Purdue University

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International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
School of Mechanical Engineering
Conference

2016

Investigation of Evaporator Performance with and

without Liquid Overfeeding
Stefano Bortolin
University of Padova, Italy, [email protected]

Marco Rossato
University of Padova, Italy, [email protected]

Stefano Bernardinello
Blue Box – Swegon, Italy, [email protected]

Davide Del Col

University of Padova, Italy, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iracc

Bortolin, Stefano; Rossato, Marco; Bernardinello, Stefano; and Del Col, Davide, "Investigation of Evaporator Performance with and
without Liquid Overfeeding" (2016). International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference. Paper 1703.
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iracc/1703

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Investigation of Evaporator Performance Improvement by Liquid Overfeeding

Stefano BORTOLIN1*, Marco ROSSATO1, Stefano BERNARDINELLO2, Davide DEL COL1

1
University of Padova, Department of Industrial Engineering,
Via Venezia, 1 – 35131 Padova, Italy

Blue Box Group S.r.l. – Swegon Group,

2

Via Valletta, 5 - 30010 Cantarana di Cona (VE), Italy

*Corresponding Author
Tel.: +39 049 8276885; Fax: +39 049 8276896; E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
In the present work, the performance of a segmentally baffled shell-and-tube evaporator working with liquid
overfeeding is investigated. The refrigerant is R134a that flows inside the tubes, while water flows on the shell side.
A single shell pass has been adopted for the water with one tube pass for the evaporating fluid. The test rig used for
the experimental measurements consists of a primary refrigerant loop plus the condenser and the evaporator water
auxiliary loops. The evaporator can be fed with two-phase mixture from the expansion valve or with saturated liquid
coming from the liquid-vapor separator (in this case a variable speed recirculation pump is used). Inlet and outlet
temperatures have been measured for both fluids together with the flow rate allowing the determination of the
overall heat transfer coefficient. In addition, pressure drop have been measured on the refrigerant side. Tests have
been performed both without overfeeding and with overfeeding at different values of recirculation ratio. The
recirculation ratio is defined as the ratio between refrigerant flow rate at the evaporator and the vaporized refrigerant
flow rate. Furthermore, measurements have been taken at fixed water outlet temperature and varying the heat duty.
In order to study the evaporator behavior, a computational procedure has been developed. Finally, the numerical
model of the heat exchanger has been validated against experimental data.

1. INTRODUCTION
Liquid overfeed or liquid recirculation refers to the practice of delivering a greater rate of liquid refrigerant to the
evaporator than the rate that actually evaporates. Liquid overfeed is common in large-scale industrial refrigeration
systems. The major benefit of liquid recirculation is the improvement of the heat transfer coefficient in the
evaporator. In fact, in the case of dry expansion systems, a part of the heat exchanger area can be affected by dryout
conditions and a further tube length is dedicated to the superheating of the vapor. Both the regions are characterized
by low values of the heat transfer coefficients compared with the heat transfer coefficients that can be achieved
during flow boiling. The improvement of evaporator heat transfer capabilities by liquid overfeeding is due to the
absence of dryout phenomena, no need of superheating and higher refrigerant velocity inside the tubes. Furthermore,
feeding the evaporator with liquid only can also improve the refrigerant distribution. However, there are also some
disadvantages in such practice: the greater refrigerant charge in the heat exchanger and in the liquid-vapor separator,
and the additional pumping power required by the system.
The schematic of a forced liquid recirculation cycle is presented in Figure 1. An externally driven mechanical pump
is used to provide the necessary liquid recirculation effect. The pump draws liquid from a liquid-vapor separator and
supplies it to the inlet of the evaporator. This type of cycle offers a significant advantage: more liquid is sent to the
evaporator than is actually evaporated, meaning that at the outlet of the evaporator there is a two-phase fluid rather
than a superheated vapor, as is the case in dry expansion (DX) system operation. Saturated vapor enters the
compressor coming from the vapor-liquid separator.

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Figure 1: Forced liquid recirculation cycle in which a mechanically driven pump is used to provide excess liquid to
the evaporator.

