Falling Films on Arrays of Horizontal Tubes with R-134a, Part II: Flow Visualization, Onset of Dryout, and Heat Transfer Predictions

Abstract

In tune with the falling film evaporation heat transfer test results described in Part 1, flow visualization of the boiling process and intertube flow mode transitions from droplet to column and sheet flows have been observed, and the onset of dryout results were obtained. A new empirical approach to describe falling film evaporation with a dominance of nucleate boiling that takes into account the onset of dryout has been proposed and is applicable to plain and enhanced tubes. The method predicts most of the current local measurements for R-134a to within ±20% for conditions without dryout (the desired design condition) and has also been extended to cover conditions with partial dryout. Furthermore, a criterion for predicting the onset of dryout as a function of heat flux has also been proposed for the four types of tubes.