Experimental investigation and correlation development of flow condensation with R123/MWCNTs nanorefrigerant inside a horizontal tube

Abstract

The current experimental study is focused on examining the behaviour of heat transfer of pure R123 and R123/multi-walled carbon nanotubes nanofluid condensing in a smooth horizontal pipe at a range of different working conditions, like the mass velocity of about 200–500 kg/m2s, multi-walled carbon nanotubes volume fraction of approximately 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 %, vapour quality of approximately 0.05–0.9, and saturation temperature of about 35.3 and 40.9 °C. The heat transfer coefficient of pure R123 and nanorefrigerant is compared in this investigation. According to the results, employing multi-walled carbon nanotubes improves the heat transfer coefficient for all selected volume fractions. It is observed that the heat transfer coefficient for both pure and nanorefrigerant falls as the saturation temperature rises from 35.3 to 40.9 °C. For a mass velocity of about 400 kg/m2s, 0.1 % fraction of multi-walled carbon nanotubes results in the highest heat transfer coefficient increase of 29 % compared to the base refrigerant. The mean absolute error analysis is evaluated to forecast the accuracy of the experiments by comparing the experimentally captured condensation heat transfer data with available correlations, which shows good agreement. A new correlation for flow condensation heat transfer coefficient is suggested, with an acceptable mean absolute percentage error of about 9.6 %.