Share

IIR document

Experimental investigation on fluorocarbon refrigerant condensation in the shell side of spiral-wound heat exchanger.

Author(s) : ZHAO Y., WANG Y., LIANG Y., LIU H., HU D.

Type of article: IJR article

Summary

Spiral-wound heat exchangers (SWHEs) are widely employed in the natural gas industry, including in power generation utilizing the cold energy from liquefied natural gas. However, studies on phase-change heat transfer of commonly used circulating working fluids, fluorocarbons, on the shell side of SWHEs remain relatively scarce. This study established a full-scale SWHE condenser test platform replicating the actual equipment structure and conducted experimental investigations on the shell-side condensation of fluorocarbon. Within the scope of this study, the overall shell-side condensation heat transfer coefficient of the SWHE ranged from 73.2 to 381.6 W/ m²⋅K, while the shell-side frictional pressure drop gradient varied between 98.9 and 896.3 Pa/m. Increases in shell-side flow rate, tube-side flow rate, and shell-side pressure all contribute to enhancing the shell-side heat transfer coefficient, with the shell-side flow rate exerting the most significant influence. Under equal mass flow variations, changes in tube-side flow rate improve the heat transfer coefficient by only about 3 % of that caused by shell-side flow variations. Shell-side flow rate increase also significantly elevates shell-side frictional pressure drop, while variations in tube-side flow rate and shell-side pressure have a limited impact. To facilitate practical application of the experimental results, characteristic parameters such as liquid-phase Reynolds number, Prandtl number and tube pitches were introduced, and all experimental data were incorporated to refine the heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop gradient correlations, based on the Gnielinski correlation and two-phase friction multiplier method. The modified correlations demonstrated relative prediction errors within 23.0 % across all tested conditions.

Available documents

Format PDF

Pages: 15 p.

Available

  • Public price

    20 €

  • Member price*

    Free

* Best rate depending on membership category (see the detailed benefits of individual and corporate memberships).

Details

  • Original title: Experimental investigation on fluorocarbon refrigerant condensation in the shell side of spiral-wound heat exchanger.
  • Record ID : 30034486
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Technology
  • Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 181
  • Publication date: 2026/01
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.10.006

Links


See other articles in this issue (33)
See the source

Indexing