Condensation Heat Transfer Experiments of R410A and R32 in Horizontal Smooth and Enhanced Tubes

Abstract A horizontal smooth copper tube and two enhanced tubes (a dimpled tube and a diamond-shaped tube) with a length of 2 m and an outer diameter of 9.52 mm were studied in a two-phase condensation experiment using R410A and R32 as heat transfer working fluids. The condensation heat transfer performance of different heat transfer tubes at various mass fluxes ranging from 150 to 400 kg/(m2s) and different vapor qualities ranging from 0.8 to 0.2 was studied experimentally. For R410A, the heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) of the dimpled tube and the diamond-shaped tube were found to be 1.39–1.52 times and 1.30–1.35 times higher than those of the smooth tube, respectively. For R32, the HTCs were found to be 1.46–1.59 times higher for the dimpled tube and 1.26–1.35 times higher for the diamond-shaped tube than for the smooth tube. The diamond-shaped tube was found to be effective in directing the flow of the liquid phase and in thinning the liquid film thickness. The dimpled tube was found to promote droplet entrainment and disturbance. Both of those effects contributed to improving the HTCs in the two enhanced tubes investigated. The HTCs of R410A were found to be lower than those of R32 because of the smaller specific heat capacity, smaller latent heat of condensation, and relatively poorer thermal conductivity of R410A. Taking the combined effect of heat transfer and pressure drop into account, a performance enhancement factor (PEF) was computed and was found to range from 0.9 to 1.51. Based on the experimental data collected, a new empirical correlation equation has been proposed with a maximum error band of 10%. Flow pattern maps for the tested tubes have also been generated and are presented in the paper. Both of the two enhanced tubes were found to promote the development of annular flow. The HTCs were found to be highest when the flow pattern was of the annular flow type.