An experimental study on the evaporative heat transfer characteristics of R-134a in a micro-channel heat exchanger

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out to examine the evaporative heat transfer characteristics of R-134a in a micro-channel heat exchanger. The micro-channel heat exchanger used in this study was a sort of plate heat exchanger. Micro-channels were fabricated on the SUS304 plate by the photo-etching process: 13 sheets of plates were stacked and bonded by the diffusion bonding process. The effects of the evaporating temperature, mass flux of R-134a, and inlet temperature of water were examined. As the difference between the inlet temperatures of R-134a and water increased, the heat transfer rate increased. The evaporative heat transfer coefficients obtained in this study range from 0.67 to 6.23 kW/m2-°C. The experimental correlation for the Nusselt number as a function of the Reynold number and θ was suggested for the micro-channel heat exchanger.