A Comparative Analysis of Two-Phase Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficient and Correlations for Hydrocarbons and Ethanol

Abstract

This study will present a comprehensive review of the two-phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of hydrocarbons such as propane (R-290), butane (R-600), iso-butane (R-600a), and ethanol at various experimental conditions. Studying the multiphase flow heat transfer coefficient is crucial for many types of heat transfer equipment to achieve higher efficiency for more compact design and cost reduction. One reason we chose hydrocarbons as refrigerants in this study is that they are of an ozone depletion potential equal to zero (ODP = 0) and a deficient level of direct global warming potential (GWP = 3). Moreover, hydrocarbons’ thermodynamic and thermophysical characteristics qualify them to be a strong candidate for more heat transfer applications, initially, by constructing a database for the working fluids using multiple existing experimental work. The current data that this study have collected for the flow boiling spans a wide range of parameters, such as mass flux, heat flux, operating pressure, saturation temperature, etc. Furthermore, by comparing the experimental multiphase heat transfer coefficient database with the anticipated values of each correlation, the prediction performance of 26 correlations found in the literature was assessed. This study allows the best prediction method to be selected based on the minimum deviation of predicted results from the experimental database provided based on the mean absolute error (MAE) calculated from the assessed correlations. The conclusions of such a study can also be helpful for developing more accurate correlation methods for these fluids and improving the prediction of their flow boiling characteristics.