Investigations of refrigerant condensation in pipe minichannels are very challenging and complicated issue. Due to the multitude of influences very important is mathematical and computer modeling. Its allows for performing calculations for many different refrigerants under different flow conditions. A large number of experimental results published in the literature allows for experimental verification of correctness of the models. In this work is presented a mathematical model for calculation of flow resistance during condensation of refrigerants in the pipe minichannel. The model was developed in environment based on conservation equations. The results of calculations were verified by authors own experimental investigations results.

The pressure drop in microreactors for the gas - liquid Taylor flow was measured for 4 different microreactor geometries and 3 different gas - liquid systems. The results have been compared with the existing literature correlations. A selection of the best correlations has been made.

The disposal of ash in a thermal plant through the slurry pipe is subjected to some erosion wear due to the abrasive characteristics of the slurry. A simulation study of particle-liquid erosion of mild steel pipe wall based on CFD-FLUENT that considers the solid-liquid, solid-solid and solid-wall interaction is presented in this work.The multi-phase Euler-Lagrange model with standard k- ϵ turbulence modeling is adopted to predict the particulate erosion wear caused by the flow of bottom ash water suspension. Erosion rate for different particle size and concentration is evaluated at variable flow rate. It is observed that the pressure drop and erosion rate share direct relationships with flow velocity, particle size and concentration. The flow velocity is found to be the most influencing parameter. A model capable of predicting the erosion wear at variable operating conditions is presented.The simulation findings show good agreement with the published findings.

The effect of shell side and coil side volume flow rate on overall heat transfer coefficient, effectiveness, pressure drop and exergy loss of shell and helical coil heat exchanger were studied experimentally under steady state conditions. The working fluid, i.e., water was allowed to flow at three different flow rates of 1, 2, and 3 l/min on shell side (cold water) and at 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 l/min on coil side (hot water) for each shell side flow rate at the temperatures of 298±0.4K and 323±0.4K, respectively. The results found that the overall heat transfer coefficient increased with increasing both shell side and coil side volume flow rates. The inner Nusselt number significantly increased with the coil side Dean number.

An experimental study was conducted in order to investigate two-phase flow regimes and fully developed pressure drop in a mini-size, horizontal rectangular channel. The test section was machined in the form of an impacting tee junction in an acrylic block (in order to facilitate visualization) with a rectangular cross-section of 1.87-mm height on 20-mm width on the inlet and outlet sides. Pressure drop measurement and flow regime identification were performed on all three sides of the junction. Air-water mixtures at 200 kPa (abs) and room temperature were used as the test fluids. Four flow regimes were identified visually: bubbly, plug, churn, and annular over the ranges of gas and liquid superficial velocities of 0.04 ≤ JG ≤ 10 m/s and 0.02 ≤ JL ≤ 0.7 m/s, respectively, and a flow regime map was developed. Accuracy of the pressure-measurement technique was validated with single-phase, laminar and turbulent, fully developed data. Two-phase experiments were conducted for eight different inlet conditions and various mass splits at the junction. Comparisons were conducted between the present data and former correlations for the fully developed two-phase pressure drop in rectangular channels with similar sizes. Wide deviations were found among these correlations, and the correlations that agreed best with the present data were identified.

The paper describes issues related to pressure drop that accompanies the phenomenon of maldistribution of working fluid between the channels of a model minichannel plate heat exchanger. The research concerns a single exchanger’s plate containing 51 (in every geometry) parallel rectangular minichannels of hydraulic diameters 461 μm, 571 μm, 750 μm, and 823 μm. In addition, more complex geometry has been investigated, equipped with additional diagonal channels (so called extended geometry). The moment of the liquid phase transition through the heat exchanger was recorded at the flow rates ranging from 0.83 g/s to 13.33 g/s in the inlet manifold. The paper discusses the total pressure drop as a function of the flow rate and the characteristic dimension of minichannels, as well as the pressure drop as a function of the time of the fluid passage through the main part of the measuring section in which measurements were done. The resulting profiles correlate with the images of the flow distribution between channels recorded using the fast shutter speed camera, that allows to draw a further conclusions about the specifics of the maldistribution process. The impact of the total pressure drop on the actual range of optimum operating conditions of the heat exchanger was analyzed.

