Two-phase flow heat transfer of propane vaporization in horizontal minichannels

Experiments were performed on the convective boiling heat transfer in horizontal minichannels using propane. The test section was made of stainless steel tubes with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm and lengths of 1000 mm and 2000 mm, respectively, and it was uniformly heated by applying an electric current directly to the tubes. Local heat transfer coefficients were obtained for a heat flux range of 5–20 kW m⁻², a mass flux range of 50–400 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, saturation temperatures of 10, 5, and 0°C and quality ranges of up to 1.0. The nucleate boiling heat transfer contribution was predominant, particularly at the low quality region. Decreases in the heat transfer coefficient occurred at a lower vapor quality with a rise of heat flux and mass flux, and with a lower saturation temperature and inner tube diameter. Laminar flow appeared in the minichannel flows. A new boiling heat transfer coefficient correlation that is based on the superposition model for propane was developed with 8.27% mean deviation. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Jae Young Lee Jong-Taek Oh received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Refrigeration Engineering from Pukyong National University, Korea. Dr. Oh is currently a Professor at Department of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering, Chonnam National University at Yeosu, Korea. Dr. Oh’s research interests are in the area of boiling and condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerants with small tubes, heat pump and transportation refrigeration.     

Experimental investigation of the reverse heat transfer of R134a flow through non-adiabatic coiled capillary tubes

This research represents an experimental investigation of the metastable flow and re-condensation phenomenon through non-adiabatic lateral helical capillary tubes and suction tube heat exchanger. The results show that mass flux ratio has a vital role: It affects metastable flow and also reverse heat transfer phenomenon through non-adiabatic helical capillary tube. Therefore, by increasing of the mass flux ratio, the rate of heat transfer between them decreases. In contrast to the strong rate condition of heat transfer between them, reverse heat transfer or re-condensation maybe happen. Moreover, experimental results show that for R134 flow with mass flux ratio more than 57.84, metastable flow exists in non-adiabatic capillary tube with 0.9144 mm inner diameter, 30 mm coil diameter, 6.18 m length, 4 mm inner diameter of compressor suction tube.

     

Evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of r-134a in the oblong shell and plate heat exchanger

The evaporation heat transfer coefficienthr and frictional pressure drop δp_f of refrigerant R-134a flowing in the oblong shell and plate heat exchanger were investigated experimentally in this study. Four vertical counterflow channels were formed in the oblong shell and plate heat exchanger by four plates of geometry with a corrugated sinusoid shape of a 45° chevron angle. Upflow of refrigerant R-134a boils in two channels receiving heat from downflow of hot water in other channels. The effects of the refrigerant mass flux, average heat flux, refrigerant saturation temperature and vapor quality of R- 134a were explored in detail. Similar to the case of a plate heat exchanger, even at a very low Reynolds number, the flow in the oblong shell and plate heat exchanger remains turbulent. The results indicate that the evaporation heat transfer coefficienthr and pressure drop Δp_f increase with the vapor quality. A rise in the refrigerant mass flux causes an increase in theh _r and Δp_f. But the effect of the average heat flux does not show significant effect on the h_r and Δp_f. Finally, at a higher saturation temperature, both theh _r and Δp_f are found to be lower. The empirical correlations are also provided for the measured heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in terms of the Nusselt number and friction factor.     

Effect on boiling heat transfer of horizontal smooth minichannel for R-410A and R-407C

An experimental study of boiling heat transfer with refrigerants R-410A and R-407C is presented. The present paper is focused on pressure drop and boiling heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerants inside a horizontal smooth minichannel. To evaluate the diameter size effect on pressure and heat transfer characteristics, minichannels with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm and with lengths of 1500 mm and 3000 mm respectively are used. The pressure drop increases with mass flux and heat flux for both inner tube diameters and for both the refrigerants. The pressure drop of R-407C is higher than that of R-410A, but the heat transfer coefficient of R-410A is higher than of R-407C at the low quality region. The heat transfer coefficient in the tube with an inner diameter of 1.5 mm is higher than that of 3.0 mm diameter tube at the low quality region. The comparison of present heat transfer coefficient with the predictions of some previous correlations shows a large deviation. Therefore, there is a necessity to develop a new correlation.     

