Stratified Flow Condensation of CO₂ in a Tube at Low Temperatures

Abstract

This study presents an experimental investigation of CO2flowing condensation at the saturation temperature of-10°C, mass flux in the range from 40 to 60kgm-2s-1and vapour quality ranging from 0.2 to 0.8, in a 6.52mm inside diameter horizontal tube. Previous research on refrigerant condensation has shown that under these conditions, CO2two phases are expected to develop as a stratified flow. The significant feature of the stratified flow heat transfer is vapour film condensation in the upper region which dominates the overall heat transfer process. Test series in this study confirm that the saturation-to-tube wall temperature difference has a significant influence on the condensing heat transfer coefficient when the temperature difference is within 3K. Comparisons between the experimental results and the predictions by the Dobson, Cavallini and Thome models show that CO2stratified flow condensation heat transfer coefficients are over-predicted by these models with mean deviations of 104%, 81% and 127%, respectively.