Local Heat-Transfer Measurements during Forced-Convection Boiling in a Helically Coiled Tube

Abstract

Forced-convection boiling heat transfer to water at atmospheric pressure was studied in two helically coiled tubes. Temperature measurements were made at four positions round the tube at each of nine stations along the tube, permitting calculation of the local heat-transfer coefficient at each point. The local coefficients are correlated by the Lockhart-Martinelli parameters for two-phase flow, using the Seban-McLaughlin correlation for liquid phase heat transfer in coiled tubes. The curves for each of the four peripheral positions, compared to that previously obtained for the peripheral mean coefficient, are consistent with a flow structure having a vapour core with a strong secondary flow serving to distribute the liquid over the entire surface of the tube. The correlation and its interpretation in terms of flow structure may fail at high pressures as a result of the much smaller change in the radial acceleration in systems with small density difference between liquid and vapour.