International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Condensation heat transfer characteristics of R-134a flowing inside the

multiport minichannels
Kittipong Sakamatapan a, Jatuporn Kaew-On a,b, Ahmet Selim Dalkilic c, Omid Mahian d,
Somchai Wongwises a,e,⇑
a
Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Engineering and Multiphase Flow Research Lab. (FUTURE), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University
of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand
b
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Taksin University, Phattalung 93110, Thailand
c
Heat and Thermodynamics Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Yildiz, Besiktas, Istanbul 34349, Turkey
d
Young Researchers Club and Elites, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
e
The Academy of Science, The Royal Institute of Thailand, Sanam Suea Pa, Dusit, Bangkok 10300, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the condensation heat transfer characteristics of R-134a flowing inside multiport minichan-
Received 19 January 2013 nels were investigated. The multiport minichannel-tested tubes have 14 channels with a 1.1 mm hydrau-
Received in revised form 9 April 2013 lic diameter, and eight channels with a 1.2 mm hydraulic diameter were designed as a counterflow tube-
Accepted 10 April 2013
in-tube heat exchanger. The experiment was performed with mass fluxes of refrigerant between 340 and
Available online 8 June 2013
680 kg/m2s, with 15, 20, and 25 kW/m2 heat fluxes, and saturation temperatures of 35–45 °C. The flow
pattern for the experimental data was initially predicted using existing flow pattern maps. It could be
Keywords:
noted that the annular flow pattern existed for most of the experimental data. Results showed that the
Condensation
Heat transfer characteristics
average heat transfer coefficient increased with the increase of vapor quality, mass flux, and heat flux,
R-134a but decreased as saturation temperature rose. When compared with two correlations obtained from con-
Multiport minichannels densation inside the multiport minichannels, the heat transfer coefficient could be predicted within an
acceptable range.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In compact condensers for automotive air conditioning systems,
multiport minichannels with hydraulic diameters ranging from
0.2 mm to 3 mm have been widely used for many years. Multiport
minichannels provide some advantages over conventional tubes,
such as more compact size, lower refrigerant charge, lighter
weight, and reduced air-side pressure drop. However, sound
understanding about condensation heat transfer in multiport mini-
channels needs more attention.
The few available studies on condensation heat transfer in mini-
channels are summarized as follows: An experimental study of R-
12 in small hydraulic diameter, flat extruded aluminum tubes was
done by Yang and Webb [1]. Two internal geometries were tested;
one set of tubes had a plain inner surface, and the other had micro-
fin and a 0.2 mm. height. The heat transfer coefficient for water-
side flow in the annulus was determined by the modified Wilson
⇑ Corresponding author at: Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Engineering and Multi-
phase Flow Research Lab. (FUTURE), Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand. Tel.: +66 2 470 9115; fax: +66 2 470 9111.
E-mail address: somchai.won@kmutt.ac.th (S. Wongwises).
plot method. It was determined that the condensation heat trans-
fer coefficient rises when heat flux is increased to the 0.2 power.
This result showed agreement with the Aker [2] correlation, except
at high mass flux. In addition, the authors proposed that for vapor
quality greater than 0.5, surface tension force affects the condensa-
tion heat transfer coefficient at low mass flux.
The condensation of R12 and R134a in extruded microchannels
having a respective hydraulic diameter of 1.41 and 1.56 mm, with
0.2 and 0.3 mm depth of microfin, was also studied by Yang and
Webb [3]. In their study, the condensation heat transfer model
was developed through their contribution regarding vapor shear
and surface tension.
Yan and Lin [4] determined the condensation heat transfer coef-
ficient of R134a in a small pipe with an inner diameter of 2 mm ar-
ranged parallelly. Two copper plates were soldered to the upper
and lower ends of the pipe bundle, and coolant tubes were in turn
attached to the copper plate, which acted as a heat sink. The result
showed a corresponding increase in the condensation heat transfer
coefficient with increases to the mass flux in the high vapor quality
region, but only slight influence in the low vapor quality region.
The condensation heat transfer coefficient was lower when a high-
er heat flux was swapped for the given mass flux except in the low
vapor quality region, and it also decreased as the saturation tem-

