Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of R-134a in a narrow annular duct

Experiments are conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of refrigerant R-134a in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm in this study. From the measured boiling curves, the temperature undershoot at ONB is found to be relatively significant for the subcooled flow boiling of R-134a in the duct. The R-134a subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with a reduction in the gap size, but decreases with an increase in the inlet liquid subcooling. Besides, raising the imposed heat flux can cause a substantial increase in the subcooled boiling heat transfer coefficient. However, the effects of the refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature on the boiling heat transfer coefficient are small in the narrow duct. Visualization of the subcooled flow boiling processes reveals that the bubbles are suppressed to become smaller and less dense by raising the refrigerant mass flux and inlet subcooling. Moreover, raising the imposed heat flux significantly increases the bubble population, coalescence and departure frequency. The increase in the bubble departure frequency by reducing the duct size is due to the rising wall shear stress of the liquid flow, and at a high imposed heat flux many bubbles generated from the cavities on the heating surface tend to merge together to form big bubbles. Correlation for the present subcooled flow boiling heat transfer data of R-134a in the narrow annular duct is proposed. Additionally, the present data for some quantitative bubble characteristics such as the mean bubble departure diameter and frequency and the active nucleation site density are also correlated.     

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer of R-410A and associated bubble characteristics in a narrow annular duct

Experiments are conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the R-410A saturated flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm in this study. The measured data indicate that the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature and with a decrease in the gap size. Besides, raising the imposed heat flux can cause a significant increase in the boiling heat transfer coefficient. The results from the flow visualization show that the mean diameter of the bubbles departing from the heating surface decreases slightly with increasing refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature. Moreover, the bubble departure frequency increases at reducing duct size and increasing mass flux. And at a high imposed heat flux many bubbles generated from the cavities in the heating surface tend to merge together to form big bubbles. Meanwhile, comparisons of the present heat transfer data for R-410A with R-407C and R-134a in the same duct and with some existing correlations are conducted. Furthermore, an empirical correlation for the present R-410A saturated flow boiling heat transfer data is proposed.     

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer of R-407C and associated bubble characteristics in a narrow annular duct

Experiments are conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the R-407C saturated flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm in this study. The measured data indicate that the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with a decrease in the duct gap. Besides, raising the imposed heat flux can cause a significant increase in the boiling heat transfer coefficients. However, the effects of the refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature on the boiling heat transfer coefficient are milder. The results from the flow visualization show that the mean diameter of the bubbles departing from the heating surface decreases noticeably at increasing R-407C mass flux. Moreover, the bubble departure frequency increases at reducing duct size and at a high imposed heat flux many bubbles generated from the cavities in the heating surface tend to merge together to form big bubbles. Meanwhile comparison of the present heat transfer data for R-407C with R-134a in the same duct and with some existing correlations is conducted. Furthermore, correlation for the present R-407C saturated flow boiling heat transfer data is proposed. Additionally, the present data for some quantitative bubble characteristics such as the mean bubble departure diameter and frequency and the active nucleation site density are also correlated.     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer of R-407C and associated bubble characteristics in a narrow annular duct

An experiment is conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and the associated bubble characteristics of refrigerant R-407C in a horizontal narrow annular duct with the gap of the duct fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm. The measured boiling curves indicate that the temperature overshoot at ONB is relatively significant for the subcooled flow boiling of R-407C in the duct. Besides, the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with a reduction in the duct gap, but decreases with an increase in the inlet liquid subcooling. Moreover, raising the heat flux imposed on the duct can cause a significant increase in the boiling heat transfer coefficients. However, the effects of the refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature on the boiling heat transfer coefficient are slighter. Visualization of the subcooled flow boiling processes in the duct reveals that the bubbles are suppressed to become smaller and less dense by raising the refrigerant mass flux and inlet subcooling. Raising the imposed heat flux, however, produces positive effects on the bubble population, coalescence and departure frequency. Meanwhile, the present heat transfer data for R-407C are compared with the R-134a data measured in the same duct and with some existing correlations. We also propose empirical correlations for the present data for the R-407C subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and some quantitative bubble characteristics such as the mean bubble departure diameter and frequency and the active nucleation site density.     