The paper presents the results of experimental heat transfer and pressure drop during condensation of the single component refrigerant R134a and zeotropic mixtures R404A, R407C, and R410A in tube minichannels of internal diameter from the range 0.31–3.30 mm. The local values and the average of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in the whole range of the change in mass quality were measured. On the basis of the obtained test results there was illustrated the influence of the change of mass vapor quality, the mass flux density, and the inner diameter of channel on the studied parameters. These results were compared with the calculation results based on the relations postulated by other authors. The discrepancy range was ± 50%. On the basis of given test results own correlation was developed to calculate the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of tested refrigerants which presents the obtained results in a range of discrepancy of ±25%.

Analysis of the state of-the-art in research of minichannel heat exchangers, especially on the topic of flow maldistribution in multiple channels, has been accomplished. Studies on minichannel plate heat exchanger with 51 parallel minichannels with four hydraulic diameters, i.e., 461 μm, 574 μm, 667 μm, and 750 μm have been presented. Flow at the instance of filling the microchannel with water at low flow rates has been visualized. The pressure drop characteristics for single minichannel plate have been presented along with the channels blockage, which occurred in several cases. The impact of the mass flow rate and channels’ cross-section dimensions on the flow maldistribution were illustrated.

Experimental investigation was conducted on the thermal performance and pressure drop of a convective cooling loop working with ZnO aqueous nanofluids. The loop was used to cool a flat heater connected to an AC autotransformer. Influence of different operating parameters, such as fluid flow rate and mass concentration of nanofluid on surface temperature of heater, pressure drop, friction factor and overall heat transfer coefficient was investigated and briefly discussed. Results of this study showed that, despite a penalty for pressure drop, ZnO/water nanofluid was a promising coolant for cooling the micro-electronic devices and chipsets. It was also found that there is an optimum for concentration of nanofluid so that the heat transfer coefficient is maximum, which was wt. %=0.3 for ZnO/water used in this research. In addition, presence of nanoparticles enhanced the friction factor and pressure drop as well; however, it is not very significant in comparison with those of registered for the base fluid.

In this paper, investigation of the effect of Reynolds number, nanoparticle volume ratio, nanoparticle diameter and entrance temperature on the convective heat transfer and pressure drop of Al2O3/H2O nanofluid in turbulent flow through a straight pipe was carried out. The study employed a computational fluid dynamic approach using single-phase model and response surface methodology for the design of experiment. The Reynolds average Navier-Stokes equations and energy equation were solved using k-" turbulent model. The central composite design method was used for the response-surface-methodology. Based on the number of variables and levels, the condition of 30 runs was defined and 30 simulations were performed. New models to evaluate the mean Nusselt number and pressure drop were obtained. Also, the result showed that all the four input variables are statistically significant to the pressure drop while three out of them are significant to the Nusslet number. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis carried out showed that the Reynolds number and volume fraction have a positive sensitivity to both the mean Nusselt number, and pressure drop, while the entrance temperature has negative sensitivities to both.

Helical coil heat exchangers are widely used in a variety of industry applications such as refrigeration systems, process plants and heat recovery. In this study, the effect of Reynolds number and the operating temperature on heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop for laminar flow conditions was investigated. Experiments were carried out in a shell and tube heat exchanger with a copper coiled pipe (4 mm ID, length of 1.7 m and coil pitch of 7.5 mm) in the temperature range from 243 to 273 K. Air – propan-2-ol vapor mixture and coolant (methylsilicone oil) flowed inside and around the coil, respectively. The fluid flow in the shell-side was kept constant, while in the coil it was varied from 6.6 to 26.6 m/s (the Reynolds number below the critical value of 7600). Results showed that the helical pipe provided higher heat transfer performance than a straight pipe with the same dimensions. The convective coefficients were determined using theWilson method. The values for the coiled pipe were in the range of 3–40 W/m2 ·K. They increased with increasing the gas flow rate and decreasing the coolant temperature.

