Condensation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of R134A in Horizontal Micro-Scale Enhanced Tube

Author(s):  
Zongbao Gu ◽  
Xiang Ma ◽  
Yan He ◽  
Lianxiang Ma ◽  
David J. Kukulka ◽  
...  

Abstract This study was performed to investigate the heat transfer and pressure drop of R134A during condensation inside a stainless steel micro-scale enhanced surface tube (EHT tube) and smooth tube. The tests were conducted at a saturation temperature of 45°C, over the mass fluxes range of 100 to 200 kg/m2s, the heat fluxes of 14–25 kW/m2, an inlet vapor quality of 0.8 and outlet vapor quality of 0.2. The heat length and inner diameter of the tested tube were 2 m and 11.5 mm. The micro-scale enhanced surface tube has complex surface structures composed of dimples and petal arrays background patterns. It can be observed the condensation heat transfer coefficients of the EHT tube is about 1.6–1.7 times higher than that of a stainless steel smooth tube. Enhancement of the EHT tube was achieved due to disruption of the boundary layer, secondary fluid generation, increasing fluid turbulence and heat transfer area. In addition, considering the friction pressure drop, the EHT tube produces the larger friction pressure drop, which is 1.05–1.20 times as compared to the smooth tube. Finally, the performance factors were performed to evaluate the enhancement effect of the EHT tube based on heat transfer coefficient-pressure drop evaluation criteria value (η1) and heat transfer coefficient-area evaluation criteria value (η2).

Author(s):  
Jian-jun Sun ◽  
Jing-xiang Chen ◽  
David J. Kukulka ◽  
Kan Zhou ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
...  

An experiment investigation was performed using R410A in order to determine the single-phase and evaporation heat transfer coefficients on the outside of (i) a smooth tube; (ii) herringbone tube; and (iii) the newly developed Vipertex enhanced surface 1EHT tube; all with the same external diameter (12.7 mm). The nominal evaporation temperature is 279 K, with inlet and outlet qualities of 0.1 and 0.8. Mass fluxes ranged from 10 to 40 kg m−2s−1. Results suggest that the 1EHT tube has excellent heat transfer performance but a higher pressure drop when compared to a smooth tube. Evaporation heat transfer coefficient for the 1EHT is lower than the herringbone tube and the pressure drop is almost the same.


Author(s):  
Xu Chen ◽  
Xiaoqiang Hong ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
David J. Kukulka

An experimental investigation of R410A condensation outside a horizontal smooth tube, a herringbone tube and a newly developed enhanced surface EHT tube has been conducted. The herringbone tube has a fin root diameter of 11.43 mm, a helical angle of 21.3 °, 48 fins with a fin height of 0.262 mm and an apex angle of 36 °, the EHT tube has an outer diameter of 11.5 mm with special structure, while the smooth tube has an outer diameter of 11.43 mm. Experiments were taken at a constant saturation temperature of 45 °C, a constant inlet vapor quality of 0.8 and a constant outlet vapor quality of 0.1; mass flux ranging from 5 kg/(m2.s) to 250 kg/(m2.s). Those tubes have different heat transfer performance at different mass flux. The EHT tube has the least heat transfer coefficient than the other two tubes at a low mass flux, while at a high mass flux, the enhanced tubes have a better heat transfer performance than the smooth tube. Heat transfer performance combined with pressure drop measurements reveal that the herringbone tube generally has a better heat transfer performance than the EHT tube, pointing out the herringbone is a wise choice for shell side condensation instead of the EHT tube. Characteristic analysis is made to account for various phenomena in this series of experiments.


Author(s):  
Xiao-peng Zhou ◽  
David J. Kukulka ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Jian-Jun Sun ◽  
Wei Li

Heat transfer enhancement plays an important role in improving energy efficiency and developing high performance thermal systems. Phase-change heat transfer processes take place in thermal systems; typically heat transfer enhanced tubes are used in these systems and they are designed to increase heat transfer coefficients in evaporation and condensation. Enhanced heat transfer tubes are widely used in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications in order to reduce cost and create a smaller footprint of the application. Microfins, roughness and dimples are often incorporated into the inner surface of tubes in order to enhance heat transfer performance. Under many conditions, enhanced surface tubes can recover more energy and provide the opportunity to advance the design of many heat transfer products. Convective condensation heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics were investigated for R410A on the outside of: (i) a smooth tube (outer diameter 12.7 mm); (ii) an external herringbone tube (fin root diameter 12.7 mm); and (iii) the 1EHT tube (outer diameter 12.7 mm) for very low mass fluxes. Data was obtained for values of mass flux ranging from 8 to 50 kg/(m2 s); at a saturation temperature of 318 K; with an inlet quality of 0.8 (±0.05) and an outlet quality of 0.1 (±0.05). In a comparison of heat transfer at a low mass flux, both the 1EHT tube and the herringbone tube did not perform as well as the smooth tube. And it’s difficult to analyze the reason for this strange phenomenon.