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.     

Time periodic flow boiling heat transfer of R-134a and associated bubble characteristics in a narrow annular duct due to flow rate oscillation

An experiment is conducted here to investigate the effects of the imposed time periodic refrigerant flow rate oscillation in the form of nearly a triangular wave on refrigeriant R-134a flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics in a horizontal narrow annular duct with the duct gap fixed at 2.0 mm. The results indicate that when the imposed heat flux is close to that for the onset of stable flow boiling, intermittent flow boiling appears in which nucleate boiling on the heated surface does not exist in an entire periodic cycle. At somewhat higher heat flux persistent boiling prevails. Besides, the refrigerant flow rate oscillation only slightly affects the time-average boiling curves and heat transfer coefficients. Moreover, the heated wall temperature, bubble departure diameter and frequency, and active nucleation site density are found to oscillate periodically in time as well and at the same frequency as the imposed mass flux oscillation. Furthermore, in the persistent boiling the resulting heated wall temperature oscillation is stronger for a longer period and a larger amplitude of the mass flux oscillation. And for a larger amplitude of the mass flux oscillation, stronger temporal oscillations in the bubble characteristics are noted. The effects of the mass flux oscillation on the size of the departing bubble and active nucleation site density dominate over the bubble departure frequency, causing the heated wall temperature to decrease and heat transfer coefficient to increase at reducing mass flux in the flow boiling, opposing to that in the single-phase flow. But they are only mildly affected by the period of the mass flux oscillation. However, a short time lag in the wall temperature oscillation is also noted. Finally, a flow regime map is provided to delineate the boundaries separating different boiling regimes for the R-134a flow boiling in the annular duct.     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer of R-134a and the associated bubble characteristics in a vertical plate heat exchanger

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant R-134a in a vertical plate heat exchanger (PHE) are investigated experimentally in this study. Besides, the associated bubble characteristics are also inspected by visualizing the boiling flow in the vertical PHE. In the experiment two vertical counterflow 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 subcooled refrigerant R-134a in one channel receives heat from the downflow of hot water in the other channel. The effects of the boiling heat flux, refrigerant mass flux, system pressure and inlet subcooling of R-134a on the subcooled boiling heat transfer are explored in detail. The results are presented in terms of the boiling curves and heat transfer coefficients. The measured data showed that the slopes of the boiling curves change significantly during the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) especially at low mass flux and high saturation temperature. Besides, the boiling hysteresis is significant at a low refrigerant mass flux. The subcooled boiling heat transfer coefficient is affected noticeably by the mass flux of the refrigerant. However, increases in the inlet subcooling and saturation temperature only show slight improvement on the boiling heat transfer coefficient.The photos from the flow visualization reveal that at higher imposed heat flux the plate surface is covered with more bubbles and the bubble generation frequency is substantially higher, and the bubbles tend to coalesce to form big bubbles. But these big bubbles are prone to breaking up into small bubbles as they move over the corrugated plate, producing strong agitating flow motion and hence enhancing the boiling heat transfer. We also note that the bubbles nucleated from the plate are suppressed to a larger degree for higher inlet subcooling and mass flux. Finally, empirical correlations are proposed to correlate the present data for the heat transfer coefficient and the bubble departure diameter in terms of boiling, Froude, Reynolds and Jakob numbers.     