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2013.04.020
 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985 977

Nomenclature

A surface area (m2) q density (kg m3)

Ac cross section area (m2) r surface tension (N m1)
Cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ kg1 K1) d wall thickness (m)
dh hydraulic diameter (m)
G mass flux (kg m2 s1) Subscripts
h heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1) avg average
i enthalpy (kJ kg1) c cross section
k thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) cir circular
LMTD Log mean temperature difference (°C) i inner
m _ mass flow rate (kg s1) in inlet
N number of channels l liquid
P pressure (kPa) m mean
Q heat transfer (kJ) v vapour
Q_ heat transfer rate (kW) o outter
Q 00 heat flux (kW m2) out outlet
Re Reynolds number, Re ¼ Gd l rec rectangular
T temperature (°C) ref refrigerant
U overall heat transfer coefficient (Wm2 K1) sat saturation
x vapor quality t tube
TS test section
Greek letters W water
DP pressure drop (kPa m1) Wall wall
b aspect ratio
l dynamic viscosity (Pa-s)
a void fraction

perature was increased. Their results also indicated that the con-
densation heat transfer coefficient for conventional tubes was
about 10% lower than that for small tubes. Finally, the correlations
for predicting stratified and annular flow were also developed from
this work.
Apart from that, Wang et al. [5] also investigated the condensa-
tion of R134a in a rectangular multiport with a hydraulic diameter
of 1.46 mm, 10 channels at 61.5–66 °C over a mass flux range of
75–750 kg/m2s. Flow visualization also was conducted. Results
showed that the stratified or wavy flow occurred, and the heat
transfer coefficient was independent of vapor quality at low mass
flux. At the same time, the flow pattern was annular, and vapor
quality and mass flux had strong effects on the heat transfer coef-
ficient at high mass flux. Their annular flow data was found to
agree most with the Aker [2] correlation, while their stratified data
agreed best with the correlation from Jaster and Kosky [6].
Koyama et al. [7] studied the condensation of pure refrigerant
R134a in two multiport extruded tubes having eight channels in
1.1 hydraulic diameter and 19 channels in 0.8 hydraulic diameter.
They used heat flux sensors to measure the local heat transfer coef-
ficient for greater accuracy, then used the temperature rising with-
in the coolant for the Wilson plot method. Their tests were
conducted over the range of 100 < G < 700 kg/m2s at 60 °C. The
researchers also proposed combining convective and film conden-
sation terms. While the individual annular and stratified terms
were obtained from Haraguchi’s [8] correlation, their two-phase
multiplier was estimated using the correlation from Mishima and
Hibiki [9].
Kim et al. [10] compared the results of R410A and R22 for mass
flux between 200 and 600 kg/m2s, as well as heat flux between 5
and 15 kW/m2, at 45 °C. Their work was conducted similarly to
that of Yang and Webb [1]. The heat transfer coefficient of R410A
is slightly higher than that of R22 for the smooth tube, but the re-
verse occurs in the case of microfin. They mentioned that the great-
er surface tension drainage and heat transfer were caused by the
2.7 times lower Webber number of R22 compared to R410A. The
use of Webb et al. [11] correlation for smooth tubes and the mod-
ified Yan and Webb [1] correlation for microfin were referenced in
this work.
The investigation of heat transfer coefficients and pressure
drops during condensation of R134a and R410A in a multiport
minichannel with a hydraulic diameter of 1.4 mm was done by
Cavallini et al.[12]. For heat transfer coefficients, they compared
their data with correlations from Aker [2], Moser et al. [13], Zhang
and Webb [14], Cavallini et al. [15], Wang et al. [5]., and Koyama
et al. [7]. Based on this, their data under-predicted correlations at
high mass flux. They attributed this to the flow patterns in their
experiment, since they involved mist flow at high mass flux,
whereas the compared results were for annular flow in conven-
tional tubes.
Additionally, comparison of the new refrigerant R1234ze (E) in
vertical multiport minichannels of 1.45 mm hydraulic diameter
with R1134a and 236fa was presented by Park et al. [16]. For
mass flux of 50–260 kg/m2s, heat flux of 1–62 kW/m2, and satura-
tion temperature of 25–70 °C, the condensation heat transfer
coefficient showed the expected increase as the vapor quality
and mass flux increased, and as saturation temperature de-
creased. The heat flux had no effect on the heat transfer coeffi-
cient, and the heat transfer coefficient of R1234ze (E) appeared
relatively similar to R236fa but was lower than R134a’s by about
15–25%. The agreement was poor when compared to available
horizontal correlations. Finally, a developed heat transfer correla-
tion, in terms of force convection and gravity, resulted from this
work.
Information on the condensation heat transfer in multiport
minichannels is still limited, and there remains room for further
research. Especially, most of the researchers have studied only very
specific parameters. Moreover, some results in the literature have
shown different effects. The present study’s main objective is to
investigate the effects of all of the involved parameters for con-
densing flow, including mass fluxes, heat fluxes, saturation tem-
perature, and vapor quality. The resulting data, which have never
before appeared in open literature, are presented here.
978 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985

