Experimental and Numerical Study of Double-Pipe Evaporators Designed for CO2 Transcritical Systems

Abstract

The performance of a CO2 double-pipe evaporator was studied through experiments and a simulation model that was established by the steady-state distribution parameter method and experimentally verified while using a CO2 transcritical water‒water heat pump system. The effects of different operating parameters on heat transfer performance were studied over a range of evaporation temperatures (−5 to 5 °C), mass velocity (100‒600 kg/m2s), and heat flux (5000‒15,000 W/m2). It was found that the dryout quality increased at a small evaporation temperature, a large mass velocity, and a small heat flux. The simulation yield means relative error (RE) of heat transfer for the evaporation temperature and that of the CO2 pressure drop for the chilled water inlet temperature were 5.21% and 3.78%, respectively. The effect of tube diameter on the performance of CO2 double-pipe evaporator is probed through simulations. At the same time, this paper defines a parameter α , which is the proportion of the pre-dryout region to the whole heat transfer region. A larger α value is desirable. A further theoretical basis is provided for designing an efficient and compact CO2 evaporator.