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Comparative experimental studies of flow boiling heat transfer phenomena in smooth and enhanced tubes using R407C

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Abstract

This study investigates flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of R407C (zeotropic mixture) in newly shaped copper-made horizontal enhanced and smooth evaporator tubes of 1000 mm employing a vapour compression refrigeration cycle at ambient pressure and saturation temperatures of 15 – 45 °C. The enhanced tube has 60 trapezoidal microfins with a helix angle of 20° and a height of 0.22 mm leading to a 1.83 times increase in surface area. The effects of mass fluxes of 50–250 kg/m2s, and heat fluxes of 10—80 kW/m2 on the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop, were examined. 1.55, and 1.35 times higher mean HTCs, and pressure drops are recorded for the enhanced tubes with ± 9% and ± 14.5% mean absolute errors respectively with the established correlations including smooth tube findings. The results emphasize the importance of using accurate and validated correlations in refrigeration systems. Local Nusselt number variation with Jakob subcooling number and locations over the evaporator and parametric variation studies are also incorporated to analyse and capture the experimental trends comprehensively.

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Data Availability

All experimental data are given in the figures in the Results and Discussions section.

Abbreviations

\(c_{p}\) :

Specific heat capacity, kJ/kgK

\(D_{o}\) :

Outer diameter, mm

\(D_{i}\) :

Inner diameter, mm

\(G\),\(MF\) :

Mass velocity, kg/m2s

\(g\) :

Gravitational acceleration, m/s2

\(h\), \(HTC\) :

Heat transfer coefficient, kW/m2K

\(h_{fg}\) :

Enthalpy of vaporization, kJ/kg

\(I\) :

Current, amp

\(Ja_{sub}\) :

Subcooled Jacob number

\(k\) :

Thermal conductivity, kW/m.K

\(L\) :

Tube length, mm

\(L_{c}\) :

Characteristic length, mm

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate, kg/s

\(MAE\) :

Mean absolute error

\(Nu\) :

Nusselt number

\(P\) :

Pressure, kPa

\(Q_{p}\) :

Power supplied, kW/m2

\(q\), \(HF\) :

Heat flux, kW/m2

\(R\) :

Desired variable

\(T\) :

Temperature, K

\(U_{R}\) :

Estimated uncertainty

\(U_{{V_{i} }}\) :

Individual uncertainty

\(V\) :

Voltage, V

\(x\),\(VQ\) :

Vapour quality

\(Z\) :

Axial direction, mm

\(\alpha\) :

Void fraction

\(\alpha_{a}\) :

Apex angle

\(\beta\) :

Helix angle

\(\rho\) :

Density, kg/m3

\(\sigma\) :

Surface tension, N/m

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity, kg/m.s

\(\eta\) :

Efficiency index

\(acc\) :

Acceleration

\(avg\) :

Average

\(cal\) :

Calculated

\(corr\) :

Correlation

\(\exp\) :

Experimental

\(ev\) :

Evaporator

\(frict\) :

Frictional

\(i\) :

Inlet

\(l\) :

Liquid

\(mf\) :

Microfin

\(o\) :

Outlet

\(r\) :

Refrigerant

\(s\) :

Smooth

\(sur\) :

Surface

\(sat\) :

Saturation

\(sub\) :

Subcooled

\(v\) :

Vapour

\(w\) :

Water

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely acknowledge ‘Flow Boiling Lab’, NIT Agartala, India for providing the facility to conduct the experimental study.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Amit Kumar, Sandipan Deb, Dipak Chandra Das & Pritam Das

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  1. Amit Kumar
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Contributions

Amit Kumar—conceptualization, experiment, writing-original draft, writing review; Sandipan Deb – assisting experimental work; Dipak Chandra Das – conceptualization, supervision, writing, review & editing; Pritam Das—supervision & editing.

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Correspondence to Amit Kumar.

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Kumar, A., Deb, S., Das, D.C. et al. Comparative experimental studies of flow boiling heat transfer phenomena in smooth and enhanced tubes using R407C. Heat Mass Transfer 59, 1987–2003 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03379-3

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