Design sensitivity analysis of using various flow boiling correlations for a direct evaporator in high-temperature waste heat recovery ORCs

High-temperature waste heat (250°C-400°C) sources being created by industrial operations such as metallurgical industry, incinerators, combustion engines, annealing furnaces, drying, baking, cement production etc. are being utilized in Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) waste heat recovery systems. Alongside indirect ORC evaporators having intermediate heat carrier loops, ORC waste heat recovery can also be done through a direct evaporator (e.g. tube bundles) applied on a heat source. In an evaporator design problem, the accuracy of the design method has a significant impact on the end result. In that manner, for revealing the design accuracy error margin of using various flow boiling heat transfer methods, a design sensitivity analysis is performed by means of using 13 different flow boiling heat transfer correlations. All correlations are implemented separately into an iterative evaporator calculation and the resulting sizing solutions are compared for a representative high-temperature waste heat recovery evaporator case. The volumetric flow rate of the waste heat is 80000 Nm³/h and the inlet temperature is 375°C. The considered working fluid is cyclopentane and the deduced optimal evaporation temperature (OET) is 227°C. The minimum corresponding total transferred heat in the evaporator is at least 3,5 MW in all calculations

A heat transfer correlation of flow boiling in micro-finned helically coiled tube

Two main mechanisms, nucleate boiling and convective boiling, are widely accepted for in-tube flow boiling. Since the active nuclei on the heated wall are dominant for nucleate boiling and flow pattern governs the convective boiling, the heat transfer coefficient is strongly influenced by the wall heat flux, mass flux and vapor quality, respectively. In practical industrial applications, for example, the evaporators in refrigeration, forced convective evaporation is the dominant process and high heat transfer efficiency can be obtained under smaller temperature difference between wall and liquid. Therefore, it is of importance to develop a correlation of convective boiling heat transfer with a good accuracy. In this paper, a new kind of micro-finned helically coiled tube was developed and the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics were experimentally studied with R134a. Based on the analysis of the mechanisms of flow boiling, heat transfer correlations of the specific micro-finned helically coiled tubes are obtained

Visualization study on the instabilities of phase-change heat transfer in a flat two-phase closed thermosyphon

This paper presents systematic experiments and visualization on the instabilities of phase-change heat transfer for water, ethanol and acetone in a flat evaporator of a two phase closed system, respectively. The effects of the heat flux, filling ratio, coolant temperature and working fluid type on the instabilities and their mechanisms have been systematically investigated. The experimental results show that the instabilities of phase-change heat transfer are strongly related to the corresponding heat transfer modes. The instabilities of temperature and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of the evaporator are mainly caused by the bubble behaviours, the physical properties and the operation pressures. Natural convection, intermittent boiling and fully developed nucleate boiling are the main heat transfer modes in the present study. The condensate droplets may affect the instabilities due to inducing periodic boiling at lower heat fluxes. The maximum standard deviations of the evaporator temperature and vapor pressure fluctuations can reach 3.1 °C and 0.8 kPa respectively during the intermittent boiling. There is no intermittent boiling regime for ethanol and acetone in the present study. Therefore, no instability phenomena of nucleate boiling with ethanol and acetone are observed in the present study

Fundamental issues, mechanisms and models of flow boiling heat transfer in microscale channels

This paper presents state-of-the-art review on the fundamental and frontier research of flow boiling heat transfer, mechanisms and prediction methods including models and correlations for heat transfer in microscale channels. First, fundamental issues of current research on flow boiling in microscale channels are addressed. These mainly include the criteria for macroscale and microscale channels. Then, studies on flow boiling heat transfer behaviours and mechanisms in microscale channels are presented. Next, the available correlations and models of flow boiling heat transfer in microscale channels are reviewed and analysed. Comparisons of 12 correlations with a database covering a wide range of test parameters and 8 fluids are presented. It shows that all correlations poorly agree to the database. No generalized model or correlation is able to predict all flow boiling heat transfer data. Furthermore, comparisons of the mechanistic flow boiling heat transfer models based on flow patterns including the Thome et al. three-zone heat transfer model for evaporation in microchannel and the flow pattern based model combining the Thome et al. three zone heat transfer models with the Cioncolini-Thome annular flow model for both macro- and microchannel to the database are presented. It shows that the flow pattern based model combining the three zone model with the annular flow model gives better prediction than the three zone heat transfer model alone. The flow pattern based heat transfer model favourably agrees with the experimental database collected from the literature. According to the comparison and analysis, suggestions have been given for improving the prediction methods in the future. Next, flow patterned based phenomenological models and their applications to microscale channels are presented. Finally, as an important topic, unstable and transient flow boiling phenomena in microscale channels are briefed and recommendations for future research are given. According to this comprehensive review and analysis of the current research on the fundamental issues of flow boiling, mechanisms and prediction methods in microscale channels, the future research needs have been identified and recommended. In general, systematic and accurate experimental data of flow boiling heat transfer in microscale channels are still needed although a large amount of work has been done over the past decades. The channel size effect on the flow boiling behaviours should be systematically investigated. Heat transfer mechanisms in microscale channels should be further understood and related to the corresponding flow patterns. Furthermore, effort should be made to develop and improve generalized mechanistic prediction methods and theoretical models for flow boiling heat transfer in microscale channels according to the physical phenomena/mechanisms and the corresponding flow structures. The effects of the channel size and a wide range of test conditions and fluid types should be considered in develop new methods. Furthermore, systematic experimental, analytical and modeling studies on unstable and transient flow boiling heat transfer in microscale channels should be conducted to understand the physical mechanisms and theoretical models

