DRAFT
Proceedings of the ASME 2009 Heat Transfer Summer Conference
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON HEAT TRANSFER OF CO2 SOLID-GAS TWO
PHASE FLOW WITH DRY ICE SUBLIMATION
Xin-Rong Zhang
Department of Energy and Resources
Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking
University
Beijing 100871, China
ABSTRACT
From the viewpoint of protecting the ozone layer and
preventing global warming, there is now strong demand for
science and technology based on ecologically safe ‘natural’
working fluids. A CO2 refrigeration method has been proposed
and developed several years ago, using CO2 solid-gas two
phase fluid as refrigerant. Heat transfer of the CO2 solid-gas
two phase flow in a horizontal tube is important to design of
such a refrigeration system. In the present paper, an experiment
work is conducted to measure its heat transfer characteristics in
the horizontal tube. The results show an average value 310
W/(m2-K) of heat convective coefficient is experimentally
obtained， which is much higher than that of gas flow. In the
sublimation area, the Nusselt number is observed to increase
slowly along the tube length, the phenomena may be physically
explained that the sublimation process changes the thermal
boundary layer thickness; makes the flow turbulence stronger;
or changes the flow and the pressure fields.
INTRODUCTION
As a non-flammable and non-toxic natural working fluid,
carbon dioxide (R−744) is friendly to environment, which has a
very low Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and Global
Warming Potential (GWP). The thermodynamic and transport
properties of CO2 seem to be favorable in terms of heat transfer
and pressure drop, compared to other typical fluids [1-2]. Based
on above advantages, more and more energy technologies tend
to use CO2 as working fluid [3-6]. Among these energy
technologies, CO2 compression refrigeration and heat pump
systems seem to be most promising one. For recent several
years, many researchers carried out a lot of scientific
investigation on the field of CO2 compression refrigeration [7-
14]. For the refrigeration equipments using CO2 as working
fluid, the refrigeration temperature range is usually about from
-30.0～0.0℃. However, the refrigeration technology below -
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Proceedings of HT2009
HT2009
2009
July ASME
19-23, Summer
2009, Heat Transfer
San Francisco, Conference
California USA
July 19-23, 2009, San Francisco, California USA
HT2009-88144
HT2009-88144
Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Doshisha
University
Kyoto 630-0321, Japan
30.0℃ is needed for some important industrial applications, for
example, fishing industry, biomedical engineering etc.
Several years ago, a refrigeration method using CO2 was
proposed and this can achieve a cryogenic temperature below
CO2 triple point temperature — -56.6℃ [12,13,15]. The
refrigeration is achieved by liquid CO2 expanding into solid-gas
two phase fluid, which goes down through the CO2 triple point
in CO2 P-h diagram. By the CO2 expansion process, the CO2
solid-gas two phase fluid is obtained, which is below -56.6℃.
Based on the refrigeration method, a new CO2 heat pump
technology has been proposed [16], which has a potential of
providing the user a cryogenic environment below -56.6℃ and
at the same time thermal energy supply above 80℃.
Obviously, heat transfer of the CO2 solid-gas two phase flow
in a channel is important for the efficiency of the refrigeration
technologies such as the new CO2 heat pump system based on
the refrigeration method described above. However, the heat
transfer characteristics of CO2 solid-gas two phase flow are still
not known. Furthermore, as the authors aware, there are no
existing studies, which cover the study on heat transfer of CO2
solid-gas flow with CO2 particle sublimation, except we
established a simple one-dimensional model to analyze the flow
of CO2 solid-gas fluid [12]. In the present work, an experiment
work is conducted in a horizontal circular tube to obtain an
understanding and estimation of heat transfer of the CO2 solid-
gas two phase fluid flow with dry ice particle sublimation.
EXPERIMENTAL WORK
In order to measure the heat transfer characteristics of the
CO2 solid-gas two phase flow and also to verify the continuous
operation of the measurement, a closed CO2 loop system was
established, which is shown in Fig.1. The CO2 loop system is
mainly comprised by compressor, test section, expansion valve
and condensers. In order to obtain CO2 solid-gas two phase
1 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
 fluid in the closed loop, -20.0℃ liquid CO2 at the inlet of the
expansion valve is necessary. The closed CO2 loop system is
specially designed in order to achieve -20.0℃ liquid CO2 at the
inlet of the expansion valve.
Fig. 1 Schematic of the CO2 closed loop system to measure
heat transfer characteristics of the CO2 solid-gas two phase
fluid flow.
As shown in Fig. 1, there are three condensers installed to
make CO2 emitted by the compressor cool down to -20.0℃
before entering the expansion valve. The first condenser is
cooled by 60.0℃ hot water from natural gas cogeneration
system (the natural gas cogeneration system is another story).
