Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering (설비공학논문집)

The Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea (대한설비공학회)
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Two-Phase Flow Distribution, Phase Separation and Pressure Drop in Multi-Microchannel Tubes

마이크로채널관 내 2상 유량분배, 상분리 및 압력강하

  • Cho, Hong-Ki (Graduate School, Sungkyunkwan University) ;
  • Cho, Geum-Nam (School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University) ;
  • Yoon, Baek (System Appliances Division, Samsung Electronics) ;
  • Kim, Young-Saeng (System Appliances Division, Samsung Electronics) ;
  • Kim, Jung-Hoon (System Appliances Division, Samsung Electronics)
  • Published : 2004.09.01
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Abstract

The present study investigated two-phase flow distribution, phase separation and pressure drop in multi-microchannel tubes under adiabatic condition. The test section consisted of inlet and outlet headers with the inner diameter of 19.4㎜ and 15 parallel microchannel tubes. Each microchannel tube brazed to the inlet and outlet headers and had 8 rectangular ports with the hydraulic diameter of 1.32㎜. The key experimental parameters were orientation of header (horizontal and vertical), flow direction of refrigerant into the inlet header (in-line, parallel and cross flow) and inlet quality (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3). It was found that the orientation of the header had relatively large effect on the flow distribution and phase separation, while the inlet quality didn't affect much on them. The horizontal header showed the better flow distribution and phase separation characteristics than the vertical one. The parallel flow condition with the horizontal header showed the best performance for the flow distribution and phase separation characteristics under the test conditions. Two-phase pressure drops through the microchannel tubes with the horizontal header were higher than those of the microchennel tubes with the vertical header due to gravitational effect.

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References

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