2015 Volume 15 Issue Special_Issue Pages s37-s42
To improve the performance of absorption refrigerators, a correct understanding of the heat transfer characteristics of an aqueous lithium bromide solution is necessary. In the present study, experiments were carried out to obtain reliable data on the pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of an aqueous lithium bromide solution (54.8 wt%). From the measured data, the following new results were obtained. The boiling heat transfer of an aqueous lithium bromide solution improves with increasing pressure. The superheat of boiling inception increases with decreasing pressure. The boiling inception superheat results agree with Gibbs's theory, and the surface tension is found to have a strong effect on the boiling inception superheat. The transition heat flux for the transition between intermittent and nucleate boiling is negligibly affected by pressure. The heat flux is 200 kW/m2 for an aqueous lithium bromide solution and 350 kW/m2 for water. The nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient of an aqueous lithium bromide solution increases with increasing pressure and heat flux. The heat transfer coefficient can be accurately estimated by the Kutateladze correlation. The Nishikawa–Fujita correlation is not in good agreement with the present data, and a modified Nishikawa–Fujita correlation with improved accuracy is proposed.