Recently, Lawrence and Elbel (2014) presented the results of an experimental and numerical study on the effect of
liquid recirculation on the performance of air conditioning cycles. The purpose of the numerical model was to
simulate the behavior of a refrigeration cycle (for air conditioning) with forced recirculation of liquid, using R410A
as refrigerant. Their model considers a single-pass microchannel evaporator, with 23 parallel tubes, without
accounting for maldistribution problems. The evaporator exchanges heat with air. On the air-side, fins are used to
increase the heat transfer coefficient. The authors reported that the COP (coefficient of performance) of the cycle
increases when increasing the recirculation ratio R, with a maximum improvement of about 10%. Furthermore, for R
> 2.3 the COP shows a smaller variation. The parameter KA for the evaporator (that is the product of evaporator
global heat transfer coefficient by the heat exchanger area) was found to increase when R increases. They suggested
that COP improvement of the recirculation cycle with respect to the dry expansion (DX) case is due to the KA
enhancement. Lawrence and Elbel (2014) performed experimental tests in a R410A air conditioning system with
forced liquid recirculation. The evaporator is a microchannel evaporator with similar characteristics of the
evaporator considered in their numerical model. The condenser is a round-tube-plate-fin heat exchanger. The
cooling capacity, in the various experimental tests, was approximately 0.9 kW, the air temperature at condenser inlet
was 35°C and the air temperature at evaporator inlet was 27°C. The author asserted that it was difficult to obtain
stable pump operation at very low pump speed, so results were reported only for higher recirculation ratios. Their
experimental results shows that the measured KA is pretty constant with R, as it is expected by the numerical model
for high R values. For R greater than 6, the product KA decreases.
The present paper aims at the experimental investigation of the performance of a segmentally baffled shell-and-tube
evaporator when working both in dry expansion mode and with liquid overfeeding. The refrigerant R134a flows
inside the tubes, beside water flows on the shell side providing the evaporation heat. In the first part of the work, the
results of the experimental campaign are reported and discussed. In order to investigate the advantages due to the
liquid recirculation, the performance of the evaporator in forced recirculation is compared to the performance in dry
expansion mode considering two different heat duties. Finally, in the second part, a numerical model of the heat
exchanger has been developed and its results have been validated against experimental data.

2. EXPERIMENTAL TEST RIG

The experimental results reported in this paper have been obtained at the facility located at the Research and
Development (R&D) laboratory of Blue Box in Cantarana (VE). The test rig allows to perform heat transfer and
pressure drop measurement on heat exchangers changing the refrigerant inlet conditions and varying the secondary
fluid (water) flow rate and inlet temperature. A schematic of the test rig is reported in Figure 2. In particular, the
connections between the different components allow to test the evaporator in direct expansion mode (DX) or in
recirculation mode (RC).
In DX mode (represented with a dotted line) the refrigerant:
• flows through the screw compressor;
• is cooled down by water in a condenser;
• flows through the expansion valve;
• absorbs heat from water in the evaporator before reaching again the compressor.

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Figure 2: Sketch of the test rig used for the measurements of the evaporator performance available at the Blue Box
laboratory. Dotted lines for DX mode and continuous lines in the case of RC operation mode.
[T ref (refrigerant temperature); Tw (water temperature); P (pressure)].

Table 1: Shell-and-tube evaporator specifications.

Tubes type Microfin

Tube Outside diameter [mm] 8.52
Tube inside diameter at fin tip [mm] 7.44
Fins number 55
Fin height [mm] 0.25
Apex angle [°] 40
Helix angle [°] 18
Tube layout pattern 30° triangular
Tube length [m] 3.30
Shell internal diameter [mm] 263
Tube pitch [mm] 10
Number of baffles 21
Baffle type Segmental
Baffle spacing [mm] 150
Baffle cut [%] 28
Tube side internal volume [L] 39.5
External side volume [L] 137.6

The thermostatic expansion valve controls the working condition by maintaining the desired superheat at the outlet
of the evaporator.
In RC mode (represented with a continuous line), the refrigerant coming from the condenser enters a vapor-liquid
separator tank. Here vapor and liquid phases are separated:
• the liquid goes through a pump that pushes it into the evaporator, after which it flows back to the separator;
• the vapor phase in the upper part of the tank flows through the suction line of the compressor.
A Coriolis effect mass flow meter (expanded uncertainty ±0.004 kg s -1) is used to measure the liquid mass flow rate
in RC mode. An electromagnetic flow meter is employed for the measurement of the water volumetric flow rate
(expanded uncertainty ±0.5% of flow rate). Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs, expanded uncertainty ±0.05°C)
and pressure transducers (expanded uncertainty ±4 kPa) have been installed in the refrigerant lines before the inlet

