Two-phase pressure drop of R-410A in horizontal smooth minichannels

Convective boiling pressure drop experiments were performed in horizontal minichannels with a binary mixture refrigerant, R-410A. The test section was made of stainless steel tubes with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm and with lengths of 1500 mm and 3000 rnm, respectively. This test section was uniformly heated by applying electric current directly to the tubes. Experiments were performed at inlet saturation temperature of 10 degrees C, mass flux ranges from 300 to 600 kg m(-2) s(-1) and heat flux ranges from 10 to 40 kW m(-2). The current study showed the significant effect of mass flux and tube diameter on pressure drop. The experimental results were compared against 15 two-phase pressure drop prediction methods. The homogeneous model predicted well the experimental pressure drop, generally. A new pressure drop prediction method based on the Lockhart-Martinelli method was developed with 4.02% mean deviation. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.