00.00 kPa

DT 800
Differential
Thermocouple
T pressure transducer T
P T P T Header location H L Header
Data acquisition system

Sight glass T T Sight glass

Preheater Microchannel Test section Plate heat exchanger

T
1.2
RTD pt 100
1.2

V A V A
1.0
1.0

0.8
Flow 0.8 Flow meter
0.6

0.4
meter 0.6

0.4

0.2
0.2

T
RTD pt 100
1.2

1.0

0.8

DC Power supply Condensing Unit Flow meter

Water Pump Cooling/Heating water
0.6

0.4

tank 0.2

High-Low
pressure controller
High Low

Micro gear pump

Sight glass
Receiver tank
Filter/drier
Heater 4.5 kW
T
Subcooled water tank Condensing Unit
Water Pump

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the experimental apparatus.

2. Apparatus and method and calculated parameters calculated from the root mean sum
square method are shown in Table 3.
The schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is pre-
sented in Fig. 1. It should be noted that this apparatus was also 3. Data reduction
used for flow boiling heat transfer study in the multiport mini-
channel [17,18]. The main components of the system consisted of Data reduction for the measured results was done using the
a test section, refrigerant loop, cooling water loop, sub-cooling methods outlined below.
loop, and data acquisition system. The vapor quality of the refrigerant R134a at the inlet of test
For the refrigerant circulating loop, as shown in Fig. 1, a gear section is calculated as follows
pump sends liquid refrigerant, with its flow rate regulated by an
inverter, through a filter and dryer, refrigerant flow meter, pre- iTS;in  il@TS;in
xTS;in ¼ ð1Þ
heater, sight glass tube, test section, and plate heat exchanger. ilv @TS;in
From there, it is then re-circulated, collected in a receiver tank, where il@TS,in is the enthalpy of saturated liquid refrigerant based on
and returned to the refrigerant gear pump to complete the cycle. the temperature at the test section inlet, and ilv@TS,in is the enthalpy
The quality at the inlet of the test section is controlled by the of vaporization based on the temperature at the test section inlet,
pre-heater. A DC power supply is used to power the pre-heater, and iTS,in is the refrigerant enthalpy at the test section inlet which
which can be controlled by adjusting the supply voltage and cur- is given by
rent. The desired inlet quality is controlled to about 0.1–0.9 before
the refrigerant enters the test section. After leaving this area, the Q_ lat
iTS;in ¼ iph;in þ ð2Þ
vapor refrigerant then condenses in the plate heat exchanger by m_ ref
transferring its heat to the sub-cooling water loop. Instruments
are installed at various positions, as clearly shown in Fig. 1, to mon- where iph,in is the enthalpy of the liquid refrigerant at the preheater
_ ref is the mass flow rate of the refrigerant, Q_ lat is the latent
inlet, m
itor the refrigerant’s state. All of the signals from the thermocou-
ples and pressure transducer are collected by a data acquisition. heat transfer rate in the pre-heater
Fig. 2 presents a schematic of the test section for this study. The Q_ lat ¼ Q_ ph þ Q_ sen ð3Þ
test section is designed as a counter flow tube-in-tube heat ex-
changer. The refrigerant side is an aluminium rectangular multi- where Q_ ph is the electrical power from a heater to the refrigerant
port minichannels having 14 channels in 1.11 mm hydraulic flowing through the pre-heater, Q_ Sen is the sensible heat transfer
diameter and 8 channels in 1.2 mm hydraulic diameter. The cool- rate in the pre-heater which is defined as
ing water side is made from transparent acrylic, 12 mm thick,
Q_ ph ¼ ðVIÞ@ph ð4Þ
and designed as a rectangular channel. It is used to supply heat flux
to the tested tubes. The photographs and details of these test sec- and
tions are presented in Fig. 3 and Table 1, respectively. In addition,
the inlet and outlet saturation temperatures are measured by T- Q_ sen ¼ m
_ ref cref ðT ph;out  T ph;in Þ ð5Þ
type thermocouples installed at the inlet and outlet points of the
The vapor quality at the test section outlet is determined from
test section header. For measuring the pressure drop across the
section, a differential pressure transducer is installed at the other iTS;out  il@TS;out
xTS;out ¼ ð6Þ
side of header. The length between the pressure taps is 250 mm. ilv @TS;out
The accuracy of differential pressure drop is ±0.25% of full scale,
or ±0.125 kPa. Sixteen well-calibrated thermocouples are installed where iTS,out is the refrigerant enthalpy at the test section outlet,
at four points along the multiport minichannels, both top and bot- il@TS,out is the enthalpy of saturated liquid refrigerant based on the
tom, to measure the wall temperature. The thermocouples are also temperature of the test section outlet, and ilv@TS,out is the enthalpy
installed at inlet and outlet of the water channel to measure the in- of vaporization. As a consequence, the enthalpy of the refrigerant
let and outlet cooling water temperatures. Rubber foam with flow at the test section outlet can be determined from
0.04 W/m K of thermal conductivity provides thermal insulation Q_ TS
for this section. The refrigerant flow meter is a variable-area type. iTS;out ¼ iTS;in þ ð7Þ
m_ ref
The flow meter is specially calibrated in the range of 0.2–1.8 LPM
for R134a by the manufacturer. Details of the test conditions are where Q_ TS is obtained from the heat transferring from the refriger-
presented in Table 2. The uncertainties of measured quantities ant to the cooling water
 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985 979

