Experimental Assessment of a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger Operating at Subcritical and Supercritical Conditions in a Small-Scale Solar Organic Rankine Cycle

Marija Lazova, Alihan Kaya, Marijn Billiet, Steven Lecompte, Dimitris Manolakos and Michel De Paepe
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Marija Lazova: Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Alihan Kaya: Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Marijn Billiet: Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Steven Lecompte: Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Dimitris Manolakos: Department of Natural Resources and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos Street 75, Athens 11855, Greece
Michel De Paepe: Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent 9000, Belgium

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: In this study, the performance of a helical coil heat exchanger operating at subcritical and supercritical conditions is analysed. The counter-current heat exchanger was specially designed to operate at a maximal pressure and temperature of 42 bar and 200 °C, respectively. The small-scale solar organic Rankine cycle (ORC) installation has a net power output of 3 kWe. The first tests were done in a laboratory where an electrical heater was used instead of the concentrated photovoltaic/thermal (CPV/T) collectors. The inlet heating fluid temperature of the water was 95 °C. The effects of different parameters on the heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger were investigated. Particularly, the performance analysis was elaborated considering the changes of the mass flow rate of the working fluid (R-404A) in the range of 0.20–0.33 kg/s and the inlet pressure varying from 18 bar up to 41 bar. Hence, the variation of the heat flux was in the range of 5–9 kW/m 2 . The results show that the working fluid’s mass flow rate has significant influence on the heat transfer rate rather than the operational pressure. Furthermore, from the comparison between the experimental results with the heat transfer correlations from the literature, the experimental results fall within the uncertainty range for the supercritical analysis but there is a deviation of the investigated subcritical correlations.

Keywords: experimental research; helical coil heat exchanger; organic Rankine cycle; subcritical; supercritical; heat transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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