Experimental Investigation on Flow Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Low-GWP Refrigerant R1234ze(E) in a Horizontal Minichannel

Yu Xu, Zihao Yan and Ling Li
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Yu Xu: Key Laboratory of Aircraft Environment Control and Life Support, MIIT, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 Yudao St., Nanjing 210016, China
Zihao Yan: Key Laboratory of Aircraft Environment Control and Life Support, MIIT, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 Yudao St., Nanjing 210016, China
Ling Li: Key Laboratory of Aircraft Environment Control and Life Support, MIIT, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 Yudao St., Nanjing 210016, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: To protect the environment, a new low-GWP refrigerant R1234ze(E) was created to substitute R134a. However, its flow boiling performances have not received sufficient attention so far, which hinders its popularization to some extent. In view of this, an experimental investigation was carried out in a 1.88 mm horizontal circular minichannel. The saturation pressures were maintained at 0.6 and 0.7 MPa, accompanied by mass flux within 540–870 kg/m 2 s and heat flux within 25–65 kW/m 2 . For nucleate boiling, a larger heat flux brings about a larger heat transfer coefficient (HTC), while for convective boiling, the mass flux and vapor quality appear to take the lead role. The threshold vapor quality of different heat transfer mechanisms is around 0.4. Additionally, larger saturation pressure results in large HTC. As for the frictional pressure drop (FPD), it is positively influenced by mass flux and vapor quality, while negatively affected by saturation pressure, and the influence of heat flux is negligible. Furthermore, with the measured data, several existing correlations are compared. The results indicate that the correlations of Saitoh et al. (2007) and Müller-Steinhagen and Heck (1986) perform best on flow boiling HTC and FPD with mean absolute deviations of 5.4% and 10.9%.

Keywords: flow boiling; low-GWP; heat transfer; pressure drop; R1234ze(E); minichannel (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: 2021
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