Visualization of R410A Flowing in Copper and Stainless Steel Dimpled Tubes Enhanced by Petal-Shaped Patterns Under Evaporation Conditions

Experimental investigations were conducted to study the heat transfer characteristics and flow patterns of R410A during evaporation in three horizontal tubes having the same outside diameter of 12.70 mm and 180 mm in length. The tested tubes contain two tubes with three-dimensional enhanced surface structures (Cu-1EHT and SS-1EHT), and one equivalent smooth tube. This experiment was done at an evaporation temperature of 6 °C and mass flux from 100 to 200 kg/(m2·s) for vapor qualities varying from 0.2 to 0.8. For all the tube tested, flow pattern observations were obtained using a high-speed camera, and the impact of the actual flow regime on heat transfer was discussed. Results indicated that the transition from annular flow to intermittent flow began at a lower vapor quality for two enhanced tubes when compared to the smooth tube. Accordingly, both the Cu-1EHT tube and the SS-1EHT tube exhibited a superior performance than the smooth tube. In addition, the heat transfer coefficient of Cu-1EHT tube is higher than that of the stainless steel one, mainly due to the larger thermal conductivity of wall material.