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Two-phase pressure drop in a helical coil flow boiling system

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Abstract

The objective of the present work is to study the two-phase pressure drop in helical coils. Literature on the two-phase pressure drop in a helical coil suggests the complexity in flow boiling inside a helical coil due to secondary flow. Most of correlations reported in the literature on the two-phase pressure drop in a helical coil are limited to a specific operating range. No general correlation is available for a helical coil which is applicable for all fluids. In the present study, an experimental databank collected containing a total of 832 data points includes the data from the present study and from the literature. The data includes diabatic pressure drop of two fluids namely water and R123. Data covers a range of parameters namely a mass flux of 120–2058 kg/m2 s, a heat flux of 18–2831 kW/m2, an exit quality of 0.03–1, a density ratio of 32–1404 and a coil to tube diameter ratio of 14–58. The databank is compared with eighteen empirical correlations which include well referred correlations of straight tubes and the available correlations of helical coils. The straight tube correlations are not working well for the present data set. The helical coil correlations work reasonably well for the present databank. A correlation is suggested to predict the two-phase pressure drop in helical coils. The present study suggests that the influence of a helical coil is completely included in the single phase pressure drop correlation for helical coils.

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Abbreviations

d :

Tube diameter m

D :

Helical coil diameter m

Deviation :

(Ccal − Cexp)/Cexp × 100 %

f :

Friction factor

G :

Mass flux kg/m2s

g :

Gravitational constant m/s2

h :

Enthalpy J/kg

L :

Length m

Mean :

(|Ccal − Cexp|)/Cexp × 100 %

\( \dot{m} \) , :

Mass flow rate kg/s

P :

System Pressure bar

ΔP :

Pressure Drop Pa

p :

Pitch m

Q :

Heat supply W

q ′′ :

Heat flux W/m2

R123 :

2,2-Dichloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane

T :

Temperature °C

U :

Superficial Velocity m/s

x :

Quality of steam

X :

Lockhart Martinelli parameter \( X={\left(\frac{1-x}{x}\right)}^{0.9}{\left(\frac{1-x}{x}\right)}^{0.5}{\left(\frac{1-x}{x}\right)}^{0.1} \)

Ø :

Two phase flow multiplier \( {\varnothing}^2=\frac{\Delta {P}_{TP, fric}}{\Delta {P}_{1P}} \)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity N ∙ s/m2

ρ :

Density kg/m3

σ :

Surface tension N/m

1p:

Single phase

acc :

Acceleration

c :

Coil

f :

Fluid

fg :

Fluid to gas

fric :

Friction

g :

Gas

h :

Heated

l :

Liquid

lo :

Liquid only

sat :

Saturated

SC :

Subcooled

TP :

Two phase

tt :

Turbulent liquid and Turbulent vapour

lt :

Laminar liquid and Turbulent vapour

HP :

High pressure

LP :

Low pressure

Bo :

Boiling number Bo = q′′/G ifg

Ja :

Jakob number Ja = Cp ∙ ∆Tsc/ifg

Re :

Reynolds number \( \mathit{\operatorname{Re}}=4\dot{m}/\pi d\mu \)

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Acknowledgements

Authors hereby acknowledge the financial support given by Ministry of Defence (R and D). Authors wish to acknowledge the support given by Captain Binduraj from Ministry of Defence (R and D), Shri K.N. Vyas, Shri Joe Mohan and Shri Inder Kumar from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Dr. P.K. Baburajan from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Authors are grateful to Mr. Rahul Shirsat for his assistance in building the experimental setup and fabrication of test sections and Mr. Gajendra Kumar for his assistance in experiments.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, India

    B. K. Hardik & S. V. Prabhu

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  1. B. K. Hardik
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Correspondence to S. V. Prabhu.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 7 Available two-phase frictional pressure drop correlations for helical coils
Full size table

Appendix 2

Table 8 Two-phase frictional pressure drop correlations for straight tubes
Full size table

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Hardik, B.K., Prabhu, S.V. Two-phase pressure drop in a helical coil flow boiling system. Heat Mass Transfer 54, 3231–3251 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2362-y

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