Flow boiling in horizontal flattened tubes: Part I – Two-phase frictional pressure drop results and model

Experiments of diabatic two-phase pressure drops in flow boiling were conducted in four horizontal flattened smooth copper tubes with two different heights of 2 and 3 mm. The equivalent diameters of the flat tubes are 8.6, 7.17. 6.25, and 5.3 mm. The working fluids are R22 and R410A, respectively. The test conditions are: mass velocities from 150 to 500 kg/m(2) s, heat fluxes from 6 to 40 kW/m(2) and saturation temperature of 5 degrees C (reduced pressures p(r) are 0.12 for R22 and 0.19 for R410A). The experimental results of two-phase pressure drops are presented and analyzed. Furthermore, the predicted two-phase frictional pressure drops by the flow pattern based two-phase pressure drop model of Moreno Quiben and Thome [J. Moreno Quiben, J.R. Thome, Flow pattern based two-phase frictional pressure drop model for horizontal tubes, Part I: Diabatic and adiabatic experimental study, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 28 (2007) 1049-1059; J. Moreno Quiben, J.R. Thome, Flow pattern based two-phase frictional pressure drop model for horizontal tubes, Part II: New phenomenological model, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 28 (2007) 1060-1072] using the equivalent diameters were compared to the experimental data. The model, however, underpredicts the flattened tube two-phase frictional pressure drop data. Therefore, correction to the annular flow friction factor was proposed for the flattened tubes and now the method predicts 83.7% of the flattened tube pressure drop data within +/- 30%. The model is applicable to the flattened tubes in the test condition range in the present study. Extension of the model to other conditions should be verified with experimental data. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ammonia two-phase flow in a horizontal smooth tube: Flow pattern observations, diabatic and adiabatic frictional pressure drops and assessment of prediction methods

Ricardo Lima, Jesus Moreno Quiben, John Richard Thome

The present study illustrates new experimental two-phase flow pattern observations together with diabatic boiling and adiabatic two-phase frictional pressure drop results for ammonia (R7117) flowing inside a 14-mm internal diameter, smooth horizontal stainless steel tube. The flow pattern observations were made for mass velocities of 50, 100 and 160 kg s(-1) m(-2) and saturation temperatures of -14, -2 and 12 degrees C for vapor qualities ranging from 0.05 to 0.6. The flow patterns observed during the study included: stratified-wavy, slug-stratified-wavy, slug, intermittent and annular. For all the experimental conditions, the flow structure observations were compared against the predictions of the flow pattern map model of Wojtan et al. [L. Wojtan, T. Ursenbacher, J.R. Thome, Investigation of flow boiling in horizontal tubes: part I - a new diabatic two-phase How pattern map, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 48 (2005) 2955-2969] and showed very good correspondence. The frictional pressure drop measurements were obtained for vapor qualities from 0.05 to 0.6, saturation temperatures from -14 to 14 degrees C, mass velocities from 50 to 160 kg s(-1) m(-2) and heat fluxes from 12 to 25 kW m(-2). The experimental results show the traditional pressure drop trends: the frictional pressure drop increases with vapor quality and mass velocity. Moreover, the results also show that both diabatic and adiabatic frictional pressure drop values are similar, that is, the boiling process in itself does not affect the frictional pressure drop. The correlations of Friedel [L. Friedel, Improved friction drop correlations for horizontal and vertical two-phase pipe flow, in: European Two-Phase Flow Group Meeting, paper E2, Ispra, Italy, 1979], Lockhart and Martinelli [R.W. Lockhart, R.C. Martinelli, Proposed correlation of data for isothermal two-phase two-component in pipes, Chem. Eng. Process 45 (1949) 39-48] and Muller-Steinhagen and Heck [H. Muller-Steinhagen, K. Heck, A simple friction pressure correlation for two-phase flow in pipes, Chem. Eng. Process 20 (1986) 297-308] predicted only 54%, 52% and 60% of the experimental data within +/- 30%, respectively. The correlation of Gronnerud [R. Gronnerud, Investigation of liquid hold-up, flow-resistance and heat transfer in circulation type of evaporators, part iv: two-phase flow resistance in boiling refrigerans, in: Annexe 1972-1, Bull. de I'Inst. Froid, 1979] predicted 93% of the data and the flow pattern based method of Moreno Quiben and Thome [J. Moreno Quiben, J.R. Thome, Flow pattern based two-phase frictional pressure drop model for horizontal tubes. Part II: new phenomenological model, Int.J. Heat Fluid Flow 28 (2007) 1060-1072] predicted more than 97% of the experimental data within the same error band, while the latter method captures almost 89% of the data within +/- 20%. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2009

