Modelling of heat transfer during flow condensation of natural refrigerants under conditions of increased saturation pressure

The paper presents a modified in-house model for calculating heat transfer coefficients during flow condensation, which can be applied to a variety of working fluids, but natural refrigerants in particular, at full range thermodynamic parameters with a particular focus on increased saturation pressure. The modified model is based on a strong physical basis, namely the hypothesis of analogy between the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in two-phase flow. The model verification is based on a consolidated database that consists of 1286 data points for 7 natural refrigerants and covers the reduced pressure range (the ratio of critical pressure and saturation pressure) from 0.1 to 0.8 for different mass velocities and diameters. The new version of the in-house model, developed earlier by Mikielewicz, was compared with 4 other mathematical models widely recommended for engineering calculations and obtained the best consistency results. The value of the mean absolute percentage error was 28.13% for the modified model, the best result among the scrutinised methods.

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[1] This research was funded in whole or in part by National Science Centre, Poland 2021/41/N/ST8/04421.

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[2] Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa nr POPUL/SP/0154/2024/02 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki II" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki (2025).