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

✍ Scribed by Jesús Moreno Quibén; Lixin Cheng; Ricardo J. da Silva Lima; John R. Thome

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 806 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0017-9310
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2008.12.032

✦ Synopsis

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 °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 Quibén and Thome [J. Moreno Quibén, 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 Quibén, 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.