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and after the outlet of the evaporator. The water temperature is measured at the inlet and outlet of the heat exchanger
(expanded uncertainty ±0.05°C). For all the expanded uncertainties, a coverage factor equal to 2 has been
considered.
The heat exchanger here investigated is a segmentally baffled shell-and-tube evaporator using 7.44 mm (inside
diameter at the fin tip) copper microfin tubes. The refrigerant R134a flows inside the tubes and the water flows on
the shell side. The water can flow in cocurrent or in countercurrent flow depending on the test conditions. A single
shell pass with one tube pass is adopted. The general features and dimensions of the heat exchanger are given in
Table 1.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section, the experimental results carried out at Blue Box laboratory are presented. Tests have been run at two
different heat duties at the evaporator: 180 kW and 90 kW. A current trend of refrigeration industry is to optimize
the energy performances by avoiding intermittent on/off operation mode and moving towards an efficient and
continuous operation in a wide range of conditions. Hence, the operation of the evaporator at reduced load is of great
interest. The water volumetric flow rate is maintained constant during all the performed tests and the outlet water
temperature is fixed at 7°C. This conditions are obtained controlling the water temperature at the inlet of the
evaporator.
The evaporator can work in two different modes: dry expansion (DX) and with liquid recirculation (RC). In the first
case, the refrigerant enters the evaporator at a constant vapor quality x = 0.2 that is obtained controlling the outlet
pressure and the subcooling degree at the condenser. For the direct expansion case, a countercurrent flow evaporator
is always considered.
When operating with liquid recirculation, the evaporator is fed with subcooled liquid (Δtsub~1-2°C) and the
refrigerant flow rate can be varied changing the pump velocity (Figure 2). R134a exits from the evaporator in two-
phase state with vapor quality depending on the recirculation ratio R. The recirculation ratio R is defined as the ratio
of the total evaporator mass flow rate to the mass flow rate of vaporized refrigerant and it is an index of the liquid
quantity that overfeeds the evaporator.

mevap , total
R (1)
mevap , vaporized

It must be noted that tests with liquid recirculation have been taken both in countercurrent flow and in cocurrent
flow.

3.1 Data reduction

Evaporation is achieved by transferring heat from the secondary fluid (water) that flows in the shell side. The heat
flow rate at the evaporator qevap is obtained according to equation 2:

qevap   waterVwater cwater  twater ,IN  twater ,OUT  (2)

where the water density ρ and the specific heat c are calculated at the water mean temperature.
When operating in dry expansion mode, since heat losses along the pipes are negligible, the refrigerant enthalpy at
the evaporator inlet is considered equal to the enthalpy at the expansion valve inlet, which is calculated with NIST
Refprop 9.1 (Lemmon et al., 2013) from temperature and pressure measurements of the subcooled liquid at
condenser exit. The R134a mass flux in the evaporator when working in dry expansion mode is equal to the
refrigerant mass flow rate at the condenser. Therefore, the evaporator mass flux can be obtained from a heat balance
performed at the condenser once the following quantities are measured: water volumetric flow rate, water inlet and
outlet temperature difference, refrigerant inlet and outlet temperature and pressure (superheated vapor and subcooled
liquid state).
Instead, during liquid tests with liquid overfeeding, the refrigerant enthalpy at the inlet of the evaporator is obtained
from the pressure and temperature measurements of the subcooled liquid and the refrigerant mass flow rate is
directly measured after the recirculation pump as illustrated in Figure 2. Once the refrigerant flow rate is known, the
outlet R134a enthalpy is calculated with the following equation:

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qevap
hevap ,OUT  hevap , IN  (3)
mR134 a
Finally, the thermodynamic vapor quality at the inlet and outlet of the evaporator x is calculated by equations 4,
where hliq and hvap are respectively the specific enthalpy of saturated liquid and saturated vapor computed at inlet
and outlet pressure.

hIN  hliq hOUT  hliq

xIN  xOUT  (4)
hvap  hliq hvap  hliq

It should be noted that both pressure and temperature are measured at the inlet and the outlet of the evaporator as
reported in Figure 2.

3.2 Evaporator performance

In Figure 3 the saturation temperature obtained from the pressure measured at the inlet of the evaporator is reported
as a function of the relative recirculation ratio R*. The parameter R* is equal to zero in DX mode whereas in RC
mode it is defined as in equation 5

R 1
R*  100 (5)
Rmax  1

where Rmax is the recirculation ratio that is possible to achieve with the pump running at the maximum speed.
When R* = 0 the evaporator works in dry expansion mode whereas for 0 < R* < 100% the evaporator is overfed
with liquid. For both the heat duties considered (180 kW and 90 kW), the inlet evaporation temperature was found to
increase when adopting liquid recirculation. However, there is a recirculation ratio beyond which a further increase
of R does not lead to a higher evaporation temperature.
Figure 4 reports the vapor quality at the inlet and outlet of the evaporator as a function of the refrigerant mass
velocity G. For each heat flow rate, the lowest value of mass velocity corresponds to the case of dry expansion (inlet
vapor quality x = 0.2). As expected, since the heat flow rate is fixed, the outlet vapor quality decreases when the
mass velocity and thus the recirculation ratio are increased.

