Two-phase frictional pressure drop in horizontal micro-scale channels: experimental data analysis and prediction method development

Abstract

An investigation was conducted on the effects of fluid refrigerant and channel geometry on the frictional pressure drop during two-phase flow inside microchannels. Experimental results for two-phase frictional pressure drop were obtained for the refrigerants R134a, R1234ze(E), R1234yf and R600a in a circular channel and for R134a in square and triangular channels. The experiments were performed for mass velocities from 100 to 1600 kg m-2 s-1, saturation temperatures of 31 and 41°C, and vapor qualities from 0.05 to 0.95. The experimental data have been analyzed focusing on the effects of the geometry and fluid on the two-phase pressure drop. Then, the data were compared with the most quoted predictive methods from literature. Based on the broad database obtained, a new method for prediction of the two-phase frictional pressure drop was proposed. The new method provided accurate predictions of the database, predicting 89% of the results within an error band ±20%.