Bubble characteristics in time periodic evaporation flow of R-134a in a narrow annular pipe due to heat flux oscillation

In this work, bubble characteristics of periodic evaporation flow with refrigerant R-134a in a horizontal narrow annular pipe were examined experimentally in details. Attention is focused on the time periodic evaporation flow characteristics affected by the mean levels, amplitudes, and periods of the heat flux oscillation. The photos of the R-134a time periodic evaporating flow taken from the duct side are presented to show the change of the dominant two-phase flow pattern in the duct with the experimental parameters. The results show that at the low vapor quality, the bubbles get smaller with time and become less crowded in the duct in the first half of the cycle in which the R-134a heat flux decreases. The changes of the bubble characteristics with the instantaneous heat flux become more pronounced for an increase in the amplitude of the heat flux oscillation. At the very high mean vapor quality the bubble nucleation can be barely seen in the entire periodic cycle since the liquid film covering the heating surface is very thin. In addition, the duct flow is dominated by the annular two-phase flow at all time.     

Experimental study of R-134a evaporation heat transfer in a narrow annular duct

An experiment is carried out here to investigate the evaporation heat transfer and associated evaporating flow pattern for refrigerant R-134a flowing in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm. In the experiment, the effects of the duct gap, refrigerant vapor quality, mass flux and saturation temperature and imposed heat flux on the measured evaporation heat transfer coefficient h_r are examined in detail. For the duct gap of 2.0 mm, the refrigerant mass flux G is varied from 300 to 500 kg/m² s, imposed heat flux q from 5 to 15 kW/m², vapor quality x_m from 0.05 to 0.95, and refrigerant saturation temperature T_sat from 5 to 15 °C. While for the gap of 1.0 mm, G is varied from 500 to 700 kg/m² s with the other parameters varied in the same ranges as that for δ = 2.0 mm. The experimental data clearly show that the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases almost linearly with the vapor quality of the refrigerant and the increase is more significant at a higher G. Besides, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient also rises substantially at increasing q. Moreover, a significant increase in the evaporation heat transfer coefficient results for a rise in T_sat, but the effects are less pronounced in the narrower duct at a low imposed heat flux and a high refrigerant mass flux. Furthermore, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases substantially with the refrigerant mass flux except at low vapor quality. We also note that reducing the duct gap causes a significant increase in h_r. In addition to the heat transfer data, photos of R-134a evaporating flow taken from the duct side show the change of the dominant two-phase flow pattern in the duct with the experimental parameters. Finally, an empirical correlation for the present measured heat transfer coefficient for the R-134a evaporation in the narrow annular ducts is proposed.     

An experimental investigation of bubble nucleation of a refrigerant in pressurized boiling flows

An experimental investigation is performed to determine the effect of system pressure and heat flux on flow boiling and associated bubble characteristics of a refrigerant in a narrow vertical duct. A high-pressure flow boiling test loop was built and TLC (thermo-chromic liquid crystal) was applied to the back of the heater foil for high resolution and accurate measurement of heater surface temperature. Refrigerant R-134a is used as the test fluid at different pressures ranging from 690 to 827 kPa and different heat fluxes to quantify their influence in bubble characteristics such as bubble nucleation, growth, departure, and coalescence. Two synchronized high resolution and high-speed cameras are used to simultaneously capture TLC images as well as bubbling activities at high frame rates. By varying flow rate and system pressure, TLC and bubble images were captured and analyzed. Results show that the bubble generation frequency and size increase with heat flux. An increase in pressure from 690 to 827 kPa increased the bubble frequency and size by about 32 Hz and 20 μm, respectively. Bubble coalescence was also observed after departure from the nucleation site.     

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.     

A Visualization Study of Bubble Behavior in Saturated Flow Boiling through a Vertical Mini-Tube

Forced convection saturated R-134a boiling experiments were conducted in a vertical mini-quartz tube coated with a transparent heater; the inner diameter of the tube was 1.33 mm and the heated length 235.5 mm. The dynamics of the saturated boiling process, bubble characteristics, and behavior were studied using a high-speed CCD camera at different mass fluxes in up-flow at 6.425 bar. The heat fluxes were 5 and 20 kW/m². The flow visualization results show that the bubble departure frequency generally increases as the heat flux increases. In addition, bubble lift-off diameter, growth rate, and velocity after bubble lift-off were determined by analyzing the images.     

