Experimental study on condensation heat transfer characteristics of R410A in short vertical tubes

Abstract

An experimental study on condensation heat transfer of R410A in short vertical tubes (8.02 mm ID and 10.7mm ID) was presented. Experiments were performed in eight short copper tubes length varied from 300mm to 600mm at mass fluxes range of 58–246 kg m−2s−1 and saturation temperature of 38°C. Effects of mass flux, tube length on condensation heat transfer coefficient were investigated. The distribution of temperature, thickness of condensate film and local condensation heat transfer coefficient along the tube were also analyzed. It is indicated that the entrance effect played an important role in condensation heat transfer of vertical tube, and the influence of entrance effect on average condensation heat transfer coefficients will weaken with the length of tube in the experimental condensation. The experimental results were compared with four well known correlations available in literatures, and the Chen correlation shows good agreement with the experimental data but with ±40% deviation. A new modified condensation heat transfer correlation with 12.7% mean deviation was developed to predict the condensation heat transfer coefficients in short vertical tube based on the experimental data.