Experimental Study on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Two-Phase Flow in Square and Rectangular Channels

Abstract

Two-phase flow in non-circular cross-section flow channels such as micro-heat sinks and micro-channel heat exchangers has received extensive attention due to its heat-enhancing properties. In this paper, under the boundary of constant heat flux, an experimental investigation of the heat transfer properties of gas–liquid two-phase flow in horizontal channels with cross-sections of 4 × 4 mm and 8 × 3 mm is carried out using air and water as working fluids. The effects of different inlet gas and liquid inlet Reynolds numbers on the wall temperature and Nusselt number are discussed. The results show that the effects of the liquid Reynolds number and the gas phase Reynolds number on the heat transfer coefficient of the square tube and the rectangular tube are different. Under the same gas–liquid Reynolds number, the Nusselt number of the gas–liquid two-phase flow in the square-section tube can be increased by 3.2 times compared with that in the single-phase flow, while the Nusselt number of the gas–liquid two-phase flow in the rectangular tubes can be increased by 1.87 times. The results of this paper provide a reference for the design of microchannel heat exchangers and the establishment of mathematical models for Taylor flow heat transfer in rectangular and square tubes.

Keywords

• heat transfer characteristics
• gas–liquid two-phase flow
• rectangular channel
• square channel