Saturated flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of FC-72 on a heated micro-pin-finned silicon chip

An experiment is carried out here to investigate flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of FC-72 on a heated micro-pin-finned silicon chip flush-mounted in the bottom of a horizontal rectangular channel. Besides, three different micro-structures of the chip surface are examined, namely, the smooth, pin-finned 200 and pin-finned 100 surfaces. The pin-finned 200 and 100 surfaces, respectively, contain micro-pin-fins of size 200 μm × 200 μm × 70 μm (width × length × height) and 100 μm × 100 μm × 70 μm. The pitch of the fins is equal to the fin width for both surfaces. The effects of the FC-72 mass flux, imposed heat flux, and surface micro-structures of the silicon chip on the FC-72 saturated flow boiling characteristics are examined in detail. The experimental data show that an increase in the FC-72 mass flux causes a delay in the boiling incipience. However, the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient is not affected by the coolant mass flux. But adding the micro-pin-fin structures to the chip surfaces can effectively enhance the single-phase convection and flow boiling heat transfer. Moreover, the mean bubble departure diameter and active nucleation site density are reduced for a rise in the FC-72 mass flux. A higher coolant mass flux results in a higher mean bubble departure frequency. Furthermore, larger bubble departure diameter, higher bubble departure frequency, and higher active nucleation site density are observed at a higher imposed heat flux. We also note that adding the micro-pin-fins to the chips decrease the bubble departure diameter and increase the bubble departure frequency. However, the departing bubbles are larger for the pin-finned 100 surface than the pin-finned 200 surface but the bubble departure frequency exhibits an opposite trend. Finally, empirical equations to correlate the present data for the FC-72 single-phase liquid convection and saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficients and for the bubble characteristics are provided.     

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.     

LDV assisted bubble dynamic parameter measurements from two enhanced tubes boiling in saturated R-134a

LDV measurements and heat transfer experiments for nucleate pool boiling from two horizontal enhanced tubes with porous copper on copper surfaces immersed in saturated R-134a were conducted. The influence of tube position (alignment) and tube pitch on bubble dynamics and boiling characteristics were studied. Photographs indicate that the average number of bubbles increases with heat fluxes, which is the same as those in previous studies of single tube. However, the bubble departure diameters of the upper tube show an opposite trend with an increase as compared to previous single-tube studies. LDV measurements show that the present tube arrangement has significant influence on local velocity in both magnitude and trend. The heat transfer mechanism and modeling for the upper tube were studied and developed.     

The characteristics and visualization of critical heat flux of R-134a flowing in a vertical annular geometry with spacer grids

In the present paper, critical heat flux (CHF) experiments of forced convection boiling were performed to investigate the CHF characteristics of a vertical annular channel with one heated rod and four spacer grids for new refrigerant R-134a. The experiments were conducted under outlet pressure of 11.6, 13, 16 and 20 bar, mass fluxes of 100–600 kg/m² s, and inlet temperatures of 25–40 °C. The parametric trend of the CHF data was well consistent with previous understanding in water. The comparison between the present results with effect of the flow obstacle enhancing CHF and water data in similar geometry shows R-134a can be a modeling fluid for simulating water CHF in high pressure and high temperature condition even for annular geometry. The direct observation of flowing bubble behaviors contributes to enhancing our understanding on the effect of flow obstacles for flow boiling heat transfer.     

