested with a variation of fin pitch, number of tube row, and tube alignment. The air-side heat transfer coefficient decreased with a reduction of the fin pitch and an increase of the number of tube row. The reduction in the heat transfer coefficient of the four-row heat exchanger coil was approximately 10% as the fin pitch decreased from 15.0 to 7.5 mm over the Reynolds number range of 500–900 that was calculated based on the tube diameter. For all fin pitches, the heat transfer coefficient decreased as the number of tube row increased from 1 to 4. The staggered tube alignment improved heat transfer performance more than 10% compared to the inline tube alignment. A heat transfer correlation was developed from the measured data for flat plate finned-tubes with large fin pitch. The correlation yielded good predictions of the measured data with mean deviations of 3.8 and 6.2% for the inline and staggered tube alignment, respectively.     

Heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant-based nanofluid flow boiling inside a horizontal smooth tube

The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of nanoparticles on the heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant-based nanofluid flow boiling inside a horizontal smooth tube, and to present a correlation for predicting heat transfer performance of refrigerant-based nanofluid. For the convenience of preparing refrigerant-based nanofluid, R113 refrigerant and CuO nanoparticles were used. Experimental conditions include an evaporation pressure of 78.25 kPa, mass fluxes from 100 to 200 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, heat fluxes from 3.08 to 6.16 kW m⁻², inlet vapor qualities from 0.2 to 0.7, and mass fractions of nanoparticles from 0 to 0.5 wt%. The experimental results show that the heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant-based nanofluid is larger than that of pure refrigerant, and the maximum enhancement of heat transfer coefficient is 29.7%. A heat transfer correlation for refrigerant-based nanofluid is proposed, and the predictions agree with 93% of the experimental data within the deviation of ±20%.     

Experimental correlation of pool boiling heat transfer for HFC134a on enhanced tubes: Turbo-E

The objectives of this paper are to study the heat transfer characteristics for enhanced surface tubes in the pool boiling and to provide a guideline for the design conditions for the evaporator using HFC134a. The shape of tube surfaces, the wall superheat, and the saturation temperature are considered as the key parameters. Copper tubes (d_o = 19.05 mm) are treated with different helix angles and the saturation temperatures are controlled from 3 to 16 °C. It is found that the pool boiling heat transfer coefficient decreases with increasing the wall superheat. It is also found that boiling heat transfer coefficients for Turbo-II and Turbo-III are 1.5–3.0 times and 1.2–2.0 times higher than that for Turbo-I without the helix angle, respectively. The higher heat transfer performance from Turbo-II and Turbo-III can be explained by the “bubble detention” phenomenon on the surface without the helix angle for the Turbo-I. The experimental correlations for the pool boiling heat transfer on the present enhanced tubes without (Type I) and with the helix angle (Type II and Type III) are developed with the error bands of ±30%, respectively.     

Forced convective boiling heat transfer of R-410A in horizontal minichannels

Convective boiling heat transfer experiments were performed in horizontal minichannels with binary mixture refrigerant, R-410A. The test section is made of stainless steel tubes with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm and with lengths of 1500 mm and 3000 mm, respectively, and is uniformly heated by applying electric current directly to the tubes. Local heat transfer coefficients were obtained for a heat flux range of 10–30 kW m⁻², a mass flux range of 300–600 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, and quality ranges of up to 1.0. The experimental results were mapped on Wang et al.'s (C.C. Wang, C.S. Chiang, D.C. Lu, Visual observation of two-phase flow pattern of R-22, R-134a, and R-407C in a 6.5-mm smooth tube, Experimental, Thermal and Fluid Science 15 (1997) 395–405) and Wojtan et al.'s (L. Wojtan, T. Ursenbacher, J.R. Thome, Investigation of flow boiling in horizontal tubes: part I – a new diabatic two-phase flow pattern map, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 48 (2005) 2955–2969) flow pattern maps to observe the flow regimes. Laminar flow appears in flow with minichannels. A new boiling heat transfer coefficient correlation based on the superposition model for R-410A was developed with 11.20% mean deviation; it showed a good agreement between the measured data and the calculated heat transfer coefficients.     

Boiling hysteresis at low temperature on enhanced tubes

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

Correction of logarithmic mean temperature difference in a compact brazed plate evaporator assuming heat flux governed flow boiling heat transfer coefficient

The heat transfer in heat exchangers is commonly calculated using the concept of Logarithmic Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD). As is well known this approach is only valid for counter-current and co-current heat exchanger configurations. For other configurations, corrections for the deviation from pure counter-current are introduced. From any standard text book in heat transfer it may be found that the LMTD approach may also be used if condensation and evaporation occurs in the heat exchanger. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate if the LMTD approach can be used in a compact brazed plate evaporator. It will be shown through integration of the governing equations that the LMTD approach indeed may be used for practical cases, even though deviations occur at small logarithmic mean temperature differences. The article presents suggestions on the correction factor (F) needed under some simplified assumptions in a compact brazed plate heat exchanger operating as an evaporator for heat pump and refrigeration applications.     

