2009 Volume 26 Issue 3 Pages 335-346
Experiments were performed on two-phase pressure drop of a refrigerant R-410A flowing vertically downward in small copper circular tubes with 0.5-2.0 mm I.D., and small copper rectangular and triangular tubes with 1.04 and 0.88 mm inner hydraulic equivalent diameter, respectively, for the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small tubes or multi-port extruded tubes for air conditioning systems.Pressure drops were measured and flow patterns were observed in the range of mass flux from 30 to 400 kg/(m2s)and quality from 0.1 to 0.9 at the saturation temperature of 10 °C. Characteristics of measured pressure drops were examined for different flow channel geometries. In high quality region or relatively high mass flux condition, the frictional pressure drop was reproduced well by the Lockhart-Martinelli correlation used together with a new correlation for Chisholm's parameter C as a function of hydraulic equivalent diameter. In low mass flux and low quality region, the frictional pressure drop was also reproduced well by multiplying the Chisholm two-phase multiplier factor by modified coefficient. In addition, flow pattern was observed with 0.5 and 2.0 mm I.D circular glass tubes. Slug flow and annular flow patterns were observed at lower and higher quality, respectively.