Numerical study of patterns and influencing factors on flow boiling in vertical tubes by thermal LBM simulation

Heat transfer and flow pattern of flow boiling in vertical tube are investigated numerically based on the phase-change Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) which includes an improved pseudo-potential LB model and a thermal LB model. Two-dimensional numerical simulations are carried out under constant heat flux conditions for the first time. The processes of growth, slippage, detachment and coalescence of the bubbles are captured to verify the correctness of the model. The effects of gravity, contact angle and wall superheat on bubble departure diameter and nucleation waiting time are illustrated. The multiple flow patterns, single-phase flow, bubble flow, slug flow and DNB have been illustrated with the behaviors of bubble nucleation, growth, departure, and coalescence. Some basic features of flow boiling have been clearly observed in the simulation. The influences of several factors such as heat flux, Reynolds number, the width of flow channel, and the width of nucleation point on flow boiling especially on the point of DNB are investigated. The numerical results show that the DNB could be avoided by reducing the heating density, increasing the Reynolds number, increasing the width of the tube and reducing the heating concentration.     

Nucleate Pool Boiling Heat Transfer of Hydro-Fluorocarbon Refrigerant R134a on TiO2 Nanoparticle Coated Copper Heating Surfaces

ABSTRACT

Pool boiling heat transfer performance of hydro-fluorocarbon refrigerant R-134a on titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticle coated surface is experimentally studied in the article. The test surfaces, viz, 100 nm, 200 nm and 300 nm thick TiO₂ nanoparticle coated surfaces over 100 nm thin film surface are used in this experimentation. The surfaces are synthesized and fabricated by simple and cost-effective electron beam evaporation method. The test surfaces were characterized by scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope to uncover the formation of crystalline structure on coated surfaces. These surfaces are utilized in pool boiling test rig using refrigerant R134a at 10°C saturation temperatures. The result indicated that a maximum of 87.5% augmentation in the boiling heat transfer has been achieved by higher thickness of TiO₂ coated surface than the bare copper surface. In addition, the incipience wall superheat is reduced for higher thickness coated surface. The augmentation of heat transfer coefficient might be the reason for increase in micro/nano-porosity, active nucleation site density and surface area of the heating surface. It is observed that with the increase of sub-cooling temperature of liquid, the bubble departure diameter was reduced while the heat transfer coefficient has been increased.     

Flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics of R-134a refrigerant during flow boiling in a horizontal circular mini-channel

Flow boiling heat transfer of R-134a refrigerant in a circular mini-channel, 600 mm long with a diameter of 1.75 mm, is investigated experimentally in this study. The test section is a stainless steel tube placed horizontally. Flow pattern and heat transfer coefficient data are obtained for a mass flux range of 200–1000 kg/m² s, a heat flux range of 1–83 kW/m² and saturation pressures of 8, 10, and 13 bar. Five different flow patterns including slug flow, throat-annular flow, churn flow, annular flow and annular-rivulet flow are observed and the heat transfer coefficient data for different flow patterns are presented. The heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing heat flux but is mostly independent of mass flux and vapour quality. In addition, it is indicated from the experiments that the higher the saturation pressure, the lower is the heat transfer coefficient. Comparisons of the present data with the existing correlations are also presented.     

Evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerant R-134a in a small pipe

An experiment was carried out to investigate the characteristics of the evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop for refrigerant R-134a flowing in a horizontal small circular pipe having an inside diameter of 2.0 mm. The data are useful in designing more compact and effective evaporators for various refrigeration and air conditioning systems. The effects of the imposed wall heat flux, mass flux, vapor quality and saturation temperature of R-134a on the measured evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop were examined in detail. When compared with the data for larger pipes (D_i ≥ 8.0 mm) reported in the literature, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient for the small pipe considered here is about 30–80% higher for most situations. Moreover, we noted that in the small pipe the evaporation heat transfer coefficient is higher at a higher imposed wall heat flux except in the high vapor quality region, at a higher saturation temperature, and at a higher mass flux when the imposed heat flux is low. In addition, the measured pressure drop is higher for increases in the mass flux and imposed wall heat flux. Based on the present data, empirical correlations were proposed for the evaporation heat transfer coefficients and friction factors.