Heat transfer characteristics of R410A-oil mixture flow boiling inside a 7 mm straight smooth tube

Two-phase flow patterns and heat transfer characteristics of R410A-oil mixture flow boiling inside a straight smooth tube with the outside diameter of 7.0 mm were investigated experimentally. The experimental conditions include the evaporation temperature of 5 °C, the mass flux from 200 to 400 kg m−2 s−1, the heat flux from 7.56 to 15.12 kW m−2, the inlet vapor quality from 0.2 to 0.7, nominal oil concentration from 0% to 5%. The test results show that the heat transfer coefficient of R410A-oil mixture increases with mass flux of refrigerant-oil mixture; the presence of oil enhances the heat transfer at the range of low and intermediate vapor qualities; there is a peak of local heat transfer coefficient at about 2–4% nominal oil concentration at higher vapor qualities, and the peak shifts to lower nominal oil concentration with the increasing of vapor qualities; higher nominal oil concentration gives more detrimental effect at high vapor qualities. The flow pattern map of R410A-oil mixture was developed based on refrigerant-oil mixture properties, and the observed flow patterns match well with the flow pattern map. New correlation to predict the local heat transfer of R410A-oil mixture flow boiling inside the straight smooth tube was developed based on flow patterns and local properties of refrigerant-oil mixture, and it agrees with 90% of the experiment data within the deviation of ±25%.