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

• Main Authors: Huixing Li, Yu Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-05-01
• Series: Advances in Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814016651818

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 ±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 ±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.