Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of R-134a Boiling at Low Mass Fluxes in a Small Vertical Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger

An experimental investigation was performed to study the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of refrigerant R-134a boiling in a chevron-patterned brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE) at low mass flux. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop characteristics are analyzed in relation to varying mass flux (30–50 kgm−2s−1), saturation pressure (675 kPa and 833 kPa), heat flux (0.8 and 2.5 kWm−2), and vapor quality (0.1–0.9). The two-phase pressure drop shows a strong dependence on mass flux and significant saturation temperature drop at high mass flux. The two-phase heat transfer coefficient was both strongly dependent on heat flux (at vapor qualities below 0.4) and on mass flux (at vapor qualities above 0.4). There was also apparent dryout, as depicted by decreased heat transfer at high vapor qualities. These observations suggest that both nucleate and convective boiling mechanisms prevailed. Existing transition correlations however suggest that the experimental data is rather convection-dominant and not a mix of convection and nucleate boiling. The experimental data further strongly suggest the prevalence of both macrochannel and minichannel type flows. Several acknowledged semi-empirical transition criteria were employed to verify our observations. These criteria mostly support our observations that R-134a evaporating at low mass fluxes in a BPHE with a hydraulic diameter of 3.4 mm, has heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics typically indicative of macrochannel as well as minichannel flows. Disagreement however exists with accepted correlations regarding the prevalence of convective or nucleate boiling.

Forced Convection Heat Transfer of Nanofluids: A Review

Stable homogeneous colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles in a liquid solvents are termed as nanofluids. In this review the results for the forced convection heat transfer of nanofluids are gleaned from the literature reports. This study attempts to evaluate the experimental data in the literature for the efficacy of employing nanofluids as heat transfer fluids (HTF) and for Thermal Energy Storage (TES). The efficacy of nanofluids for improving the performance of compact heat exchangers were also explored. In addition to thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity the rheological behavior of nanofluids also play a significant role for various applications. The material properties of nanofluids are highly sensitive to small variations in synthesis protocols. Hence the scope of this review encompassed various sub-topics including: synthesis protocols for nanofluids, materials characterization, thermo-physical properties (thermal conductivity, viscosity, specific heat capacity), pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients under forced convection conditions. The measured values of heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids varies with testing configuration i.e. flow regime, boundary condition and geometry. Furthermore, a review of the reported results on the effects of particle concentration, size, temperature is presented in this study. A brief discussion on the pros and cons of various models in the literature is also performed — especially pertaining to the reports on the anomalous enhancement in heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids. Furthermore, the experimental data in the literature indicate that the enhancement observed in heat transfer coefficient is incongruous compared to the level of thermal conductivity enhancement obtained in these studies. Plausible explanations for this incongruous behavior is explored in this review. A brief discussion on the applicability of conventional single phase convection correlations based on Newtonian rheological models for predicting the heat transfer characteristics of the nanofluids is also explored in this review (especially considering that nanofluids often display non-Newtonian rheology). Validity of various correlations reported in the literature that were developed from experiments, is also explored in this review. These comparisons were performed as a function of various parameters, such as, for the same mass flow rate, Reynolds number, mass averaged velocity and pumping power.

Thermal Conductivity Testing Apparatus for 3D Printed Materials

Additive manufacturing, the layer-by-layer creation of parts, was initially used for rapid prototyping of new designs. Recently, due to the decrease in the cost and increase in the resolution and strength of additively manufactured parts, additive manufacturing is increasingly being used for production of parts for end-use applications. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), a type of 3d printing, is a process of additive manufacturing in which a molten thermoplastic material is extruded to create the desired geometry. Many potential heat transfer applications of 3d printed parts, including the development of additively manufactured heat exchangers, exist. In addition, the availability of metal/polymer composite filaments, first used for applications such as tooling for injection molding applications and to improve wear resistance, could lead to increased performance 3d printed heat exchangers because of the higher thermal conductivity of the material. However, the exploitation of 3d printing for heat transfer applications is hindered by a lack of reliable thermal conductivity data for as-printed materials, which typically include significant void fractions. In this experimental study, an apparatus to measure the effective thermal conductivity of 3d printed composite materials was designed and fabricated. Its ability to accurately measure the thermal conductivity of polymers was validated using a sample of acrylic, whose conductivity is well understood. Finally, the thermal conductivities of various 3d printed polymer, metal/polymer composite, and carbon/polymer composite filaments were measured and are reported in this paper. The materials used are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA), stainless steel/PLA, Brass/PLA, and Bronze/PLA.

Polarized Radiative Transfer in Anisotropic Disordered Media With Short-Range Order

The aim of this study is to present a general method to investigate radiative transfer in disordered media with a subwave-length, anisotropic short-range order and provide a fundamental understanding on the interplay between polarized radiative transfer and microstructural anisotropy as well short-range order. We show the anisotropy of short-range order, described by an anisotropic correlation length in Gaussian random permittivity model, induces a significant anisotropy of radiative properties. Here the photon scattering mean free path is derived using the Feynman diagrammatic expansion of self-energy, and the transport mean free path and phase function are calculated based on the diagrammatic representation of the irreducible vertex in the Bethe-Salpeter equation. We further consider the transport of polarized light in such media by directly solving Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) for photons, without the use of traditional vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE). The present method advantageously allows us to elegantly relate anisotropic structural parameters to polarized radiative transport properties and obtain more fundamental physical insights, because the approximations in all steps of our derivation are given explicitly with reasonable explanations from the exact ab-initio BSE. Moreover, through a polarization eigen-channel expansion technique for intensity tensor, we show that values of transport mean free path in different polarization eigen-channels are rather different, which are also strongly affected by structural anisotropy and short-range order. As a conclusion, this study depicts some fundamental physical features of polarized radiative transfer in disordered media, and is also valuable for potential applications of utilizing anisotropic short-range order in disordered media in manipulation of polarized radiative transfer.

