Experimental investigation of condensation pressure drop of R134a in smooth and grooved multiport flat tubes of automotive heat exchanger

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer 2019-03, Vol.130, p.1087-1095
• Main Authors: Ammar, Syed Muhammad, Abbas, Naseem, Abbas, Saleem, Ali, Hafiz Muhammad, Hussain, Iftikhar, Janjua, Muhammad Mansoor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automotive heat exchanger; Condensation; Flattened tube; Heat exchangers; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Micro channels; Pressure drop; Pure two-phase vapor; R134a; Saturation; Tubes
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.11.018

•Finding frictional pressure drop in multi-port microchannel smooth and grooved tubes using R134a.•Analyzing the effect of mass flux, saturation temperature and heat flux at different vapor quality.•Comparing heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop between Tube X, Tube Y and Tube Z.•Comparing the current experimental frictional pressure drop data with well-known correlations. Condensation frictional pressure drop was obtained in multiport micro channel smooth and grooved flat tubes using R134a. The study consists of two smooth and one grooved tube. Refrigerant R134a is studied over a mass flux 490–1600 kg/m2s, heat flux 5.5–19 kW/m2 and saturation temperature 51–68 °C. Results reveal that frictional pressure drop increases with an increment of mass flux, vapor quality and decreases with the increase of saturation temperature. The effect of heat flux on frictional pressure drop was negligible. Grooved tube shows the lowest pressure drop and surprisingly highest heat transfer coefficient. The frictional pressure drop data was compared with famous correlations. Zhang and Webb predicted 86% of the data with in ±30%.