• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.27-36
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• 2018

A significant amount of studies were performed on evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop in microfin tubes. Most studies, however, focused on the refrigerants used in air-conditioners or heat pumps, and very limited information is available on R-404A, which is used in low temperature refrigeration. In this study, the evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of R-404A in a 9.5 mm O.D. microfin tube were investigated for the mass flux range from $80kg/m^2s$ and $200kg/m^2s$. A smooth tube of the same outer dimeter was also tested for comparison. The results showed that the heat transfer enhancement ratio of the microfin tube increased with increasing mass flux and the heat flux decreased. The relative contribution of the convective heat transfer and the heat flux on total heat transfer was attributed to the observed trend. The pressure drops of the microfin tube were slightly (maximum 28%) larger than those of the smooth tube. Existing correlations do not adequately predict the measured heat transfer coefficients of pressure drops, probably due to the test range of the present study, which is outside of the existing correlations.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.35-40
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• 2007

In this paper, evaporation heat transfer characteristics of propane and iso-butane in micro-fin tubes were investigated experimentally. Test section has a micro-fin tube with outside diameter of 12.70 mm, and 75 fins with a fin heights of 0.25 mm. The experimental results summarize as the followings: The average evaporation heat transfer coefficients of He's refrigerants is higher than those of HCFC22, and appeared in the order of iso-butane, propane with respect to the approaching of the high mass flux. The evaporation heat transfer coefficient of micro fin tube is about $10{\sim}80%$ higher than those of smooth tube. This results from the study can be used in the case of designing heat transfer exchanger using hydrocarbons as the refrigerant for the air-conditioning systems.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.444-451
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• 2004

Flow condensation heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) of R22, R134a, R407C, and R410A were measured on horizontal plain and microfin tubes. The experimental apparatus was composed of three main parts; a refrigerant loop, a water loop and a water/glycol loop. The test section in the refrigerant loop was made of both a plain and a microfin copper tube of 6.0∼6.16 mm inside diameter and 1.0 m length. Refrigerants were cooled by passing cold water through an annulus surrounding the test section. Tests were performed at a fixed refrigerant saturation temperature of 4$0^{\circ}C$ with mass fluxes of 100, 200, and 300 kg/m2s. Test results showed that at similar mass flux the flow condensation HTCs of R134a were similar to those of R22 for both plain and microfin tubes. On the other hand, HTCs of R407C were lower than those of R22 by 4∼16% and 16∼42% for plain and microfin tubes respectively. And HTCs of R410A were similar to those of R22 for a plain tube but lower than those of R22 by 3∼9% for a microfin tube. Heat transfer enhancement factors of a microfin tube were 1.3∼1.9.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.692-700
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• 2001

Flow boiling heat transfer coefficients(HTCs) of R22, R134a, R407C, and R410A were measured experimentally for a horizontal plain and a microfin tube. Experimental apparatus was composed of 3 main parts: a refrigerant loop, a water loop and a water-glycol loop. The test section in th refrigerant loop was made of a copper tube of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 1 m length for both tubes. The refrigerant was heated by passing hot water through an annulus surrounding the test section. Tests were performed at a fixed refrigerant saturation temperature of $5^{\circ}C$ with mass fluxes of 100~300 kg/$m^2$s. Test results showed that at similar mass flux the flow boiling HTCs of R134a were similar to those of R22 for both plain and microfin tube. HTCs of R407C were similar to those of R22 for a plain tube but lower than those of R2 by 25~48% for a microfin tube. And HTCs of R410A were higher than those of R2 by 20~63% for a plain tube and were similar to those of R22 for a microfin tube. In general, HTCs of a microfin tube were 1.8~5.7 times higher than those of a plain tube.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.215-223
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• 1999

Evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure loss were measured for three different micro-fin tubes and a smooth tube. The experiments were carried out with R-22 over a wide range of vapor Quality, mass velocity and heat flux. Heat transfer coefficient of the tube with slightly modified fin shape was found to be higher than that of the commercial reference tube by 60%. The improvement of heat transfer has been achieved without noticeable increase of pressure loss. Heat transfer coefficient was increased with increasing quality, refrigerant mass flux, and heat flux. However, the effect of refrigerant mass flux and heat flux was not great. Heat transfer coefficient at bottom was lower than that at top of the tube in low quality region, which suggested the existence of stratification in the micro-fin tube. Pressure drop was linearly increased with increasing refrigerant quality and was proportional to about square of mass flux.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.290-299
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• 2008