Comparison of 30 Boiling and Condensation Correlations for Two-Phase Flows in Compact Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

Over the years, empirical correlations have been developed for predicting saturated flow boiling [1–15] and condensation [16–30] heat transfer coefficients inside horizontal/vertical tubes or micro-channels. In the present work, we have examined 30 of these models, and modified many of them for use in compact plate-fin heat exchangers. However, the various correlations, which have been developed for pipes and ducts, have been modified in our work to make them applicable to extended fin surfaces. The various correlations have been used in a low-order, one-dimensional, finite-volume type numerical integration of the flow and heat transfer equations in heat exchangers. The NIST’s REFPROP database [31] is used to account for the large variations in the fluid thermo-physical properties during phase change. The numerical results are compared with Yara’s experimental data [32]. The validity of the various boiling and condensation models for a real plate-fin heat exchanger design is discussed. The results show that some of the modified boiling and condensation correlations can provide acceptable prediction of heat transfer coefficient for two-phase flows in compact plate-fin heat exchangers.

Experimental Study of a Single Microchannel Flow Under Non-Uniform Heat Flux

Non-uniform heat fluxes are commonly observed in thermo-electronic devices that require distinct thermal management strategies for effective heat dissipation and robust performance. The limited research available on non-uniform heat fluxes focus mostly on microchannel heat sinks while the fundamental component, i.e. a single microchannel, has received restricted attention. In this work, an experimental setup for the analysis of variable axial heat flux is used to study the heat transfer in a single microchannel with fully developed flow under the effect of different heat flux profiles. Initially a hot spot at different locations, with a uniform background heat flux, is studied at different Reynolds numbers while varying the maximum heat fluxes in order to compute the heat transfer in relation to its dependent variables. Measurements of temperature, pressure, and flow rates at a different locations and magnitudes of hot spot heat fluxes are presented, followed by a detailed analysis of heat transfer characteristics of a single microchannel under non-uniform heating. Results showed that upstream hotspots have lower tube temperatures compared to downstream ones with equal amounts of heat fluxes. This finding can be of importance in enhancing microchannel heat sinks effectiveness in reducing maximum wall temperatures for the same amount of heat released, by redistributing spatially fluxes in a descending profile.

Heat Transfer in Additive Manufacturing of Glass

The temperature in the molten region is a critical parameter for Additive Manufacturing (AM) of transparent glass using a laser heated filament-fed processing. This paper presents a study of the heat transfer in single track printing of borosilicate glass using the filament-fed process. The incandescent radiation emitted from the melt pool is monitored using a spectrometer. The spectral data indicates the breakdown of materials occurring inside of the glass, and reflects the occurrence of bubble formation due to reboil at high temperatures. A simple numerical model of the filament-fed process based on an energy balance within the melt pool is used to estimate the temperature. By combining the numerical and experimental results, the estimated temperature calculated from this model is suitable for control feedback.

Synchronized High-Speed Video and Infrared Thermometry Study of Bubble Dynamics During Nucleate Boiling of Nanoemulsion

In this study, a combination of synchronized high-speed video (HSV) and infrared (IR) thermography was used to characterize the nucleation, growth and detachment of bubbles generated during nucleate boiling inside the nanoemulsion fluid. The Ethanol/Polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluid was formed by dispersing ethanol nanodroplets into base fluid Polyalphaolefin, in which these nanodroplets can serve as the pre-seed boiling nuclei. With this unique combination, it allows controlled nucleation, time-resolved temperature distribution data for the boiling surface and direct visualization of the bubble cycle to track bubble nucleation and growth. Data gathered included measurements of bubble growth versus time, as well as 2D temperature history of the heater surface underneath the bubbles. Our findings demonstrate a significant difference of bubble dynamics between the nanoemulsion fluid and pure ethanol, which may also account for the substantial increase in heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux of nanoemulsion fluid. It is also observed here that the bubbles occurred inside the nanoemulsion fluid appear to be more uniform and two orders-of-magnitude larger in size. While the growth rate of the bubbles inside pure ethanol was found to be heat diffusion controlled at a coefficient around ½, which however, dropped to be around 0.3 for nanoemulsion fluid. Further study on this unique system will help reveal its heat transfer mechanisms.

Maximum Likelihood Method for Energy Balance Error Correction in Heat Exchanger Data

Heat exchanger performance data commonly contain redundant heat transfer rate measurements. Due to measurement uncertainties involved in the experiments, these redundant heat transfer rates have some discrepancies. While it is a common practice and adopted by engineering standards to use the arithmetic mean of heat transfer measurements, the resulting performance indicators of heat exchangers do not result in a minimum uncertainty possible. Also, this approach fails to resolve discrepancies in resulting transport performance parameters depending on the use of UA-LMTD method or effectiveness-NTU method. In this paper, heat exchanger performance data with two heat transfer measurements from hot and cold fluid streams are combined to produce a least uncertainty of the performance indicators. Individual measurements of mass flow rates and temperatures are corrected by most likely errors based on their respective uncertainties. The validity of this method has been demonstrated by Monte-Carlo simulations. Using air conditioning heat exchanger performance data under dry and wet surface conditions, it is demonstrated that the proposed method leads to a minimum uncertainty of the calculated variables.

Comparison of R410A Condensation Heat Transfer Performance on Three Horizontal Tubes

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.