2013 ◽  
Vol 651 ◽  
pp. 525-529
Author(s):  
Mao Yu Wen ◽  
Kang Jang Jang

This study presents an experimental investigation of the characteristics of the flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop for refrigerant of R134a flowing in a small - diameter evaporative tube with the pipe sections having increased diameters. The experiments were performed at the saturation temperature of 5°C , heat flux of 5.12 ~ 10.96 ( KW/m2), mass flux of 200~600 ( kg/m2s), different length-to-diameter ratios of the test tubes and refrigerant quality of 0.07~0.78, and based on the same surface area of heat transfer. The enhancement performance ratios, θa/s for the tubes with the pipe sections having increased diameters relative to the smooth tube are higher than 1 (about 1.01~1.10). It means that the augmented tubes show the better overall performance than the smooth tube under study.


Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Xu Chen

An experimental investigation of R410a condensation outside a horizontal herringbone tube and a smooth tube has been conducted. The herringbone tube has a fin root diameter of 11.43 mm, a helical angle of 21.3 °, 48 fins with a fin height of 0.262 mm and an apex angle of 36 °, while the smooth tube has an inner diameter of 11.43 mm. Experiments were taken at a constant saturation temperature of 45°C, an inlet vapor quality of 0.8 and an outlet vapor quality of 0.1. The mass velocity ranged from 5 kg/(m2.s) to 50 kg/(m2.s). The outside condensation heat transfer coefficients for the herringbone tube vary from 617.53 W/(m2.K) to 856.37 W/(m2.K), whereas the heat transfer coefficients for the smooth tube vary from 1066.29 W/(m2.K) to 1413.09 W/(m2.K), nearly 1.5 times higher than the data of the herringbone tube. At such a low mass velocity, the smooth tube seems superior to the herringbone tube, which has not been discovered yet. The cause of such phenomenon might consist in the surface tension which plays a vital role in the condensation process. Under a low mass velocity, the surface tension results in the retention of liquid on the lower part of the tube, which thickens the film on the tube and worsens the heat transfer. Several calculations were made to find a suitable correlation for this experiment, aiming to find the point where the herringbone tube starts to lose its enhancement function.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (32) ◽  
pp. 3635-3643
Author(s):  
Xiaotian He ◽  
Jinliang Xu ◽  
Bingguo Zhu ◽  
Haisong Zhang ◽  
Xinjie Zhu ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C. Forrest ◽  
Lin-Wen Hu ◽  
Jacopo Buongiorno ◽  
Thomas J. McKrell

Experimental results are presented for single-phase heat transfer in a narrow rectangular minichannel heated on one side. The aspect ratio and gap thickness of the test channel were 29:1 and 1.96 mm, respectively. Friction pressure drop and Nusselt numbers are reported for the transition and fully turbulent flow regimes, with Prandtl numbers ranging from 2.2 to 5.4. Turbulent friction pressure drop for the high aspect ratio channel is well-correlated by the Blasius solution when a modified Reynolds number, based upon a laminar equivalent diameter, is utilized. The critical Reynolds number for the channel falls between 3500 and 4000, with Nusselt numbers in the transition regime being reasonably predicted by Gnielinski's correlation. The dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the Prandtl number is larger than that predicted by circular tube correlations, and is likely a result of the asymmetric heating. The problem of asymmetric heating condition is approached theoretically using a boundary layer analysis with a two-region wall layer model, similar to that originally proposed by Prandtl. The analysis clarifies the influence of asymmetric heating on the Nusselt number and correctly predicts the experimentally observed trend with Prandtl number. A semi-analytic correlation is derived from the analysis that accounts for the effect of aspect ratio and asymmetric heating, and is shown to predict the experimental results of this study with a mean absolute error (MAE) of less than 5% for 4000 < Re < 70,000.


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