An experimental study and development of new correlation for condensation heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant inside a multiport minichannel with and without fins

This paper is dedicated to the experimental study and development of new correlation for condensation heat transfer in horizontal rectangular multiport minichannel with and without fins using R134a. A new experimental apparatus has been fabricated in order to obtain explicit local condensation heat transfer coefficient measurements over a range of test conditions. The test section is an 852 mm long horizontal rectangular multiport minichannel with and without fins having 20 channels with a hydraulic diameter of 0.64 mm and 0.81 mm. The measurements were done over a range of saturation temperature from 30 to 35 °C with mass fluxes ranging from 50 to 200 kg/m2 s. The effects of vapor quality, mass fluxes, channel geometry, and saturation temperature on the heat transfer coefficient have been clarified and analyzed. The experimental results were compared with the well-known condensation heat transfer models available in the open literature. All of the existing correlations were failed to capture the present experimental heat transfer coefficient with a high degree of accuracy. As a consequence, a new condensation heat transfer correlation was developed based on the present experimental data and validated with 750 data points collected from the available journal.