Flow boiling in horizontal flattened tubes: Part II – Flow boiling heat transfer results and model

Ricardo Lima, Jesus Moreno Quiben, John Richard Thome

Experiments of flow boiling heat transfer were conducted in four horizontal flattened smooth copper tubes of two different heights of 2 and 3 mm. The equivalent diameters of the flattened tubes are 8.6, 7.17, 6.25, and 5.3 mm. The working fluids were R22 and R410A. The test conditions were: mass velocities from 150 to 500 kg/m(2) s, heat fluxes from 6 to 40 kW/m(2) and saturation temperature of 5 degrees C. The experimental heat transfer results are presented and the effects of mass flux, heat flux, and tube diameter on heat transfer are analyzed. Furthermore, the flow pattern based flow boiling heat transfer model of Wojtan et al. [L. Wojtan, T. Ursenbacher, J.R Thome, Investigation of flow boiling in horizontal tubes: Part I - A new diabatic two-phase flow pattern map, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 48 (2005) 2955-2969; L. Wojtan, T. Ursenbacker, J.R. Thome, Investigation of flow boiling in horizontal tubes: Part II - Development of a new heat transfer model for stratified-wavy, dryout and mist flow regimes, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 48 (2005) 2970-2985], using the equivalent diameters, were compared to the experimental data. The model predicts 71% of the entire database of R22 and R410A +/- 30% overall. The model predicts well the flattened tube heat transfer coefficients for R22 while it does not predicts well those for R410A. Based on several physical considerations, a modified flow boiling heat transfer model was proposed for the flattened tubes on the basis of the Wojtan et al. model and it predicts the flattened tube heat transfer database of R22 and R410A by 85.8% within +/- 30%. The modified model is applied to the reduced pressures up to 0.19. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2009

INFLUENCE OF THE SATURATION TEMPERATURE ON THE HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT FOR FLOW BOILING INSIDE HORIZONTAL SMOOTH TUBES

Ricardo Lima, John Richard Thome

This article presents experimental results of heat transfer from two different studies [1, 2] for horizontal flow boiling inside smooth copper tubes with different refrigerants. The main goal of this study was to verify the influence of the saturation temperature on the heat transfer coefficient. The experimental tests were carried for refrigerants R-134a, R-22 and R-404A, at saturation temperatures ranging from 5 to 20°C for two tubes of 12.7 and 13.84 mm ID and three heat fluxes of 5, 7.5 and 17.5 kW/m2. The vapor quality ranged from 5 to 90% and the mass velocity was 300 kg/s.m2. Under these conditions the heat transfer coefficient shows an interesting trend: it behaves differently, in function of the saturation temperature, in the nucleate and convective boiling dominated regions. In the nucleate boiling dominated region the heat transfer coefficient increases with the saturation temperature. In the convective boiling dominated region this phenomenon is inverted, that is, the heat transfer coefficient decreases with the saturation temperature. This phenomenon was verified through the concept of the thermal resistance of the liquid thickness. Since the heat transfer coefficient is proportional to the inverse of the thermal resistance of the liquid film, it increases with decreasing saturation temperature. The transition between nucleate and convective boiling dominated regions, denominated by [1] as a local minimum of the heat transfer coefficient, was also clearly observed with all the refrigerants.

2008

Ammonia two-phase flow in a horizontal smooth tube: Flow pattern observations, diabatic and adiabatic frictional pressure drops and assessment of prediction methods

Ricardo Lima, Jesus Moreno Quiben, John Richard Thome

2009