Evaporation heat transfer characteristics of $CO_2$/propane mixtures in horizontal smooth and micro-fin tubes have been investigated by experiment. The experiments were carried out for several test conditions of mass fluxes, heat fluxes, compositions of $CO_2$/propane refrigerant mixtures and tube geometries. Direct heating method was used for supplying heat to the refrigerant where the test tube was uniformly heated by electric current which was applied to the tube wall. Heat transfer coefficient data during evaporation process of $CO_2$/propane mixtures were measured for 5 m long smooth and micro-fin tubes with outer diameters of 5 mm, respectively. The tests were conducted at mass fluxes of 318 to 997 $kg/m^2s$, heat fluxes of 6 to 20 $kW/m^2$ and for several mixture compositions (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, 100/0 by wt% of $CO_2$/propane). The differences of heat transfer characteristics between smooth and micro-fin tubes for various compositions of $CO_2$/propane refrigerant mixtures and the effect of mass flux, and heat flux on enhancement factor (EF) and penalty factor (PF) were presented.

• 연구논문집
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• s.34
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• pp.29-38
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to investigate the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of the micro-fin tubes before and after the tube-expansion process. Test tubes are single-grooved micro-fin tubes made of copper with an outer diameter of 9.52 mm before the tube-expansion. The direct heating method is applied in order to make the refrigerant evaporated in the micro-fin tubes. The test ranges of the heat flux, mass flux, and the saturation pressure are 5 to 15kW/$m^2$, 100 to 200 kg/$m^2s$ and 540 to 790 kPa, respectively. The effects of the mass flux, heat flux, and the saturation pressure of the refrigerant on the pressure drop and the heat transfer are presented for the refrigerant R22. In the test conditions of this study, the heat transfer coefficient for the micro-fin tube after the tube-expansion is about 16.5% smaller than that before the tube-expansion because the fin height of micro-fin is reduced and the fin shape becomes flatter. The micro-fin tube after the tube-expansion has about 7.7% greater average pressure drop than that before the tube-expansion process.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2008

Experimental results for forced convection condensation of Refrigerant-22 and ternary Refrigerant-407C(HFC-32/125/134a 23/25/52 wt%) which is being considered as a substitute R-22 inside a horizontal micro-fin tube are presented. The test section was horizontal double-tube counterflow condenser with a length 4,000 mm micro-fin tube, having 8.53 mm ID, 0.2 mm fin height and 60 fins. The range of parameters of mass velocity were varied from 102.1 to 301.0 kg/(m2.s) and inlet quality 1.0. At the given experimental conditions. the average heat transfer coefficients for R-407C were lower than that for R-22 at a micro-fin tube. Over the mass velocity range tested. the PF(penalty factor) for R-22, R-407C were lower than the increasing ratio of heat transfer area by fins, and the EF(enhancement factor) for R-22, R-407C were higher than the increasing ratio of heat transfer area by fins.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.816-823
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• 2005

This paper deals with the heat exchange performance prediction of a counter flow type double-tube condenser for natural refrigerant mixtures composed of Propane/n-Butane or Propane/i-Butane in a smooth tube and a micro-fin tube. The local characteristics of heat transfer, mass transfer and pressure drop are calculated using a prediction method developed by the authors. The total pressure drop and the overall heat transfer coefficient are also evaluated on various heat exchange conditions. The calculated results of the natural refrigerant mixtures are compared with HCFC22. In conclusion, natural refrigerant mixtures composed of Propane/n-Butane or Propane/i-Butane are appropriate candidates for alternative refrigerant from the viewpoint of heat transfer characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 2008

In this paper, the experimental results on evaporation heat transfer characteristics were reported for a micro-fin tube using $CO_2$. An experimental refrigerant loop had been established to measure the evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of $CO_2$. Experiments were conducted for mass fluxes, heat fluxes, saturation temperatures and PAG oil concentrations. With increasing the heat flux and the saturation temperature, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increased. At the higher mass flux, however, the exit vapor quality of the micro-fin tube was to be lower. The peak of the heat transfer coefficient was shifted toward low quality region. The evaporation pressure drop increased as the mass flux increased and the saturation temperature decreased. As PAG oil concentration increased, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient decreased and the dryout was delayed by oil addition.