A Development Of A General Heat Transfer Correlation For Boiling Two-Phase Flow Of Pure Ethanol Based On Experimental Datasets And Correlations

Two-phase flow heat transfer has gained an extensive focus over the past decades in many industrial applications and thermal systems. Flow involving phase change due to boiling or condensation exhibits much higher heat transfer coefficient compared to single-phase flow when it is only sensible heat transfer involved. The knowledge of heat transfer coefficients and their parametric behaviors can be utilized to improve the accuracy of models used for designing and optimizing heat transfer equipment for more effective thermal management applications.In two-phase flow boiling heat transfer, the working fluid can a single pure fluid or a binary fluid mixture. In present study, a systematic methodology is used to compare the available correlations and experimental data in the literature for pure ethanol and ethanol/water binary mixtures at various physical properties. When evaluating the experimental data available in the literature, the availability of data for flow boiling of ethanol, both as pure fluid or binary mixtures, is found to be limited. The current data that this study has collected for flow boiling of ethanol covers the ranges for mass flux of 0.33 to 290 kg/m2·s−1, heat flux of 2.8 to 40 kW/m2, operating gage pressure of 18 to 135 kPa, and saturation temperature of 40 to 86°C. The correlations that have high accuracies in predicting the experimental data available in the literature are identified and discussed

Evaluation of R448A and R450A as Low-GWP alternatives for R404A and R134a using a micro-fin tubes evaporator model

[EN] When retrofitting new refrigerants in an existing vapour compression system, their adaptation to the heat exchangers is a major concern. R450A and R448A are commercial non-flammable mixtures with low GWP developed to replace the HFCs R134a and R404A, fluids with high GWP values. In this work the evaporator performance is evaluated through a shell-and-microfin tube evaporator model using R450A, R448A, R134a and R404A. The accuracy of the model is first studied considering different recently developed micro-fin tube correlations for flow boiling phenomena. The model is validated using experimental data from tests carried out in a fully monitored vapour compression plant at different refrigeration operating conditions. The main predicted operational parameters such as evaporating pressure, UArp, and cooling capacity, when compared with experimental data, fit within 10% using the Akhavan-Behabadi et al. correlation for flow boiling. Results show that R450A and R404A are the refrigerants in which the model fits better, even though R448A and R134a predictions are also accurate. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors thankfully acknowledge "Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte" (Grant number FPU12/02841) for supporting this work through "Becas y Contratos de Formacion de Profesorado Universitario del Programa Nacional de Formacion de Recursos Humanos de Investigacion del ejercicio 2012". Finally the linguistic support of Irene I. Elias-Miranda is appreciated.Mendoza Miranda, JM.; Mota-Babiloni, A.; Navarro Esbri, J. (2016). Evaluation of R448A and R450A as Low-GWP alternatives for R404A and R134a using a micro-fin tubes evaporator model. Applied Thermal Engineering. 98:330-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.12.064S3303399

A General Correlation to Predict The Flow Boiling Heat Transfer of R410A in Macro/Mini Channels

This study demonstrated a general correlation to predict the saturated flow boiling heat transfer of R410A in horizontal macro and mini-channels. The experimental data were observed in various tube diameters of 1.5, 3.0, 6.61 and 7.49 mm, mass fluxes of 100 – 600 kW m-2s-1 heat fluxes of 10 – 40 kW m-2 , saturation temperature of 5 – 15 ºC and vapor quality from 0.2 to 1. The database was compared with numerous well-known correlations. The proposed correlation was based on the superposition model of nucleate boiling and force convective evaporation contribution. The new modified correlation showed a good prediction with using our database

Design and rating of an evaporator for waste heat recovery organic rankine cycles using SES36

The paper presents a design and rating study of a 4MW evaporator having plain horizontal carbon steel tubes having diameters of 25,4 mm, 31,8 mm and 38 mm, to be used in waste heat recovery via Organic Rankine cycle (ORC). SES36 is chosen as working fluid due to its low boiling point, which makes it suitable for low-grade waste heat recovery with subcritical ORCs. Waste heat carrier industrial air arrives at the evaporator bundle at 280°C. Inlet temperature of the working fluid is 40°C and the evaporation occurs at 125°C and 1,09 MPa. Furthermore, a design sensitivity analysis is made by means of using 13 different in-tube flow boiling correlations. The resulting design and rating parameters yielded by each correlation are compared to each other. By those means, a design error margin of various thermo-hydraulic heat exchanger parameters is revealed, when different in-tube flow boiling heat transfer calculation methods are used. The change in the error margins are investigated with respect to changing tube outer diameter, tube wall thickness, fin density and tube layout (staggered and inline)