Experimental investigation of pressure drop during two-phase flow of R1234yf in smooth horizontal tubes with internal diameters of 3.2 mm to 8.0 mm

Abstract

In this study, the two-phase pressure drop of R1234yf refrigerant (as an alternative to R134a) in a smooth horizontal tube is investigated. Tests are carried out and under several conditions of vapor quality (0% to 100%), mass velocity (200, 300 and 400 kg/m²s), heat flux (0, 7 and 14 kW/m²) and evaporation temperatures (20°C and 30°C). The internal diameters tested are 3.2 mm, 4.8 mm, 6.4 mm and 8.0 mm. A comparison of pressure drop between R1234yf and R134a is also carried out. The results demonstrate that the two-phase pressure gradient of R1234yf is approximately 20% lower than that of R134a. The experimental data is compared with 19 correlations from the literature. From this comparison, it is concluded that the experimental data are in accordance with the correlation proposed by Xu and Fang with a mean absolute error of 20% and with approximately 65% of the data predicted within a ± 30% error band.

Evaporation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Low-Global Warming Potential Refrigerant HFO-1234yf in 6.95-mm Horizontal Smooth Tube

“…This is because the surface tension of R-134a is larger than that of R-1234yf, but the liquid viscosity of R-134a, and the vapor viscosity of R-1234yf is larger, and the pressure drop of R-134a is slightly larger. A similar tendency was reported by Lu et al[5], Diani et al[6], Pabon et al[10], and Yang et al[15].…”

“…The thermophysical properties of R-1234yf were calculated using REFPROP (Ver 8.0) [20]. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were calculated from the temperature and pressure of the refrigerant at each point obtained in the experiment using Equations ( 1)- (10).…”

“…The comparison results showed that the heat transfer performance of R-1234yf was 5% lower than that of R-134a. Pabon et al [10] conducted an experimental study on the pressure drop of R-1234yf in a smooth tube with an inner diameter of 3.2-8.0 mm. It was reported that the two-phase pressure gradient of R-1234yf was approximately 20% lower than that of R-134a.…”

Experimental Study of HFE 7000 Refrigerant Condensation in Horizontal Pipe Minichannels

“…Bendhauer Cavallini Table 2. Comparison of heat transfer investigation results with the results of calculations according to the correlations of various authors [10,[21][22][23][24][25].…”

“…The pressure difference measured in the measuring section was converted to 1 m of the channel length. A similar methodology was used in the study [21][22][23].…”