Pool boiling of R-123/MO and R-134a/POE lubricant mixtures on pored surfaces

In a flooded refrigerant evaporator, where enhanced tubes are frequently used, lubrication oil inevitably circulates with the refrigerant. However, the literature shows that systematic studies on this subject are lacking. In this study, the effects of oil on the pool boiling of pored surfaces having a range of pore diameter (0.1 to 0.3 mm) and pitch (0.75 to 3.0 mm) were investigated using R-134a/polyester oil (POE) and R-123/mineral oil (MO) mixtures. The saturation temperature was 26.7 °C, and the oil concentration was varied up to 10 %. The results showed that the oil reduced the heat transfer coefficient. This was true for all the pored surface as well as the smooth surface. Overall, the samples having a ‘small open area’ yielded a significant degradation at a low heat flux, whereas the samples having a ‘large open area’ yielded a noticeable degradation at a high heat flux. Meanwhile, the heat transfer degradation was larger for R-134a/POE than R-123/MO, and the reason was attributed to the oil effect on the surface tension, which was stronger for R-134a/POE. The flow visualization results showed that, with the increase of oil concentration, the bubble departure diameter decreased. Similarly, the bubble generation frequency and nucleation site density decreased. These changes of the bubble dynamic parameters certainly were responsible for the heat transfer degradation. A model was developed extending that of Pastuszko et al. [27] to predict the heat transfer coefficients as well as bubble dynamic parameters. The model predicted 92 % of the heat transfer coefficients within ± 40 %.

     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer in forced convective boiling of R134a,R123 and R134a/R123 in a horizontal tube

This paper reports an experimental study on flow boiling of pure refrigerants R134a and R123 and their mixtures in a uniformly heated horizontal tube. The flow pattern was observed through tubular sight glasses with an internal diameter of 10 mm located at the inlet and outlet of the test section. Tests were run at a pressure of 0.6 MPa in the heat flux ranges of 5–50 kW/m², vapor quality 0–100 percent and mass velocity of 150–600 kg/m²s. Both in the nucleate boiling-dominant region at low quality and in the two-phase convective evaporation region at higher quality where nucleation is supposed to be fully suppressed, the heat transfer coefficient for the mixture was lower than that for an equivalent pure component with the same physical properties as the mixture. The reduction of the heat transfer coefficient in mixture is explained by such mechanisms as mass transfer resistance and non-linear variation in physical properties etc. In this study, the contribution of convective evaporation, which is obtained for pure refrigerants under the suppression of nucleate boiling, is multiplied by the composition factor by Singal et al. (1984). On the basis of Chen’s superposition model, a new correlation is presented for heat transfer coefficients of mixture.     

Cu-water nanofluid flow and heat transfer over a shrinking sheet

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - The influence of an external magnetic field and thermal radiation on Cu-water nanofluid flow and heat transfer over a shrinking sheet with slip...     

Characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer in a fluidized heat exchanger with circulating solid particles

The commercial viability of heat exchanger is mainly dependent on its long-term fouling characteristic because the fouling increases the pressure loss and degrades the thermal performance of a heat exchanger. An experimental study was performed to investigate the characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer in a fluidized bed heat exchanger with circulating various solid particles. The present work showed that the higher densities of particles had higher drag force coefficients, and the increases in heat transfer were in the order of sand, copper, steel, aluminum, and glass below Reynolds number of 5,000.     

Two-phase flow analysis in multi-channel

We carried out numerical studies to investigate the single- and two-phase flow characteristics in the single- and multi-channels. We used the finite volume method to solve the mass and momentum conservation equations. The volume of fluid model is used to predict the two-phase flow in the channel. We obtained the distribution of velocity fields, pressure drop and air volume fraction for different water mass flow rates. We also calculated the distribution of mass flow rates in the multi-channels to understand how the flow is distributed in the channels. The calculated results for the single- and two-phase flow are partly compared with the present experimental data both qualitatively and quantitatively, showing relatively good agreement between them. The numerical scheme used in this study predicts well the characteristics of single and two-phase flow in a multi-channel.     

