Experimental Flow Boiling Study of R245a at High Reduced Pressures in a Large Diameter Horizontal Tube

Abstract

Evaporators used in organic Rankine cycles (ORC) are designed using existing flow boiling correlations that are mainly based on HVAC&R data. However, the ORC evaporators employed in the industry typically have larger diameters and operational conditions at higher reduced pressures compared to the HVAC&R applications. The present study presents the results of flow boiling heat transfer experiments in operational conditions that are representative for an industrial waste heat recovery low-temperature ORC’s evaporator tube, by being performed at high reduced pressures and in a large-diameter horizontal tube with R245fa as working fluid. The measurements are performed within a range of mass flux, saturation temperature and heat flux at 83–283 kg/m2s, 85–120 °C (8.9–19.2 bar) and 17–29 kW/m2, respectively. Test section is a round and plain horizontal carbon steel tube with 21 mm I.D., 2.5 m length. 513 local two-phase heat transfer coefficients are recorded. The experimental results are compared with each other to reveal heat transfer coefficient trends with respect to varying experimental conditions. Four distinctive heat transfer zones are observed, namely, the nucleate boiling dominant (NBD) zone, weakening nucleate boiling dominance (WNBD) zone, flow boiling zone (FBZ) and the dry-out zone (DOZ). Heat transfer coefficient vs vapor quality trends partly resembled CO2 flow boiling results reported in the literature. Two flow boiling correlations moderately predicted the data.