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Evaluation of flow boiling heat transfer in horizontal circular trapezoidal-shaped microfin tube

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Abstract

Experimental investigations were conducted to analyze the evaporation heat transfer of R407c inside a horizontal microfin (trapezoidal-shaped) Cu-tube. The experiments were performed in equipment specifically designed and fabricated for phase change analysis, with a test section consisting of a 1m long Cu-tube with an outer diameter of 9.52 mm and a recirculating water heating system. The following test parameters were used: a heat flux of 5-85 kW.m-2, mass flux of 20-350 kg.m-2.s-1, vapor quality range of 0.03-0.667, and saturation temperature of 283.15-313.15 K. The novel aspect of this study is the newly designed microfin tube with helix and apex angles of 22° and 48°, fin height of 0.22 mm, and a total of 60 fins. Following experimental analysis, flow boiling heat transfer coefficients rise with mass flux, vapor quality, lower saturation temperature, hydraulic diameter, and heat flux. The experimental outcomes were also compared with established correlations. The error range for the experimental data was found to be within \(\pm 25\%\), which shows that the data are accurate to a high level of 95%. Besides that, correlations of evaporation heat transfer through a 9.52 mm horizontal round microfin tube were established by using the interpolation technique in LINGO software to anticipate the internal evaporator heat transfer coefficient as a consequence of saturation temperature. At saturation temperatures of 283.15 K and 293.15 K, the new correlation can predict most of the previous experimental results within \(\pm 20\%\) the error margin.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

\(A_{in}\) :

The evaporator test tube inner surface area, [m2]

\(A_{out}\) :

The evaporator test tube outer surface area, [m2]

\(Bo\) :

Boiling number

\(c_{p}\) :

Specific heat at constant pressure, [kJ.kg-1.K-1]

\(c_{v}\) :

Specific heat at constant volume, [kJ.kg-1.K-1]

\(D\) :

The evaporator test tube diameter, [mm]

\(f\) :

Friction factor

\(F{}_{h}\) :

Fin height, [mm]

\(F_{\alpha }\) :

Factor accounting for tube inclination in Eq. (10)

\(G\) :

Mass flux, [kg.m-2.s-1)]

\(H\) :

Refrigerant enthalpy, [kJ.kg-1]

\(h\) :

Heat transfer coefficient, [kW.m-2. K-1)]

\(h_{fg}\) :

Latent heat of vaporization, [kJ.kg-1]

\(I\) :

Current, [A]

\(k\) :

Refrigerant thermal conductivity, [kW.m-1. K-1)]

\(L\) :

Length, [mm]

\(M\) :

Molecular weight, [kg.kmol-1]

\(m\) :

Mass flow rate, [kg.s-1]

\(N\) :

Number of dataset

\(n_{f}\) :

Number of fins

\(Nu\) :

Nusselt number

\(p\) :

Pressure, [kPa]

\(p_{c}\) :

Critical pressure, [kPa]

\(\Pr\) :

Prandtl number

\(Q\) :

Heat flow rate, [W]

\(q\) :

Heat flux, [kW.m-2]

\({\text{Re}}\) :

Reynolds number

\(T\) :

Temperature, [K]

\(T_{c}\) :

Critical temperature, [ K]

\(V\) :

Voltage, [V]

\(x\) :

Vapor quality

\(X_{tt}\) :

Martinelli parameter

\(\alpha\) :

Apex angle, [o]

\(\beta\) :

Helix angle, [o]

\(\delta\) :

Ratio of hydraulic diameter

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity, [µPa.s-1]

\(\rho\) :

Density, [kg.m-3]

\(\sigma\) :

Surface tension, [mN.m-1]

\(Ana\) :

Analytical

\(avg\) :

Average

\(b\) :

Bulk

\(Cal\) :

Calculated

\(Exp\) :

Experimental

\(h\) :

Hydraulic

\(in\) :

Inside

\(l\) :

Liquid

\(lt\) :

Latent heat

\(out\) :

Outside

\(ph\) :

Pre heater

\(ref\) :

Refrigerant

\(sat\) :

Saturation

\(sn\) :

Sensible heat

\(t\sec\) :

Test section

\(v\) :

Vapor

\(w\) :

Water

\(APE\) :

Absolute precision error

\(ASHRAE\) :

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

\(CFC\) :

Chlorofluorocarbon

\(CoC\) :

Coefficient of correlation

\(GWP\) :

Global warming potential

\(HCFC\) :

Hydrochlorofluorocarbon

\(HFC\) :

Hydrofluorocarbon

\(HF\) :

Heat flux, [kW.m-2]

\(HTC\) :

Heat transfer coefficient, [kW.m-2. K-1)]

\(LMTD\) :

Log-mean temperature difference

\(MAE\) :

Mean absolute error

\(MF\) :

Mass Flux

\(MSE\) :

Mean square error

\(NIST\) :

National institute of standards and technology

\(ODP\) :

Ozone layer depletion

\(RMSD\) :

Root mean square deviation error

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Funding

The corresponding author declares on behalf of all co-authors that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura-799046, India

    Sandipan Deb, Dipak Chandra Das, Sagnik Pal & Ajoy Kumar Das

  2. Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura-799046, India

    Mantu Das

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Punjab, 140001, India

    Ranjan Das

Authors
  1. Sandipan Deb
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  2. Mantu Das
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Contributions

Sandipan Deb- Experimentation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Validation, Writing - original draft. Mantu Das- Mathematical Modelling, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Dipak Chandra Das- Methodology, Formal analysis. Sagnik Pal- Methodology, Formal Analysis, Review, and Editing. Ranjan Das- Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Ajoy Kumar Das- Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

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Correspondence to Sandipan Deb.

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Deb, S., Das, M., Das, D.C. et al. Evaluation of flow boiling heat transfer in horizontal circular trapezoidal-shaped microfin tube. Heat Mass Transfer 59, 1931–1947 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03374-8

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