The second condenser is cooled by cool water about 25.0℃
from cooling tower. The details of cooling tower used in the
present study can be seen in Refs [17]. The two condensers
used are tube-in-tube heat exchangers. The third condenser is
cooled by the brine about -30.0℃ from the evaporator of
another CO2 heat pump system. The mass concentration of the
brine fluid used is about 55%. The natural gas cogeneration
system, cooling tower and the CO2 heat pump system providing
the cooled brine fluid are used in the present experiments only
to cool the CO2 fluid into -20.0℃ liquid before entering the
expansion valve and further to achieve CO2 solid-gas two phase
flow before entering the test section. They are no much
relations with the present study content. The compressor used
in the experimental system is reciprocating compressor
(TCS350/4) and provided by DORIN. The expansion valve
utilized in the system is a needle valve provided by Swagelok.
The opening of the expansion valve can be adjusted in the
range of 0.00-0.03m.
The test section is a copper-made horizontal circular tube,
which has an internal diameter of 0.04 m and outer diameter of
0.045 m. The length of the test section is 5.0 m. As the first step
of investigating the heat transfer characteristics of the CO2
solid-gas two phase fluid flow, the length and diameter of the
tube is not expected to be optimistic ones, only in order to
achieve a possible operation of the dry ice sublimation flow in
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the closed CO2 loop system. A good thermal insulation made of
glass wool is used outside the tube, which has a thickness of
0.15 m. The heater used to heat the tube is silicon gum type
heater with good water proof. The heater can be used in
cryogenic environment until -100.0℃.
Fig.2 The test section in the experimental system.
Thermal resistances and pressure transmitters are mounted at
different positions in the CO2 flow loop to measure its
temperatures and pressures, with an accuracy of ± 1.0% for
temperature measurements and ± 0.2% for pressure
measurements. Measured quantities include the following: CO2
temperatures and pressures at the compressor inlet and outlet; at
the inlet of the expansion valve; CO2 temperatures at the outlet
of the condenser 1; at the outlet of the condenser 2. The details
of the test section and the used horizontal tube are presented in
Fig. 2. In order to obtain a steady and developed CO2 flow
before the sublimation section, a non-heating part of 1.0 m long
is designed in the inlet region of the test section. After the non-
heating section, a 4.0 m long heating part is set to achieve the
dry ice particle sublimation and also to achieve measuring the
heat transfer of the dry ice particle sublimation flow. A T-type
thermocouple (point of T4) and pressure transmitter (position of
P1) are installed at the position of 1.0 m from the test section
inlet to measure the CO2 solid-gas two phase flow temperature
and pressure in the test section. The thermocouple is put on the
outside wall of the copper tube. Similarly, other three
thermocouples are put on the outside wall in the upstream of
the measurement point of T4. In the inlet region of the test
section, four thermocouples (T1, T2, T3, T4) are installed to
measure the wall temperature. Heating section is 4.0 m long,
beginning from the position of P1. The heating section begins
with the position of 1.0 m downstream from the inlet of the test
section and ends with the outlet of the test section. In the
heating section, 11 thermocouples are installed on the outside
wall of the test section tube to measure the wall temperature.
2 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
 Also, another three pressure transmitters are installed to
measure the CO2 pressures at different positions of P2, P3, P4,
which are distributed along the tube, with a same space of 1.0
m. Here, the tube wall temperatures and CO2 pressures are
measured with an accuracy of ± 0.5% for temperature
measurements and ± 0.2% for pressure measurements. The
heater is designed to have a maximum heating capacity of 3.0
kW. The opening of the needle valve is adjusted to control the
CO2 flow rate in the experimental system.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The measured pressures of the CO2 experiment loop are
shown in Fig.3, under the working condition that the
condensation temperature is -15℃, the opening of the needle
valve is 10.0 mm and total heating quantity is 1200W. Here, the
condensation temperature is the CO2 fluid temperature at the
outlet of the third condenser or the CO2 temperature at the inlet
of the expansion valve. At the beginning, only another CO2 heat
pump system is operated, and when the brine is fully cooled,
the present experiment set-up is started and this time point is set
as the point of origin of the lateral axis.
Fig. 3 Measured CO2 pressures with time.
As shown in this figure, the system reaches a steady state
after about 60 minutes. After that, the time-averaged values of
the pressures are: the compressor outlet (discharge) pressure is
2.41 MPa and the inlet (suction) pressure is 0.43 MPa. It is
seen that the pressure is below the CO2 triple point pressure
(0.518 MPa). That is to say that the CO2 experiment loop
system in which dry ice is produced could be continuously
operated.
The measured temperature data with time is presented in
Fig.4. Here, the evaporation temperature is CO2 fluid
temperature measured at the inlet of test section. As shown in
Fig. 4, the condensation temperature and evaporation
temperature both converged to a certain value range soon after
started, and it takes about 180 minutes for the inlet and outlet
temperatures of the compressor to converge to a certain value
range. Then it can be judged that the system operation reaches a
steady state. After the steady state, the time-weighted average
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values of parameters are: the temperature at the outlet of
compressor is 138℃, the condensation temperature is 32.7℃,
the evaporation temperature is -59.0℃ and the inlet
temperature of compressor is -26.1℃. These values show the
experimented system could be continuously operated in which
the test section is below the triple point temperature (-56.6℃).
