Measurements of Heat Transfer Coefficients From Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Flowing in Horizontal Mini/Micro Channels

Abstract

Heat transfer from supercritical carbon dioxide flowing in horizontal mini/micro circular tubes cooled at a constant temperature has been investigated experimentally. Six stainless steel circular tubes having inside-diameters of 0.50 mm, 0.70 mm, 1.10 mm, 1.40 mm, 1.55 mm, and 2.16 mm were tested. Measurements were carried out for the pressures ranging from 74 to 120 bar, the temperatures ranging from 20 to 110°C, and the mass flow rates ranging from 0.02 to 0.2 kg/min. It is found that the buoyancy effect was still significant, although supercritical CO2 was in forced motion through the horizontal tubes at Reynolds numbers up to 105. The experimental results also indicate that the existing correlations developed in the previous studies for large tubes deviate significantly from the experimental data for the present mini/micro tubes. Based on the experimental data, a correlation was developed for the axially averaged Nusselt number in terms of appropriate dimensionless parameters for forced convection of supercritical carbon dioxide in horizontal mini/micro tubes cooled at a constant temperature.