Influence of lubricant oil on heat transfer performance of refrigerant flow boiling inside small diameter tubes. Part I: Experimental study

Two-phase flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant–oil mixture flow boiling inside small tubes with inside diameters of 6.34 mm and 2.50 mm are investigated experimentally. The test condition of nominal oil concentration is from 0% to 5%, mass flux from 200 to 400 kg m−2 s−1, heat flux from 3.2 to 14 kW m−2, evaporation temperature of 5 °C, inlet quality from 0.1 to 0.8, and quality change from 0.1 to 0.2. Wavy, wavy-annular, annular and mist-annular flow pattern in 6.34 mm tube are observed, while only slug-annular and annular flow pattern are observed in 2.50 mm tube. Oil presence can make annular flow to form early and to retard to diminish in quality direction at nominal oil concentration ⩾3%. Augmentation effect of oil on heat transfer coefficient becomes weakened or even diminishes for small diameter tube while detrimental effect of oil on small tube performance becomes more significant than large tube. For both test tubes, variation of heat transfer coefficient and enhanced factor with oil concentration is irregular. Two-phase heat transfer multiplier with refrigerant–oil mixture properties increases consistently and monotonically with local oil concentration at different vapor quality.