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

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

Effect of refrigerant oil additive on R134a and R123 boiling heat transfer performance

This paper investigates the effect that an additive had on the boiling performance of an R134a/polyolester lubricant (POE) mixture and an R123/naphthenic mineral oil mixture on a roughened, horizontal flat surface. Both pool boiling heat transfer data and lubricant excess surface density data are given for the R134a/POE (98% mass fraction/2% mass fraction) mixture before and after use of the additive. A spectrofluorometer was used to measure the lubricant excess density that was established by the boiling of the R134a/POE lubricant mixture before and after use of the additive. The measurements obtained from the spectrofluorometer suggest that the additive increases the total mass of lubricant on the boiling surface. The heat transfer data show that the additive caused an average and a maximum enhancement of the R134a/POE heat flux between 5 kW m⁻² and 22 kW m⁻² of approximately 73% and 95%, respectively. Conversely, for nearly the same heat flux range, the additive caused essentially no change in the pool boiling heat flux of an R123/mineral oil mixture. The lubricant excess surface density and interfacial surface tension measurements of this study were used to form the basis of a hypothesis for predicting when additives will enhance or degrade refrigerant/lubricant pool boiling.     

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

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

Flow boiling of ammonia and hydrocarbons: A state-of-the-art review

A comprehensive review of flow boiling heat transfer, two-phase pressure drops and flow patterns of ammonia and hydrocarbons applied in air-conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump systems is presented in this paper. First, experimental studies of flow boiling of ammonia and hydrocarbons are addressed. Then, the prediction methods for flow boiling heat transfer, two-phase pressure drops and flow patterns are described. Next, comparisons of four flow boiling heat transfer and four two-phase pressure drop methods to the experimental data in smooth tubes derived from the available studies are presented. In addition, comparison of flow patterns to a flow map is presented. Based on the comparisons and analysis, recommendations on these methods are given. Furthermore, research needs on flow boiling and two-phase flow of ammonia and hydrocarbons have been identified. It is suggested that more experimental data be obtained through well conducted experiments and new prediction methods or modified ones based on the available methods be made for ammonia and hydrocarbons. In addition, the effect of oil on ammonia and hydrocarbon flow boiling and two-phase flow should be studied in order to have conclusive evidence of its effect.     

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

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

Flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of CO2 at low temperatures

This paper presents an overview of the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics and the special thermo-physical properties of CO₂ at low temperatures (down to −30 °C). Subsequently, the boiling heat transfer of CO₂ at low temperatures is experimentally investigated in a horizontal tube with inner diameter of 4.57 mm. Due to the large surface tension, the boiling heat transfer coefficient of CO₂ is found to be much lower at low temperatures but it increases with vapour quality (until dryout), which is contrary to the trend at high temperatures around 0 °C. None of the empirical correlations from open literature were able to predict the boiling heat transfer coefficient for CO₂ in good agreement with the experimental data, suggesting the need for further research in this area.     

Assessment of boiling heat transfer correlations in the modelling of fin and tube heat exchangers

A new way to assess the performance of refrigeration system models is presented in this paper, based on the estimation of cycle parameters, such as the evaporation temperature which will determine the validity of the method. This paper is the first of a series which will also study the influence of the heat transfer coefficient models on the estimation of the refrigeration cycle parameters. It focuses on fin and tube evaporators and includes the dehumidification process of humid air. The flow through the heat exchanger is considered to be steady and the refrigerant flow inside the tubes is considered one-dimensional. The evaporator model is discretised in cells where 1D mass, momentum and energy conservation equations are solved by using an iterative procedure called SEWTLE. This procedure is based on decoupling the calculation of the fluid flows from each other assuming that the tube temperature field is known at each fluid iteration. Special attention is paid to the correlations utilised for the evaluation of heat transfer coefficients as well as the friction factor on the air and on the refrigerant side. A comparison between calculated values and measured results is made on the basis of the evaporation temperature. The experimental results used in this work correspond to an air-to-water heat pump and have been obtained by using R-22 and R-290 as refrigerants.     

CoilDesigner: a general-purpose simulation and design tool for air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers

A simulation and design tool to improve effectiveness and efficiency in design, and analysis of air to refrigerant heat exchangers, CoilDesigner, is introduced. A network viewpoint was adopted to establish the general-purpose solver and allow for analysis of arbitrary tube circuitry and mal-distribution of fluid flow inside the tube circuits. A segment-by-segment approach within each tube was implemented, to account for two-dimensional non-uniformity of air distribution across the heat exchanger, and heterogeneous refrigerant flow patterns through a tube. Coupled heat exchangers with multiple fluids inside different subsets of tubes can be modeled and analyzed simultaneously. A further sub-dividing-segment model was developed in order to address the significant change of properties and heat transfer coefficients in the single-phase and two-phase regime when a segment experiences flow regime change. Object-oriented programming techniques were applied in developing the program to facilitate a modular, highly flexible and customizable design platform and in building a graphic user-friendly interface. A wide variety of working fluids and correlations of heat transfer and pressure drop are available at the user's choice. The model prediction with CoilDesigner was verified against experimentally determined data collected from a number of sources.     

Wall and fluid inlet temperature effect on heat transfer in incompressible laminar oscillating flows

This paper deals with the problem of oscillating flows occurring in devices such as Stirling or thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators. Since the global governing equations cannot be solved, the authors propose to introduce a few simplifications; the most simplifying reduction is that the fluid is assumed to be incompressible. However, specific attention is paid to describing the flow characteristics that's why the Lagrangian formalism which allows the individual study of each fluid particle is adopted. Thereby each particle contribution to global thermal effects can be evaluated and the gas temperature profiles along the exchanger can be computed. Various situations are presented including the case of a non-uniform temperature at the wall and a phase lag between pressure and temperature at the fluid entrance. The efficiency of the wall to fluid thermal exchange is analyzed. The authors show that this exchange depends upon two important parameters: the geometric ratio between the exchanger length and the particle oscillating displacement, and a thermal parameter “β”, governing the temperature profiles and related to the Prandtl number, the operating frequency and the phase lag between the instantaneous heat flux and the wall to fluid temperature difference.