P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
8.0 8.0

7.0 7.0
Inlet evap. temp. [ C ]
Inlet evap. temp. [ C ]

6.0 6.0

5.0 5.0

4.0 4.0

3.0 cocurrent flow 3.0 cocurrent flow

countercurrent flow countercurrent flow
2.0 2.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ] Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ]

Figure 3: Saturation temperature at evaporator inlet versus relative recirculation ratio R* (R* = 0 in the case of dry
expansion). Tests with liquid recirculation (R* > 0) have been performed with water in cocurrent and countercurrent
flow. Left: heat duty 180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

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P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
1.1 1.1
Evaporator outlet
Evaporator inlet
Thermodynamic vapor quality [ / ]

Thermodynamic vapor quality [ / ]

0.9 0.9

0.7 0.7

0.5 0.5

0.3 0.3

0.1 0.1
Evaporator outlet
Evaporator inlet
-0.1 -0.1
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ] Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ]

Figure 4: Thermodynamic vapor quality at evaporator inlet and exit plotted versus refrigerant mass velocity G (the
minimum value of G corresponds to the case of dry expansion) with water in countercurrent flow. Left: heat duty
180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

Since during phase change pressure drop affects also the evaporation temperature, in Figure 5 the measured
refrigerant pressure drop between inlet and outlet is reported versus the relative recirculation ratio R*. A pressure
drop reduction is found when liquid overfeed is used with respect to the dry expansion case. This can be explained
considering that, with liquid recirculation, the dryout zone and the superheating zone in the evaporator are not
present and furthermore the exit vapor quality is reduced (Figure 4). Considering R* > 0, an increase of the
recirculation ratio leads to an increase of the pressure drop. Higher pressure drop values have been observed in the
case of water in cocurrent flow.

P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
20.0 20.0
cocurrent flow cocurrent flow
Evaporator pressure drop [ kPa ]

countercurrent flow countercurrent flow

Evaporator pressure drop [ kPa ]

15.0 15.0

10.0 10.0

5.0 5.0

0.0 0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ] Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ]

Figure 5: Pressure drop in the evaporator versus relative recirculation ratio R* (R* = 0 in the case of dry expansion).
Tests with liquid recirculation (R* > 0) have been performed with water in cocurrent and countercurrent flow. Left:
heat duty 180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

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P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
70 70

60 60

50 50
KA [ kW/K ]

KA [ kW/K ]
40 40

30 30

20 20

10 Cocurrent flow 10 Cocurrent flow

Countercurrent flow Countercurrent flow
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ] Relative recirculation ratio R* [ % ]

Figure 6: Product of the overall heat transfer coefficient by the heat transfer area (KA) versus relative recirculation
ratio R* (R* = 0 in the case of dry expansion). Tests with liquid recirculation (R* > 0) have been performed with
water in cocurrent and countercurrent flow. Left: heat duty 180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