A comparative analysis of filtration performance of tangential and axial inlet reverse-flow cyclone separators and vortex tube separators is presented. The study showed that vortex tube separators are characterized by a quality factor q several time higher than tangential inlet reverse-flow cyclone separators. The cyclone separators yield low separation efficiency and low filtration performance at low air flow rates at low air volumes aspired by the engine at low speed. One of the well-known and not commonly used methods to improve separation efficiency is to apply electric field. An original design of a vortex tube separator with insulators generating electric field in the area of aerosol flow is presented. High voltage was applied to the cyclone separator housing and its swirl vane. A special method and test conditions were developed for cyclone separators with electric field. Separation efficiency, filtration performance and pressure drop across the cyclone separator in two different variants were determined. The tests were carried out at five inlet velocity of cyclones υ₀  = 1.75; 3.5; 7.0; 10.5; 14 m/s at an extraction rate of m₀  = 10%, and at an average dust concentration in the inlet air of
s = 1 g/m³. Using the electric field in the area of a swirling aerosol stream resulted in an increase (over 12% – φ_c  = 96.3%) in separation efficiency at inlet velocity of cyclone ranging from 1.75 to 3.5 m/s. An increase in separation efficiency at other inlet velocity of cyclone is minor and does not exceed 3‒4%.

The present paper describes results of experimental investigations of pressure drop during the condensation of R134a, R404a and R407C refrigerants in pipe minichannels with internal diameter 0.31-3.30 mm. The results concern investigations of the mean and local pressure drop in single minichannels. The results of experimental investigations were compared with the calculations according to the correlations proposed by other authors. A pressure drop during the condensation of refrigerants is described in a satisfactory manner with Friedel and Garimella correlations. On the basis of the experimental investigations, the authors proposed their own correlation for calculation of local pressure drop during condensation in single minichannels.

The paper presents the results of experimental research of pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients of ice slurry during its flow through tubes of rectangular and slit cross-sections. Moreover, the work discusses the influence of solid particles, type of motion and cross-section on the changes in the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. The analysis presented in the paper allows for identification of the criterial relations used to calculate the Fanning factor and the Nusselt number for laminar and turbulent flow, taking into account elements such as phase change, which accompanies the heat transfer process. Ice slurry flow is treated as a generalized flow of a non-Newtonian fluid.

The article presents detailed two-phase adiabatic pressure drops data for refrigerant R134a. Study cases have been set for a mass flux varying from 200 to 400 kg/m2s, at the saturation temperature of 19.4°C. Obtained experimental data was compared with the available correlations from the literature for the frictional pressure drop during adiabatic flow. Influence of mixture preparation on pressure drop was investigated, for varying inlet subcooling temperature in the heated section. The flow patterns have also been obtained by means of a high-speed camera placed in the visualization section and compared with literature observations.

This study applied a modified OxiTop® system to determine the oxygen uptake rate during a 2-day respiration test of selected composting materials at different moisture contents, air-filled porosities and composition of composting mixtures. The modification of the OxiTop® respirometer included replacement and adjustment of a glass vessel (i.e. a 1.9-L glass vessel with wide mouth was used instead of a standard 1-L glass bottle, additionally the twist-off vessel lid was adjusted to attach the measuring head) and application of a closed steel mesh cylinder of 5 cm in diameter and 10 cm in height with the open surface area of the mesh of approximately 56.2%. This modification allowed obtaining different bulk densities (and thus air-porosities) of the investigated composting materials in laboratory composting studies. The test was performed for apple pomace and composting mixtures of apple pomace with wood chips at ratios of 1:0.5, 1:1, 1:1.5 (d.w), moisture contents of 60%, 65% and 75% and air-filled porosities ranging from 46% to 1%. Due to diverse biodegradability of the investigated apple pomace and composting mixtures this test allows for the determination of the effects of different air-porosities (due to compaction in a pile) on the oxygen uptake rate for mixtures with a fixed ratio of a bulking agent. The described method allows for laboratory determination of the effects of moisture content and compaction on biodegradation dynamics during composting.