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Experimental investigation of pressure drop in helical coil during flow boiling at subatmospheric pressures

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Abstract

The thermal phenomenon of flow boiling in the helical coil is compelling due to the secondary flow. This work presents a pioneer experimental investigation of pressure drop during flow boiling in the helical coil using water under subatmospheric pressure conditions. The test section is made of SS-304, length 5330 mm, coil diameter 282.7 mm, and tube diameter 9.5 mm. The experiments are performed at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 bar absolute pressure at the exit of the helical coil. The mass flux is varied from 140 to 425 kg/m2s, and vapor quality from 0 to 0.9. The effect of system pressure, accompanying mass flux, quality and heat flux on two-phase pressure drop has been studied. The two-phase pressure drop at the subatmospheric system pressure is higher than that at the atmospheric system pressure for identical operating conditions. The two-phase pressure drop in the helical coil is higher for maximum mass flux at higher vapor quality and lower subatmospheric pressure. The two-phase pressure drop in the helical coil increases linearly by increasing the heat flux at all subatmospheric system pressure. The pressure fluctuations are not affected significantly by the mass flux and heat flux in the saturated region. Experimental subatmospheric and atmospheric pressure drop data are compared with available correlations. The available correlations predict the atmospheric and subatmospheric pressure drop data with reasonable accuracy.

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Data availability

The data can be shared upon request to the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

D :

Coil diameter (mm)

d :

Tube diameter (mm)

G :

Mass flux (kg/m2s)

Q :

Heat supplied (kW)

q’’ :

Heat flux (kW/m2)

L :

Heated length of coil (mm)

T :

Temperature (°C)

ΔP :

Pressure drop (kPa)

H :

Enthalpy (J/kg)

x :

Quality of steam

μ :

Viscosity (Pa-s)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

α :

Void fraction

X :

Lockhart Martinelli parameter

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate (kg/s)

f :

Fanning friction factor

C p :

Specific heat (J/kgK)

z :

Axial length (mm)

U :

Voltage (V)

I :

Current (A)

ACC:

Air-cooled condenser

DPT:

Differential Pressure transmitter

PT:

Pressure transmitter

HTC:

Heat transfer coefficient

RTD:

Resistance temperature detector

PD:

Pressure drop

Re :

Reynolds number, \(Re= \frac{4\dot{m}}{\pi d\mu }\)

Dn :

Dean number, \(Re\sqrt{\frac{d}{D}}\)

Ja :

Jacob number, \(\frac{{C}_{p}({T}_{w}-{T}_{sat})}{{H}_{fg}}\)

Bo :

Boiling number, \({q}^{\prime\prime}/\left(G{H}_{fg}\right)\)  

acc :

Acceleration

gra :

Gravity

abs :

Absolute

tt :

Turbulent - Turbulent

cr :

Critical

sp :

Single-phase

tp :

Two-phase

sb :

Subcooled

fri :

Friction

c :

Curved

h :

Homogeneous

l :

Liquid

fg :

Liquid to gas

g :

Gas

sat :

Saturated

w :

Wall

in :

Inlet

out :

Outlet

sys :

System

s :

Supplied

loss :

Heat loss to atmosphere

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Mr. Laxmikant Dhruw and Mr. Bikash Pattanayak for their assistance in the experimentations. The authors are thankful to Mr. Bharat and Mr. Vikram, the technical staff, central fabrication facility for their kind support in the fabrication of the experimental setup. This research is backed by Grant number S/TSET/HBK/20180033.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Karwar, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 342037, India

    Arvind Kumar, Vivek Saxena, Harsh Deswal & Hardik B. Kothadia

Authors
  1. Arvind Kumar
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  2. Vivek Saxena
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  3. Harsh Deswal
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  4. Hardik B. Kothadia
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Test set-up preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Arvind Kumar, Vivek Saxena, and Harsh Deswal. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Arvind Kumar and Vivek Saxena and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hardik B. Kothadia.

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Conflict of interests

Author Hardik B. Kothadia has received research support from Thermax SPX Energy Technologies Limited. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Highlights

• Effect of subatmospheric system pressure on two-phase pressure drop.

• Comparison of subatmospheric pressure drop data with available correlations.

• Higher pressure drop at higher vapor quality and lower subatmospheric pressure.

• Pressure fluctuations during flow boiling at subatmospheric pressure.

• Linear increment in two-phase pressure drop with heat flux.

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Kumar, A., Saxena, V., Deswal, H. et al. Experimental investigation of pressure drop in helical coil during flow boiling at subatmospheric pressures. Heat Mass Transfer 59, 1855–1870 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03373-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03373-9

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