Fig.4 Measured CO2 temperatures with time.
Based on the obtained data of Fig.4, it is concluded that the
present experiment system can be used to obtain the CO2 solid-
gas two phase fluid flows. It should be mentioned here that
the mass fraction of two phase fluid after expansion is difficult
to be obtained, because the mass flow rate is not measured in
the test. The further researches should be conducted, in order to
obtain more details, including solid particle size and
distribution etc.
Under the condition of constant heating flux in the present
study, the heat transfer of the CO2 solid-gas two phase flow
with dry ice sublimation in the horizontal tube are evaluated
based on the measured data of the wall temperatures and the
CO2 pressures in the test section tube. Since the tube of the test
section is made of a high thermal conductivity material--copper
and the thickness (1.5 mm) is thin enough so that we can
assume that the internal wall temperature is equal to the surface
temperature. In addition, the liquid CO2 becomes the solid-gas
two phase fluid after passing through the expansion valve and
its pressure is reduced. In addition, we can regard the saturation
temperature values (T1in , T2in , T3in , T4in) corresponding to the
measured pressures (P1-P4) as the internal CO2 fluid
temperature in the test section. The CO2 temperature between
two pressure measurement points is obtained by averaging
temperatures of the two points. Here, the origin point is located
at the beginning of the heating section. Therefore, the local heat
3 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
 transfer coefficient (hx=q/(Tw-Tin), where q is the heating flux;
Tw is the wall temperature of the tube，and Tin is the CO2
temperature in the tube) can be calculated. Furthermore, we can
get the local Nusselt number (Nux=hxD/λ, where D is the
internal diameter，andλ is the thermal conductivity of gas
CO2 at the measuring point temperature).
Fig.5 The experimentally obtained Nusselt number along
the horizontal length x under the different heating fluxes.
The local Nusselt number is obtained, which is presented in
Fig.5. It is seen that the Nusselt number in the tube entrance is
relatively flat, but a little decrease along the tube. From Fig.5, it
is also seen that after the CO2 solid-gas two phase fluid enters
the heating region (x>0), the Nusselt number also varies along
the tube. In the sublimation region, the region of 0<x<2.0, the
Nusselt number increases slowly along the horizontal length. It
may be physically explained that in the sublimation region, the
dry ice sublimation behavior makes the CO2 flow field change,
for example, the sublimation makes the thermal boundary layer
thinner; the solid particle sublimation make the flow turbulence
more stronger. The above reasons may contribute to the
phenomena of the small heat transfer increase occurring in the
sublimation area. After the sublimation region, it is observed
from this figure that the Nusselt number decreases a little along
the tube wall, which should be due to the development of the
thermal boundary layer for the CO2 gas flow. Based on the
obtained results, there also exists influence of the heating flux
on the Nusselt number, although its effect is small. The
variation of the heating flux changes the temperature field in
the test section and also affects the flow field, which may
change the Nusselt number. The average Nusselt number in the
range of the heating area (x>0) is obtained at 956, 1048, 1103
under different conditions of 1592 W/m2, 2122 W/m2, 2653
W/m2.
Under the present experimented condition, an average value
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of the Nusselt number is obtained at 1122. Furthermore, the
convective heat transfer coefficient h is obtained at 310.0
W/(m2-K) for the averaged level in the present experimental
cases. Generally speaking, the value is much higher than that of
gas flow. The sublimation of the dry ice particles seems to
enhance the heat transfer level in the CO2 solid-gas two phase
flow than that of gas flow.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper, an experimented work is conducted
to measure the heat transfer of the CO2 solid-gas two phase
flow in a horizontal circular tube. The experimental set-up has
an ability to continuously measure the heat transfer of the CO2
solid-gas flow despite the difficulty caused by the dry ice
particles. The CO2 sublimation process is measured to occur
within 2.0m, in which the CO2 temperature is observed to
almost not change under the condition of the constant heating
flux. In the sublimation area, the Nusselt number is observed to
increase slowly along the tube length, the phenomena may be
explained that the sublimation process changes the thermal
boundary layer thickness; makes the flow turbulence stronger;
or changes the flow and the pressure fields. In the present study,
the average value of the heat convection coefficient of the CO2
solid-gas two phase flow is measured at 310 W/(m2﹒K), which
is much higher than that of gas flow.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The support of the National Science Foundation of China
(50706002) is gratefully acknowledged.
NOMENCLATURE
D internal diameter (m)
h heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2-K))
Nu nusselt number (-)
q heat flux (W/m2)
T temperature (K)
x axial position (m)
λ thermal conductivity (W/(m-K))
Subscripts
In inlet
sat saturation
w wall
x axial direction
1-4 thermocouple or pressure transmitter locations
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