Condensation pressure drop of HFC-134a and R-404A in a smooth and micro-fin U-tube

The frictional pressure drop during condensation of HFC-134a and R-404A in a smooth (8.56 mm ID) and micro-fin U-tubes (8.96 mm ID) are experimentally investigated. Different from previous studies, the present experiments are performed for various condensing temperatures. The test runs are done at average saturated condensing temperatures ranging from 35 °C to 60 °C. The mass fluxes are between 90 and 800 kg/m2s. The experimental results indicate that the average frictional pressure drop increases with mass flux but decreases with increasing condensing temperature for both smooth and micro-fin-tubes. The average frictional pressure drops of HFC-134a and R-404A for the micro-fin-tubes were 1-1.7 and 1-2.1 times larger than that in smooth tube respectively. New correlations based on the data gathered during the experimentation for predicting frictional pressure drop are proposed for wide range of operating conditions.