Heat Transfer Performance of Various Tubes for an Air-cooled Absorber with Surfactant

This research is concerned with the enhancement of heat transfer by surfactant added to the aqueous solution of LiBr. Different vertical tubes were tested with and without an additive of normal octyl alcohol. The test tubes are a bare tube, a groove tube, a corrugated tube and a spring-inserted tube. The additive concentration is about 0.08 mass%. The heat transfer coefficient is measured as a function of the film Reynolds number in the range of 20~200. Experiments are carried out at higher cooling water temperature of $35^{\circ}C$to simulate an air cooling condition for several kinds of absorber testing tubes. The experimental results with and without surfactant are compared. The enhancement of heat transfer by Marangoni convection effect which is generated by addition of the surfactant is observed in each test tube. Especially, it is clarified that the tube with an spring-inserted has the enhancement effect.