Investigation on existing correlations for prediction of HFC-134A in-tube boiling heat transfer coefficients based on experiment

The present work is concerned with the saturated flow boiling heat transfer coefficients of HFC-134a inside a horizontal, smooth tube. Local-average heat transfer coefficients were measured with pure HFC-134a using a water-heated, double-tube counterflow test section. The results were compared with ten existing correlations, among whom those of Kandlikar, Wattelet et al. and Bivens & Yokozeki were found to be superior to the others, with the correlation of Wattelet et al. having the minimum absolute mean deviation. In consideration of the wide range of applicability, the correlation of Kandilkar, though gave slightly poorer agreement against present data, is suggested for use of HFC-134a in thermal design of equipment.