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Development of numerical model to study the effect of condensate liquid layer on condensation heat transfer of R134a in minichannel

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Abstract

Future space equipment and applications would require a high amount of heat dissipation. In such applications, minichannel, as an integral component of the compact cooling device, could play a significant role in maintaining the electronics temperature within a tolerable limit and reducing the spacecraft weight. The present study deals with condensation heat transfer in a two-dimensional minichannel with R134a as a working fluid. A novel numerical model capable of analysing the condensation of vapour in minichannel owing to the temperature difference and the change in local vapour pressure resulting from the flow passage contraction due to the developed liquid layer is proposed and validated with the existing literature. The Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach is used for two-phase interface tracking. The effects on the performance of the minichannel condensation process, thin liquid film layer development, and prediction of two-phase (liquid–vapour) interface profile due to variations in inlet vapour mass flux and minichannel diameter are investigated. The gravity effect is studied by considering five different conditions of 0, 0.5, 1, 5 and 9.81 m/s2. Additionally, three different inlet mass fluxes of 250 kg/m2.s, 500 kg/m2.s and 750 kg/m2.s are considered. For each mass flux, three different channel diameters are considered, viz. 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm at g = 0 and 9.81 m/s2. Outcomes of the study show that the average Nusselt number increases as inlet vapour mass flux increases. The increment in inlet vapour mass flux causes significantly delayed fluctuations in the flow. It is observed that as the minichannel diameter increases, the average heat transfer coefficient reduces significantly.

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Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

c p :

Specific heat capacity, J/kg.K

D :

Channel diameter, m

g:

Gravitational acceleration, m/s2

G in :

Inlet mass flux, kg/m2.s

h :

Specific enthalpy, kJ/kg

h avg :

Average heat transfer coefficient, W/m2.K

k :

Thermal conductivity, W m−1 K−1

L :

Channel length, m

\({\dot{m}}_{s}\) :

Rate of mass transfer

Nu avg :

Average Nusselt number

Nu loc :

Local Nusselt number

\({q''}\)  :

Heat flux, W/m2

Q L :

Latent heat, kJ/kg

r c :

Curvature of the interface, m

\({S}_{E}\) :

Source term in the energy equation, W/m3

\({\overrightarrow{S}}_{m}\) :

Source term in the momentum equation, W/m3

x :

Local channel length from the inlet, mm

T :

Temperature, K

ΔT :

Tsat—Twall, K

ΔT ´ :

Tliq—Twall, K

t ∞ :

Mean flow time scale

U ∞ :

Inlet velocity, m/s

ρ :

Density, kg/m3

μ :

Dynamic viscosity, Pa.s

ν :

Kinematic viscosity, m2/s

σ :

Surface tension, N/m

ϕ :

Void fraction

α :

Volume fraction

cu :

Copper

eff :

Effective

in :

Inlet

p :

Pressure

L :

Latent heat

loc :

Local

avg :

Average

l :

Liquid

v :

Vapour

sat :

Saturation

K :

Kunz's mass transfer model

x :

Location along the channel

w :

Wall

Model -A:

‘pressTempCondensatingEvaporatingFoam’ solver

Model -B:

‘interCondensatingEvaporatingFoam’ solver

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Indian Space Research Organisation- ISRO-IIT (B) SPACE TECHNOLOGY CELL through grant number: RD/0119-ISROC00-014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Sourav Pramanick & Sandip K. Saha

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Goa, Ponda, 403401, India

    Prasenjit Dey

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  1. Sourav Pramanick
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Correspondence to Sandip K. Saha.

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Pramanick, S., Dey, P. & Saha, S.K. Development of numerical model to study the effect of condensate liquid layer on condensation heat transfer of R134a in minichannel. Heat Mass Transfer 58, 2029–2046 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-022-03213-2

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