Abstract
Experimental investigations on heat and mass transfer characteristics in a vertical tube absorber have been carried out. Three different copper tubes with a length of 1.5m have been tested using LiBr solution and LiBr-$CaCl_2$ solution. The effects of solution flow rate, cooling water temperature, solution inlet temperature and evaporation temperature have been investigated in detail. It is found that heat transfer coefficient increases gradually with the increase of solution flow rate, but decreases rapidly for the flow rates less than 0.02kg/ms. The grooved tube generally shows better heat transfer performances than the smooth tube. LiBr solution shows almost no absorption capability for the cooling water temperatures over $40^{\circ}C$. LiBr-$CaCl_2$ gives less decreasing rate in absorption capability at these temperatures and the heat transfer coefficient becomes less dependent on the types of tubes in use. Considering heat and mass transfer rates, LiBr-$CaCl_2$ solution is found to be more suitable than LiBr solution for air cooled absorber, which operates at higher temperature than water cooled absorber.
