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This paper presents heat transfer coefficient and pressure gradient of R1234ze(E) in a tube of 0.643 mm. In addition, visualization sections are added for evaluation of flow patterns. Both heat transfer coefficient and pressure gradient are presented against real saturation pressure, while flow pattern captures at exit of data points are presented in the same plot ( Fig. 8 ). Experiments are conducted on a 24-port microchannel tube with a hydraulic diameter of 0.643 mm. The single-phase friction factor shows fRe = 64 in laminar and underestimation of Churchill prediction in transition (1700

This paper presents the heat transfer coefficient, pressure gradient, and flow pattern of R1234yf in a microchannel tube. Both heat transfer coefficient and pressure gradient are presented against real saturation pressure, while flow pattern captures at the exit of data points are presented in the same plot. The experiment was conducted on a 24-port microchannel tube with an average hydraulic diameter of 0.643 mm. The experiment covers mass flux from 100 to 200 kg m−2s−1, heat flux from 0 to 6 kW m−2, vapor quality from 0 to 1, and inlet saturation temperature from 10 to 30 °C. Comparing the correlations to the HTC measurements at very low quality (about 0.1), Gorenflo, D., and Kenning, D. (2010, Pool Boiling, in: VDI Heat Atlas, 2nd ed, Springer, pp. 757–788) agree with the results. As vapor quality increases, pressure gradient increases. The adiabatic pressure gradient is a strong function of mass flux and saturation pressure (temperature). Flow patterns of R1234yf are also affected by mass flux and saturation pressure. The heat transfer coefficient is a strong function of mass flux and heat flux. The saturation temperature has a smaller effect on HTC in the condition range (10 – 30 °C). Under the test range, the accelerating pressure drop is insignificant compared to friction. Comparing to the results, Mishima, K., and Hibiki, T. (1996, “Some Characteristics of Air-Water Two-Phase Flow in Small Diameter Vertical Tubes,” Int. J. Multiph. Flow, 22(4), pp. 703–712) and Muller-Steinhagen, H., and Heck, K. (1986, “A Simple Friction Pressure Drop Correlation for Two-Phase Flow in Pipes,” Accessed March 1, 2018)., 20, pp. 297–308.) have small mean absolute error (MAE) to predict local pressure gradient. For the heat transfer coefficient, Sun, L., and Mishima, K. (2009, “An Evaluation of Prediction Methods for Saturated Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Mini-Channels,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transf, 52(23–24), pp. 5323–5329) and Gungor, K. E., and Winterton, R. H. S. (1986, “A General Correlation for Flow Boiling in Tubes and Annuli,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transf, 29(3), pp. 351–358) have an MAE less than 30%.

This paper presents heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R32 measured in the same facility as introduced in Li and Hrnjak (2017). Experiments are conducted on a 24-port microchannel tube with a hydraulic diameter of 0.643 mm. The pressure drop of R32 is lower than R134a, and the heat transfer coefficient is higher at the same condition. The pressure drop increases with quality and mass flux but decreases with reduction of saturation pressure. R32 heat transfer coefficient increases when heat or mass flux rises. Heat transfer coefficient of R32 first increases when quality increases due to convective effects and then drops at moderate quality due to the absence of nucleate boiling and dry-out. A comparison of adiabatic pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient to correlations has been made. Based on the Blasius equation and homogeneous density, the viscosity model from Cicchitti et al. (1960) has the best fit to predict two-phase pressure drop. Kim and Mudawar (2012) has the smallest MAE to predict pressure drop. For heat transfer coefficient, Sun and Mishima (2009) is the best fit. Further research will be on expanding the database and understanding hydraulic and boiling behavior.

A new facility has been built for experimental study on microchannel and introduced in this paper. Six heat transfer coefficient and six pressure drop measurements can be conducted simultaneously in one pass from vapor quality of 0 to 1 on the facility. Two water-jacket-design heat exchangers are placed top and bottom on each test section for heating the refrigerant. In each test section, the top and bottom sides are heated and controlled separately to ensure uniform conditions. The environmental heat loss and wall temperature measurements are corrected to increases confidence of results. Port geometry is measured with an optical microscope. Heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R134a are measured in a 24-port microchannel tube. The single-phase pressure drop follows the rule of round tube and f Re is 64. The single-phase Nusselt number is more sensitive to Reynolds number, compared to large tubes. As vapor quality increases, two-phase pressure drop increases until quality of 0.9, and then stops increasing or even drops; two-phase heat transfer coefficient increases until quality of 0.5 to 0.6 and then drops. Higher mass flux or lower saturation temperature will increase the pressure drop. Heat flux and mass flux have strong impact on heat transfer coefficient, and the effect of saturation temperature is not clear.