An experimental study of flow boiling heat transfer of zeotropic mixture R32/R134a in a microchannel heat exchanger

This paper presents experimental data on heat transfer of a binary zeotropic mixture of refrigerants R32/R134a in a microchannel heat exchanger with a high specific surface within a range of parameters that is practically important for the development of cooling systems for microelectronics and space technology. The experiments were carried out in a horizontal heat exchanger with one-sided heating of a copper microchannel plate 20x40 mm, containing 21 rectangular microchannels with a cross-section of 335x930 μm, within the range of mass fluxes from 80 to 250 kg/m2s, and at an absolute pressure in the system ranged from 12 to 14 bar. A zeotropic mixture of refrigerants R32/R134a with a molar concentration of the initial mixture of 65%/35% was used as a working fluid. Experimental data were compared with model-based calculations that take into account the influence of changes in the concentrations of components in the liquid and gas phases.

Investigation of the Effect of Cross Section on the Convective Heat Transfer Performance of Nanoemulsion in Microchannel Heat Exchanger

The present study aims to numerically investigate the effect of cross section on the heat transfer performance of single-phase flow of Ethanol/Polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluid with ethanol concentrations of 8 wt.% in a microchannel heat exchanger. While the exterior geometry of the microchannels’ solid structure remains the same, four different cross sections of channels including: circular, upward semi-circular, rectangular, and trapezoidal, are designed with keeping the channels’ wetted perimeters, mass flow rate, and Reynolds number constant for comparison purposes. In the present study, the hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics, including local Nusselt number, heat transfer coefficient, and velocity profile, were investigated under a uniform wall heat flux boundary conditions within the laminar flow regime. The channel models of different cross sections were developed by the COMSOL-Multiphysics for numerical analysis. The heat transfer characteristics were then compared for different cross sections under the same operating conditions, and the effect of aspect ratio for rectangular and trapezoidal cross sections were also studied.