An experimental study on convective boiling of R-22 and R-410A in horizontal smooth and micro-fin tubes

Evaporation heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were measured for smooth and micro-fin tubes with R-22 and R-410A. Heat transfer measurements were performed for 3.0 m long horizontal tubes with nominal outside diameters of 9.52 and 7.0 mm over an evaporating temperature range of -15 to 5°C , a mass flux range of 68 to 211 kg/m²s, and a heat flux range of 5 to 15 kW/m². It was observed that the heat transfer coefficient increased with mass flux. Evaporation heat transfer coefficients of R-22 and R-410A increased as the evaporating temperature dropped at a lower heat flux. Generally, R-410A showed the higher heat transfer coefficients than R-22 in the range of low mass flux, high heat flux and high evaporating temperature. Pressure drop increased with a decrease of evaporating temperature and a rise of mass flux. Pressure drop of R-22 was higher than that of R-410A at the same mass flux.