Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics in Horizontal, Three-Dimensional Enhanced Tubes

Zhi-Chuan Sun, Xiang Ma, Lian-Xiang Ma, Wei Li and David J. Kukulka
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Zhi-Chuan Sun: Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China
Xiang Ma: Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, 99 Songling Road, Qingdao 266061, China
Lian-Xiang Ma: Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, 99 Songling Road, Qingdao 266061, China
Wei Li: Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China
David J. Kukulka: Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, State University of New York College at Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-25

Abstract: An experimental investigation was conducted to explore the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of refrigerants R134A and R410A inside a smooth tube, as well as inside two newly developed surface-enhanced tubes. The internal surface structures of the two enhanced tubes are comprised of protrusions/dimples and petal-shaped bumps/cavities. The equivalent inner diameter of all tested tubes is 11.5 mm, and the tube length is 2 m. The experimental test conditions included saturation temperatures of 6 °C and 10 °C; mass velocities ranging from 70 to 200 kg/(m 2 s); and heat fluxes ranging from 10 to 35 kW/m 2 , with inlet and outlet vapor quality of 0.2 and 0.8. It was observed that the enhanced tubes exhibit excellent flow boiling heat transfer performance. This can be attributed to the complex surface patterns of dimples and petal arrays that increase the active heat transfer area; in addition, more nucleation sites are produced, and there is also an increased interfacial turbulence. Results showed that the boiling heat transfer coefficient of the enhanced surface tubes was 1.15–1.66 times that of the smooth tubing. Also, effects of the flow pattern and saturated temperature are discussed. Finally, a comparison of several existing flow boiling heat transfer models using the data from the current study is presented.

Keywords: flow boiling; surface-enhanced tube; heat transfer coefficient; flow pattern (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: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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