ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-472-4
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-471-7
3rd Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF REFRIGERANT R134A WORKING IN A SPRAY COOLING
Abstract
Heat transfer performance of refrigerant R134a was studied during spray cooling. The effect of the
nozzle-to-surface distance on the overall heat transfer performance has been experimentally
investigated in this paper. A plain circular horizontal copper surface heated by a cartridge heater was
cooled by refrigerant R134a flowing through the nozzle in a spray chamber. Experimental spray
chamber is integrated into a single stage refrigeration system. Several experiments were performed with
different nozzle inlet pressure to determine the effect of the nozzle-to-surface distance on the critical
heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient in a spray cooling at elevated pressures. It was found that the
nozzle-to-surface distance has a significant effect on the spray coverage area of the surface that has a
direct effect on the critical heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient. The results showed that as the
distance between the nozzle and the surface increased the critical heat flux and the heat transfer
coefficient increase. The maximum heat flux observed in the experiment was 136.8 W/cm2, and the
maximum heat transfer coefficient was 48.8 kW/m2.K when the nozzle-to-surface distance and the
nozzle inlet pressure were 23mm and 8 bar respectively.