Film thickness measurements in the R1233zd film evaporation and flow processes on a quartz plate

Abstract

The evaporation and flow of refrigerant films widely exists in aviation and aerospace, refrigeration and air-conditioning, consumer electronics, and other fields. Film thickness measurement with high accuracy is helpful to understand heat transfer mechanisms of liquid films, and further improve the relevant industrial devices and processes. Here, R1233zd was taken as the research object, and a novel method of refrigerant film thickness measurement based on absorption spectroscopy was proposed. An inversion model for determination of film thickness was established, and a measurement system was then developed. A calibration tool with known film thicknesses (0-500 μm) was employed to validate the measurement accuracy of the system. It was found that the measurement uncertainty was ±0.5%. Furthermore, the evaporation processes of R1233zd films with three different initial thicknesses on a horizontal quartz plate and the flow processes of R1233zd films at three different flow rates on an inclined quartz plate were investigated, respectively.