Numerical investigation of boiling heat transfer on hydrocarbon mixture refrigerant in vertical rectangular minichannel

Abstract

In order to investigate the characteristics of boiling heat transfer for hydrocarbon mixture refrigerant in plate-fin heat exchanger which is used in the petrochemical industry field, a model was established on boiling heat transfer in vertical rectangular channel. The simulated results were compared with the experimental data from literature. The results show that the deviation between the simulated results and experimental data is within 6 15%. Meanwhile, the characteristic of boiling heat transfer was investigated in vertical rectangular minichannel of plate-fin heat exchanger. The results show that the boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with the increase in quality and mass flux and is slightly impacted by the heat flux. This is because that the main boiling mechanism is forced convective boiling while the contribution of nucleate boiling is slight. The correlation of Liu and Winterton is in good agreement with the simulation results. The deviation between correlation calculations and simulation results is mostly less than 6 15%. These results will provide some constructive instructions for the understanding of saturated boiling mechanism in a vertical rectangular minichannel and the prediction of heat transfer performance in plate-fin heat exchanger.

Time-dependent study of boiling heat transfer coefficient in a vertical minichannel

“…It should be emphasized that study results of flow boiling heat transfer in minichannels found in the literature, like in Li and Liu (2016) and Yu et al (2017), are derived mostly from numerical simulations performed in ANSYS CFX, which are experimentally validated by the findings reported by other researchers. Calculations and experimental validation of the results are rarely conducted by the same author.…”

“…It should be emphasized that study results of flow boiling heat transfer in minichannels found in the literature, like in Li and Liu (2016) and Yu et al (2017), are derived mostly from numerical simulations performed in ANSYS CFX, which are experimentally validated by…”