The heat transfer behavior of the evaporator can be evaluated considering the parameter KA that is the product of the
overall heat transfer coefficient by the heat transfer area. Considering the graphs in Figure 6, the evaporator shows a
performance improvement when working with liquid overfeeding. The KA enhancement is more evident at 90 kW.
This is due to the fact that, in the direct expansion mode at partial loads, the refrigerant velocity inside the
evaporator is reduced leading to low values of the internal heat transfer coefficient. There is an optimum value of the
recirculation ratio (that depends on the heat duty) that gives the highest KA. Anyhow, when liquid recirculation is
adopted and thus no superheating is needed, the best evaporator configuration is the one with water in cocurrent
flow.
4. MODEL OF THE EVAPORATOR
The modeling of an evaporator is rather complex because of the many heat transfer mechanisms occurring from inlet
to outlet. However, a good approximation can be made when considering three regions on the refrigerant side, with
different heat transfer features, i.e. the evaporating region, the dryout region and the superheat region. Depending on
the conditions (dry expansion or liquid recirculation) the dryout region and the superheat zone can be or not be
present in the heat exchanger. Each region was further discretized into several subsectors along the tube length in
each of them the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure gradient can be considered constant. In the two-phase
region, since the heat transfer coefficient depends on local vapor quality, the length of each subsector varies to
maintain a fixed vapor quality change Δx in each subsector. The thermodynamic and transport properties of the
R134a have been computed from the NIST Refprop 9.1 database (Lemmon et al., 2013).
The heat transfer rate (180 kW or 90 kW), the outlet water temperature (7°C), the water flow rate, the inlet vapor
quality (0.2) and vapor superheating when operating in dry expansion (5 K) are given as inputs to the algorithm,
whilst the program output is the inlet evaporating temperature required to fulfill the imposed conditions.
The R134a evaporation heat transfer coefficients have been obtained from the Cavallini et al. (1999a) correlation
developed for flow boiling inside microfin tubes and modified as reported in Cavallini et al. (2006) to extend its
range at mass velocities G below 100 kg m-2 s-1. The refrigerant pressure drop in the evaporating and dryout regions
has been computed by the Cavallini et al. (1999b) correlation. Their model is based on the Friedel (1979, 1980)
pressure drop correlation; the presence of fins on the internal surface of the tube is accounted for with a modification
of the smooth tube friction factor that depends on the fin height and on the helix angle. The onset of dryout has been
calculated as suggested in a recent paper by Padovan et al. (2011). In the dryout region, the heat transfer coefficient
has been assumed equal to the single phase convective coefficient when the vapor fraction alone flows in the tubes.
The pressure drop in the region of superheated vapor has been computed by the Churchill (1977) correlation.

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The acceleration pressure drop has been evaluated using the Rouhani (1969) model for the void fraction. The overall
heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop on the shell side have been computed by the Bell-Delaware method as
published in the HEDH (Taborek, 1983).
The algorithm of the evaporator model consists of several nested loops that are used to lead to convergence the main
quantities (saturation temperature, evaporator length, critical vapor quality, pressure drop, etc.). The algorithm can
be summarized in the following main steps:
-the water side heat transfer coefficient is obtained by the Bell-Delaware method;
-a guess value is initially used for the saturation temperature;
-the vapor quality at the onset of dryout is estimated considering the whole heat flow rate;
-the R134a heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop gradient are calculated in the subsectors that belongs to the
vaporization region;
-the overall heat transfer coefficient (considering refrigerant, wall and water heat transfer resistance) and the length
of each subsector are computed;
-the total length of the evaporation region is obtained as the sum of the lengths calculated for each subsector;
-the conditions (saturation temperature, pressure, vapor quality, water temperature) at the inlet of the dryout zone are
known;
-the refrigerant heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in the dryout region are calculated;
-the overall heat transfer coefficient and the heat transfer length in the dryout region are obtained;
-when operating in dry expansion, the refrigerant heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in the superheating
region are calculated;
-the overall heat transfer coefficient and the heat transfer length in the superheating region are obtained;
-finally, the total length of the evaporator is calculated and compared against the effective length: thus the saturation
temperature is corrected until the calculated length matches the effective value.
Comparisons between the experimental inlet evaporating temperatures and calculations for the two considered heat
flow rates are shown in Figure 7. As it can be seen, a very good agreement is obtained with recirculation when water
flows in countercurrent. In cocurrent flow, an underestimation of the evaporation temperature is found in the case of
P = 90 kW and mass velocity below 100 kg m-2 s-1. This can be related to the estimation of the flow boiling heat
transfer coefficient at low mass velocity and low vapor qualities. In fact, when operating in cocurrent flow, the
highest water-to-saturation temperature difference is at the entrance of the evaporator and therefore an accurate
prediction of the heat transfer coefficient in this region is necessary. Unfortunately, low mass velocities are poorly
investigated and predictions model can be less accurate at such conditions.

P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
8.0 8.0

7.0 7.0
Inlet evap. temp. [ C ]

Inlet evap. temp. [ C ]

6.0 6.0

5.0 5.0

4.0 4.0
cocurrent flow cocurrent flow
countercurrent flow countercurrent flow
3.0 3.0
cocurrent flow cocurrent flow
countercurrent flow countercurrent flow
2.0 2.0
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ] Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ]

Figure 7: Saturation temperature at evaporator inlet versus refrigerant mass velocity G (the minimum value of G
corresponds to the case of dry expansion). Tests with liquid recirculation have been performed with water in
cocurrent and countercurrent flow. Dots corresponds to measured values, lines show model estimations. Left: heat
duty 180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

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P = 180 kW P = 90 kW
10000 10000
cocurrent flow

Heat Transfer Coefficient [ W m-2 K-1 ]

countercurrent flow
Heat Transfer Coefficient [ W m-2 K-1 ]

8000 8000

6000 6000

4000 4000

2000 2000
cocurrent flow
countercurrent flow
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ] Mass velocity G [ kg m-2 s-1 ]

Figure 8: Computed mean heat transfer coefficient versus refrigerant mass velocity with liquid overfeeding. Left:
heat duty 180 kW. Right: heat duty 90 kW.

