Heat transfer correlations for flow boiling of hydrocarbon mixtures inside horizontal tubes

The hydrocarbons and its mixtures are suitable for environment-friendly refrigerant alternatives because of their good environmental criteria and high thermodynamic performances. Based on the experimental results of the hydrocarbon mixtures, a correlation was developed earlier by Zou (2010) to predict saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficients inside horizontal smooth tubes. In this article, the proposed correlation is extended to predict evaporation of some more mixtures (such as R50/R170) inside a horizontal tube by evaluating the mixture factor for that fluid. The comparisons of the present model and other classic models with the previous experimental data are made to evaluate the mean deviation for the hydrocarbon mixtures. It reveals that the new model is better to predict the flow boiling heat transfer for the hydrocarbon mixtures. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.