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

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