Experimental investigation on high-temperature flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of R245fa in a horizontal circular tube

Abstract

Working fluid is the lifeblood of thermodynamic cycle for its heat transfer behaviour is critical to the design of heat exchangers in a thermodynamic cycle. Though being widely applied in organic Rankine cycles and high-temperature heat pump cycles, R245fa has witnessed little research on its high-temperature flow boiling heat transfer characteristics by far. In the present study, an experimental investigation on the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of R245fa with a mass flux of 248–460 kg·m−2∙s−1, a heat flux of 5.5–17.3 kW·m−2 and an evaporating temperature of 80–115 °C in an inner diameter of 10 mm horizontal smooth circular tube is conducted. The influences of vapor quality, mass flux and evaporating temperature on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient are also analyzed. The comparison of experimental heat transfer coefficients and the predicted heat transfer coefficients based on five heat transfer coefficient correlations is conducted and it is discovered that Gungor and Winterton's correlation with a mean deviation of 20.4% gives the best fit to the experimental data. Thus, based on Gungor and Winterton's work, an improved heat transfer coefficient correlation with a mean deviation of 12.8% is developed, in which 95% of the data points fall within the range of ±30%.