Heat Transfer Coefficient Correlation for Lance & Offset Fin of a Compact Heat Exchanger for R1234yf Using CFD Analysis

EasyChair Preprint no. 6862

Abstract

The refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) are gaining importance due to environmental concerns. Refrigerant R1234yf has a 4-50 GWP and zero ODP compared to 1430 GWP and zero ODP for R134a and has thermodynamic properties similar to R134a. This paper describes the numerical analysis to study the heat transfer coefficient of R1234yf in Lance &Offset fin of compact heat exchangers. The performance of R1234yf is compared with R134a at different Reynolds number. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results of R134a are validated with experimental results. The second order polynomial equations with R² value of 0.99 generated for all the thermophysical properties of R1234yf and used for CFD analysis. CFD methodology has been used to develop the Single phase R1234yf heat transfer coefficient correlation for the selected lance & offset fin using ANSYS Fluent 2019R1. Also, CFD analysis carried out for the same fin using R134a. R1234yf CFD analysis results shows that the performance is slightly less compared to R134a. These investigations also include the study of flow pattern for laminar regions. Finally, the generalized heat transfer coefficient correlation is developed for the selected Lance and Offset fin for the laminar flow region. This numerical estimation can reduce the number of tests/experiments to a minimum for similar applications.

Keyphrases: CFD analysis, Colburn factor ‘j’., L&O fins, Plate Fin Heat Exchangers, R1234yf

@Booklet{EasyChair:6862,
  author = {Sankaraiah Mada and K V Ramana Murthy and T.P Ashok Babu and Vasudeva Madav},
  title = {Heat Transfer Coefficient Correlation for Lance & Offset Fin of a Compact Heat Exchanger for R1234yf Using CFD Analysis},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 6862},

  year = {EasyChair, 2021}}