A THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE EVAPORATIVE HEAT TRANSFER OF CO2 IN SMOOTH AND MICROFIN TUBE

Abstract

Nowadays, global environmental events such as thinning of the ozone layer and climate changes are increasing. These types of events are not only affecting all creatures living on the Earth, but also decreasing the quality of life. For this reason, natural refrigerants which are not harmful to environment, have been preferred in cooling systems. In this study, heat transfer coefficient of CO2 was investigated during the evaporation process in smooth tube and designed microfin tube. Features of the tube used in evaporator of these cooling systems directly affect to the heat transfer coefficient. The geometric parameters of the microfin tubes are an outer diameter of 9.52 mm, number of fins 50, apex angle of 38 degrees, helix angle of 20 degrees and fin height of 0.12 mm. Theoretical model was created on MATLAB environment. The heat transfer coefficient was investigated based on vapor quality. When theoretical results obtained for microfin tube were compared with experimental results, 6% approach was seen. A theoretical model was created for smooth and microfin tube by selecting heat flux as 10 kw/m(2) and mass flux as 380 kg/m(2)s and heat transfer coefficients in different evaporation temperatures were compared based on vapor quality. It has been concluded that heat transfer coefficients of microfin tube at 5 degrees C, 0 degrees C and -8 degrees C were 52%, 44% and 34% higher than that of smooth tube, respectively.