Experimental studies on the enhanced flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of organic fluid with high saturation temperature in vertical porous coated tube

Abstract

The characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of organic fluid with high saturation temperature in a vertical porous coated tube are experimentally studied in this paper. The experiments are performed at evaporation pressure of 0.16-0.31MPa, mass flux of 390-790kg/m2s, and vapor quality of 0.06-0.58. The variations of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop with vapor quality are measured and compared to the results of smooth tube. Boiling curves are generated at mass flux of 482 and 675kg/m2s. The experimental results indicate that the heat transfer coefficients of the porous tube are 1.8-3.5 times those of smooth tube, and that the frictional pressure drops of the porous tube are 1.1-2.9 times those of smooth tube. The correlations for heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop are derived, in which the effect of fluid molecular weight is included. The experiments show that significant heat transfer enhancement is accompanied by a little pressure drop penalty, the application of the porous coated tube is promising in the process industries.