In Figure 8, the calculated mean evaporation heat transfer coefficient when considering liquid recirculation is plotted
against the refrigerant mass velocity. The recirculation has two opposite effects on the mean heat transfer
coefficient. In fact, a higher recirculation ratio and thus a higher mass velocity leads to an increase of the convective
boiling heat transfer coefficient. On the other side, increasing the liquid flow rate, as shown in Figure 4, the exit
vapor quality is reduced and the heat transfer coefficient decreases. Depending on the opposite action of mass
velocity and exit vapor quality, the heat transfer coefficient can decrease with recirculation or it can present a
maximum value (as in the case of P = 90 kW).
Finally, another consideration can be done looking at the graphs in Figure 8. The mean heat transfer coefficient is
always higher in cocurrent flow with respect to countercurrent flow. It must be noticed that, when the recirculation
ratio and the heat duty are fixed, the exit vapor quality is the same in both concurrent and countercurrent flow.
Therefore, a higher average heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator means that the evaporator region characterized
by low values of the heat transfer coefficient (that is the entrance region with low vapor quality since dryout does
not take place with recirculation) is reduced in the case of cocurrent flow. This is caused by the higher water-to-
saturation temperature difference encountered at the inlet of the evaporator when it works with water in cocurrent
flow.

5. CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper, the performance of a shell-and-tube evaporator when working in dry expansion mode or with
liquid overfeeding has been experimentally investigated. Furthermore, a numerical model of the evaporator has been
proposed and its results have been compared against experimental data. The following conclusions can be drawn:
 At a constant heat duty and fixed exit water conditions, the inlet evaporation temperature increases using
liquid recirculation when compared to the case of dry expansion.
 The evaporator heat transfer performance has been evaluated considering the product between the overall
heat transfer coefficient and the heat transfer area KA. With recirculation, an increase of KA has been found
and this is mainly due to the absence of the dryout and superheating zones.
 There is an optimal value of the recirculation ratio that leads to the best evaporation performance; a further
liquid flow rate increase leads to a reduction of the KA and to an increase of pressure drop.
 When operating in liquid recirculation, the configuration with water in cocurrent flow leads to higher
refrigerant mean heat transfer coefficient.

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NOMENCLATURE
A area (m2)
c specific heat (J kg-1 K-1)
G mass velocity (kg m-2 s-1)
h specific enthalpy (J kg-1)
K global heat transfer coefficient (W m-2 K-1)
ṁ mass flow rate (kg s-1)
P heat duty (W)
q heat flow rate (W)
R recirculation ratio (-)
R* relative recirculation ratio (%)
t temperature (°C)
V volumetric flow rate (m3 s-1)
x vapor quality (-)
ρ density (kg m-3)

Subscript
evap evaporator
IN inlet
liq saturated liquid
max maximum
OUT outlet
sub subcooled
vap saturated vapor

REFERENCES
Cavallini, A., Del Col, D., Doretti, L., Longo, G. A., & Rossetto, L. (1999a). Refrigerant vaporization inside
enhanced tubes: a heat transfer model. Heat and Technology, 17(2), 29–36.
Cavallini, A., Del Col, D., Doretti, L., Longo, G. A., & Rossetto, L. (1999b). A new computational procedure for
heat transfer and pressure drop during refrigerant condensation inside enhanced tubes. Enhanced Heat Transfer, 6,
441–456.
Cavallini, A., Del Col, D., & Rossetto, L. (2006). Flow boiling inside microfin tubes: prediction of the heat transfer
coefficient. In: Proceedings of ECI International Conference on Boiling Heat Transfer, Spoleto, Italy.
Churchill, S.W. (1977). Friction factor equation spans all fluid flow regimes. Chemical Engineering, 45, 91–92.
Friedel, L. (1979). Improved friction pressure drop correlations for horizontal and vertical two-phase pipe flow.
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16th International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue, July 11-14, 2016