R134a冷水机组用高效换热管的试验研究及应用

通过换热管测试台对A、B2种双侧强化蒸发管的换热性能进行了测试研究。研究结果显示：对于同一管型而言,在工况不变的情况下,管内流速在1．0-2．0m／s时,换热管的综合换热系数会随着管内水流速的增加而呈上升趋势：两者的综合换热系数与其外齿周向齿数和轴向齿数有很大关系,外内齿数多综合换热系数高：新开发的高效换热蒸发管-B比原仃的蒸发管-A换热性能高6．6％。通过采用新开发的高效蒸发管-B每年可为公司节省成本约256．6余万元。     

Numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in a plasma spray gun

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for analyzing fluid flow patterns in a plasma spray gun is presented in this study. It is coupled with a heat transfer simulation of the plasma spray gun. Based on CFD and heat transfer theory, the numerical model of the nozzle in the plasma spray gun is developed, and the coupled simulation of the flow fluid and heat transfer is carried out with the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) method. Local turbulence, which will lead to appearance of a static-water region, is found at the front corner of the cooling channel in the nozzle. The locations insufficiently cooled are found in the wall near the heat source and in the gasket in the rear of the nozzle. Then, cooling processes with different parameters of cooling water are analyzed. The optimal velocity and direction of cooling water, which efficiently cool the nozzle and improve the service life of the plasma jet, are obtained .     

Numerical investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in a helically-finned tube

In order to investigate the characteristics of flow and heat transfer rate in a Helically-finned tub (HFT), we used continuity, momentum and energy equations under a steady, three-dimensional and incompressible fluid flow assumptions. For the performance metrics, we considered the Darcy friction factor, Colburn j-factor, volume goodness factor and area goodness factor of the HFT. We could also evaluate the effect of geometry parameters on the results of local pressure coefficient, fluid vorticity and Nusselt number of the HFT. We carried out the CFD calculation for a range of laminar flow (Re = 100) and turbulent flow (Re = 2000 and 10000). In a laminar and turbulent flow regime, the friction factor increases with increasing the each geometric parameter. While the Colburn j-factor decreases as increasing these geometric parameters. Consequently, the thermal performance of HFT is poorer than that of single straight circular tube type because of having a small volume and area goodness factor as increasing the Reynolds numbers.     

Numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in a plasma spray gun

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for analyzing fluid flow patterns in a plasma spray gun is presented in this study. It is coupled with a heat transfer simulation of the plasma spray gun. Based on CFD and heat transfer theory, the numerical model of the nozzle in the plasma spray gun is developed, and the coupled simulation of the flow fluid and heat transfer is carried out with the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) method. Local turbulence, which will lead to appearance of a static-water region, is found at the front corner of the cooling channel in the nozzle. The locations insufficiently cooled are found in the wall near the heat source and in the gasket in the rear of the nozzle. Then, cooling processes with different parameters of cooling water are analyzed. The optimal velocity and direction of cooling water, which efficiently cool the nozzle and improve the service life of the plasma jet, are obtained .     

Large-eddy simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in a mixing tee junction

The temperature fluctuation caused by thermal striping phenomena of hot and cold fluids mixing results in cyclical thermal stress fatigue failure of the pipe wall. Mean temperature difference between hot and cold fluids was often used as thermal load in previous analysis of thermal fatigue failure, thereby the influences of the amplitude and frequency of temperature fluctuation on thermal fatigue failure were neglected. Based on the mechanism of flow and heat transfer which induces thermal fatigue, the turbulent mixing of hot and cold water in a tee junction is simulated with FLUENT platform by using the Large-eddy simulation(LES) turbulent flow model with the sub-grid scale(SGS) model of Smagorinsky-Lilly(SL) to capture the amplitude and frequency of temperature fluctuation. In a simulation case, hot water with temperature of 343.48 K and velocity of 0.15 m/s enters the horizontal main duct with the side length of 100 mm, while cold water with temperature of 296.78 K and velocity of 0.3 m/s enters the vertical branch duct with the side length of 50 mm. The numerical results show that the mean and fluctuating temperatures are in good agreement with the previous experimental data, which describes numerical simulation with high reliability and accuracy; the power spectrum density(PSD) on top wall is higher than that on bottom wall(as the frequency less than 1 Hz), while the PSD on bottom wall is relatively higher than that on top wall (as the frequency of 1-10Hz). The temperature fluctuations in full mixing region of the tee junction can be accurately captured by LES and can provide the theoretical basis for the thermal stress and thermal fatigue analyses.     

Measurement and correlation of boiling heat transfer coefficient of R-1234yf in horizontal small tubes

We report experimental data of boiling heat transfer of R-1234yf in horizontal small tubes. The experimental data obtained in the horizontal circular small tubes of 1.5 and 3.0 mm inner diameter, the lengths of 1000 and 2000 mm, the mass flux range from 200–650 kg/m²s, the heat flux range from 5–40 kW/m² and saturation temperature of 10 and 15°C, was used to develop a modified correlation for the heat transfer coefficient. The flow pattern of the experimental data was mapped and analyzed with existing flow pattern maps. The heat transfer coefficient was also compared with some well-known correlations.     

