A Review on Condensation Process of Refrigerants in Horizontal Microfin Tubes: A Typical Example

Abstract

Heat transfer performance of refrigerant on the condensation process is very important in the designing of condensation equipment, especially in air conditioning and refrigeration systems. The outstanding advantages of microfin tubes are reducing the weight and size of condensers and also reducing the amount of refrigerant on the system. Reviewing the general concept of condensation and detailing the formation of flow pattern map that is also the procedure to determine heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop during condensation process of refrigerant inside the horizontal microfin tubes would be considered. Also, a typical example will be presented to illustrate a detailed procedure to calculate the value of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop during the condensation process in horizontal microfin tubes. The data results show that microfin tube J60 with 60 number of fins inside 8.96 mm inner diameter, 0.2 mm height of fin, 40o of apex angle and 18o of helix angle, the condensation procedure of R1234ze at 35°C, heat flux of 8.62 kW/m2, and mass flux of 222 kg/m2s that could be estimated with heat transfer coefficient would be reduced from 8160.4 [W/m2 K] to 1413.8 [W/m2 K] follow with quality x changes from 0.99 to 0.01, and the maximum pressure drop of this process is 3173.8 [Pa/m].