Flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of propane in smooth horizontal minichannels

Abstract

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.

This study examined convective boiling heat transfer and pressure drop in horizontal minichannels using propane. The local heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop were obtained for heat fluxes ranging from 5-20 kW m-2, mass fluxes ranging from 50-400 kg m-2 s-1, saturation temperatures of 10, 5, and 0°C, and quality up to 1.0. The test section was made of stainless steel tubes with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm, and lengths of 1000 mm and 2000 mm, respectively. The section was heated uniformly by applying an electric current to the tubes directly. The present study showed an effect of mass flux, heat flux, inner tube diameter, and saturation temperature on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The experimental results were compared against several two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop prediction methods. A new boiling heat transfer coefficient correlation based on the superposition model for propane in minichannels was developed with a mean deviation of 8.27%.