Subcooled and saturated water flow boiling pressure drop in small diameter helical coils at low pressure

Experimental pressure drop results on boiling water flow through three helical coils of tube inner diameter of 4.03 mm and 4.98 mm and coil diameter to tube diameter ratio of 26.1, 64.1 and 93.3 are presented. Both subcooled and saturated flow boiling are investigated, covering operating pressures from 120 to 660 kPa, mass fluxes from 290 to 690 kg m−2 s−1 and heat fluxes from 50 to 440 kW m−2. Existing correlations for subcooled flow pressure drop are found not capable to fit the present subcooled database, while the measurements in saturated flow conditions are successfully reproduced by existing correlations for both straight and coiled pipe two-phase flow. The experimental database is included in tabular form.