折流板换热器壳程流体流动与传热特性数值模拟

根据流体动力学和计算传热学理论,建立了折流板管壳式换热器计算模型,运用CFD技术对换热器壳程流体的流动与传热问题进行了三维数值模拟,得到了不同壳程进口雷诺数Re条件下换热器壳程流体的流场和温度场。对数值模拟结果进行分析,以总传热系数h,壳程总压降Δp以及单位压力损失下的传热系数h/Δp作为换热器性能的衡量标准,分析了不同折流板间距和不同折流板圆缺高度时管壳式换热器壳程总传热系数h、总压降Δp以及h/Δp随壳程进口雷诺数的变化规律。结果表明:随着壳程进口流速的增大,换热器壳程总传热系数和总压降增大、h/Δp减小;在壳程流体流量不变的情况下,结合单位压力损失下的传热系数h/Δp,适当减小折流板间距或减小折流板圆缺高度,可提高换热器的换热性能。     

微管道中压力驱动液体流动特性的数值模拟研究

MEMS系统的飞速发展让人们对微尺度领域的研究产生了极大的兴趣.对压力驱动下蒸馏水流过直径20μm微管道的流量-压力、流速-压力特性进行了数值模拟研究.结果表明,在该仿真条件下,蒸馏水的流动规律基本符合宏观条件下的Navier-Stokes和Hagen-Poiseuille方程.在仿真研究中还考虑了重力对流动特性的影响,结果发现,在微米尺度下,重力对流动的流量与速度的影响很小,几乎可以忽略不计.     

Burnett simulations of gas flow and heat transfer in microchannels

In micro- and nanoscale gas flows, the flow falls into the transition flow regime. There are not enough molecule collisions and the gas deviates from the equilibrium. The Navier-Stokes equations fail to describe the gas flow in this regime. The direct simulation Monte Carlo method converges slowly and requires lots of computational time. As a result, the high-order Burnett equations are used to study the gas flow and heat transfer characteristics in micro- and nanoscale gas flows in this paper. The Burnett equations are first reviewed, and the augmented Burnett equations with high-order slip boundary conditions are then used to model the gas flow and heat transfer in Couette and Poiseuille flows in the transition regime.     

Swirl flow post-CHF heat transfer with refrigerant 113

Heat transfer rate was experimentally determined in the post-CHF region of a steady-state two-phase flow of a refrigerant in a vertical tube with swirl induced by twisted-tape inserts. Experiments were performed with the vertical flow of refrigerant-113 in a tube with inside diameter of 7.75 mm, a heated length of 3.66 m and mass flux of 375–535 kg/m²s for swirl flow at a pressure of 0.184 MPa. Four tapes were used with twist-ratio of 2.5 to 9.2 for swirl flow. Liquid heating produced the low wall-superheat in the post-CHF region at steady-state, which is typical of heat exchanger operation. Superheated vapor measured at the test section exit in most tests ensured that entire post-CHF region was included. All refrigerant-113 data were compared with the data of water and refrigerant-12. The existing post-CHF heat transfer correlation of swirl flow was modified to predict the magnitude and trends of the data of the three fluids such as water, R-12 and R-113.     

Investigation of empirical correlations on the determination of condensation heat transfer characteristics during downward annular flow of R134a inside a vertical smooth tube using artificial intelligence algorithms

The heat transfer characteristics of R134a during downward condensation are investigated experimentally and numerically. While the convective heat transfer coefficient, two-phase multiplier and frictional pressure drop are considered to be the significant variables as output for the analysis, inputs of the computational numerical techniques include the important two-phase flow parameters such as equivalent Reynolds number, Prandtl number, Bond number, Froude number, Lockhart and Martinelli number. Genetic algorithm technique (GA), unconstrained nonlinear minimization algorithm-Nelder-Mead method (NM) and non-linear least squares error method (NLS) are applied for the optimization of these significant variables in this study. Regression analysis gave convincing correlations on the prediction of condensation heat transfer characteristics using ±30% deviation band for practical applications. The most suitable coefficients of the proposed correlations are depicted to be compatible with the large number of experimental data by means of the computational numerical methods. Validation process of the proposed correlations is accomplished by means of the comparison between the various correlations reported in the literature.