A Paper Review

Measured and predicted upward flow boiling heat transfer coefficients

for hydrocarbon mixtures inside a cryogenic plate fin heat exchanger

Author:
Rixin Lia, Jinping Liua,b,c, Jiayao Liua, Xiongwen Xua,b

a
School of Electric Power, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640,
China
Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Efficient and Clean Energy Utilization, Guangzhou 510640, China
c

Presenter:
Frandhoni Utomo

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

 Introduction

• Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers (PFHEs) have been used as the main cryogenic heat exchangers in many
applications such as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plants Skaugen et al. (2015) and Gong et al. (2012),
ethylene hydrocarbon separation plants Li et al. (2015) and Gao et al. (2011) because of its advantages of
compact structure, high efficiency, a low cost, and multi-stream handling capability, Wadekar (2003),
Wang et al. (2016), and Das et al. (2012).
• The experimental studies on the cryogenic PFHEs are still rarely constructed because of the high cost and
huge measurement difficulty. The existing experimental mainly focused on pure fluids, such as liquid
nitrogen by Robertson (1979,1983), CFC114 by Feldman et al. (2000) and propane by Watel et al. (2002).
• Cao et al. (2016) investigated a PFHE during a mixed refrigerant cryogenic cycle in the condition of low
vapor quality and low mass flux; the experimental results suggested that the overall HTC of the PFHE based
on the hot flow area was only between 11.88 and 37.74 W/m2. However,. the wall temperature between the
hot and cold streams was not measured; as a result, the processes of boiling and condensation cannot be
studied separately.
Experimental Set-up – Experimental System

Illustration:
1. Compressor
2. Oil-Separator
3. Air Pre-Cooler
4. Plate Fin Heat Exchanger
5. Throttle/Valve
6. Flowmeter
7. Gas-Liquid Separator
8. Buffer Tank

Fig. 1. Flowchart of the experimental system.

Experimental Set-up – Design of PFHE and Experimental Conditions

Table 2
Experimental conditions
Experimental Conditions
Mass flux 3.69–19.38 kg/ m2 s
Pressure 1.35–5.22 bar
Vapor Quality 0.05–0.77
Heat Flux 55.7 - 3837.3 W/m2
Mixture methane (CH4), ethylene
Component (C2H4), propane (C3H8), and
isobutane (i-C4H10)

Fig. 2. Diagrammatic sketch of passage structure and temperature field in PFHE.

Experimental Set-up – Temperature Measurement

Temperature points for outmost wall (cold wall) Temperature points in hot wall
Fig. 3. Location of temperature sensors on PFHE.
 Existing Correlation
The selected 12 existing flow-boiling correlations can be divided into three types in the present
study.

A. The first type of correlations calculate the boiling HTCs by combining the contributions of the
nucleate boiling and convection mechanisms first proposed by Chen with an asymptotic model or
with the exponential of the asymptotic model or correlations Chen type correlations. They include
the correlations of Bennett and Chen (1980), Shah (1982), Gungor and Winterton (1986),
Kandlikar (1990), Liu and Winterton (1991), and Kim (2012).

B. The second type is the modified Chen type correlations considering mass heat transfer resistance
for mixtures in tubes; these correlations were first recommended by Ardhapurkar et al. (2014) They
include Modified Gongor-Winterton, Silver-Bell Ghaly, and Modified Granryd.

C. The third type is the simple correlations developed for mini-channels based on nucleate boiling
dominated heat transfer. There are the correlations of Lazarek and Black (1982), Kew and
Cornwell (1997), and Tran et al. (1996).
Result – Actual Operating Conditions
Result – Fluid Temperature
Result - Temperature Profiles and Temperature Differences Distributions

Fig. 4. Temperature profiles and temperature Fig. 5. Temperature profiles and temperature Fig. 6. Temperature profiles and temperature
differences distributions in the PFHE of differences distributions in the PFHE of differences distributions in the PFHE of
Experiment 10. Experiment 23. Experiment 21.
Result - The heat transfer characteristic of hydrocarbon mixtures inside the PFHE

Fig. 7. The heat transfer coefficients vary with the qualities. Fig. 8. The heat fluxes vary with the qualities
Result - The heat transfer characteristic of hydrocarbon mixtures inside the PFHE

Fig. 9. The heat transfer coefficients vary with the Fig. 10. The experimental heat transfer coefficient
qualities of 27 experiments against the heat flux
Result - Comparison of the experimental results with the existing boiling correlations

Fig. 11. Comparison of the experimental HTCs with the calculated values using the selected boiling correlations.
Result - Development of the upward flow boiling heat transfer correlation for PFHE

New modified correlation:

the fitting constants are obtained as follows:

a = 656,700, b = 0.729, c = 0.283, d = 0.299 and e = 0.132

Experimental Condition
Mass flux 3.69–19.38 kg/ m2 s
Pressure 1.35–5.22 bar
Vapor Quality 0.05–0.77
Heat Flux 55.7 - 3837.3 W/m2
Mixture methane (CH4), ethylene Fig. 121. Comparison of the experimental HTCs with the calculated
Component (C2H4), propane (C3H8), values using the new correlation
and isobutane (i-C4H10)
 Conclusion

(1) The experimental results indicated that the boiling heat flux is as low as 55.7–3837.3 W/m2. Under the combined action of
low heat fluxes and low mass fluxes, the measured boiling HTC of mixtures inside PFHE remains at a small value and
increases very slowly under low vapor quality conditions, whereas it increases relatively rapidly under high vapor
quality conditions.
(2) The Chen type correlations based on the nucleate and convective boiling mechanisms are not suitable for predicting
the heat transfer of upward flow boiling of hydrocarbon inside the cryogenic PFHE. Whereas the Tran et al. [1980]
correlation, the Kew and Cornwell [1997] correlation and the Lazarek and Black [1982] correlation, which were
developed for pure fluids in mini-channels, show acceptable prediction accuracy.
(3) Based on the analysis of heat transfer mechanism, the heat transfer process mainly relies on the evaporation and the
mixture effect cannot be considered in the present experimental condition. A new correlation without considering
the mixture effect is developed; the correlation agrees with 95% of the experimental data within a deviation of ±30%.
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