Simulation of Boiling Heat Transfer on Upward Flow of Mixture Refrigerant in Vertical Rectangular Minichannel

In order to investigate the characteristic of boiling heat transfer for mixture refrigerant in plate-fin heat exchanger, a model was established on boiling heat transfer in vertical rectangular minichannel. Based on the interfacial length scale derived by theory principle, the characteristic of boiling heat transfer was simulated for mixture refrigerant in vertical rectangular minichannel by Euler-Euler model in CFX. The simulation results were also compared with some correlations in literatures. The results show that the boiling heat transfer coefficient decreases with the increase of quality because of the influence of the material property for boiling heat transfer. At the same time, the boiling heat transfer coefficient increases as the mass flow rate and heat flux increase. This is because that the convection boiling and nucleate boiling is main heat transfer mechanism in a vertical rectangular minichannel. The Lazarek's correlation calculations agree well with the simulation results and the error between the simulation results and Lazarek's correlation is within ±15%. These results will provide some constructive instructions in the design of boiling heat transfer characteristics for plate-fin heat exchanger.