Measurement of cooling
water temperature at outlet T-type thermocouple

25 25 50 50 50 25
250
Differential pressure tap
Measurement of cooling
Acrylic shell water temperature at inlet

Measurement of cooling Measurement of cooling

water temperature at inlet water temperature at inlet

Multiport minichannels
Thermocouple
CROSS SECTION A-A DIMENSION IN mm.

Refrigerant outlet

Cooling water outlet

Cooling water inlet

Multiport minichannels
Refrigerant inlet

Cooling water
outlet
T-type
thermocouple

Refrigerant
inlet
Differential
Header pressure tap

DETAILS VIEW

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the test section.

980 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985

Table 2
Experimental conditions.

Refrigerant R134a
Hydraulic diameter (mm) 1.1 and 1.2
Number of channels, N 14 and 8
Mass flux (kg/m2s) 340–680
Fig. 3. Photographs of cross section of the multiport minichannels: (a) dh = 1.1 mm, Heat flux (kW/m2) 15–25
n = 14, (b) dh = 1.2 mm, n = 8. Saturation temperature (°C) 35–45

The log mean temperature difference (LMTD) method is used to

calculate the overall heat transfer rate as follows: Table 3
Uncertainties of measured quantities and calculated parameters.
Q_ ¼ UA  LMTD ð8Þ
Parameter Uncertainty
Here, U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is the surface area
Temperature ±0.1
base on the outside surface of multiport minichannel, and LMTD is Mass flow rate of refrigerant ±0.5%
the log mean temperature difference. LMTD is defined this way: Heat transfer rate of test section ±14%
Average heat transfer coefficient ±19%
ðT ref ;in  T w;out Þ  ðT ref ;out  T w;in Þ Average quality ±8%
LMTD ¼   ð9Þ
T T
ln T ref ;in Tw;out
w;in
ref ;out

Tref and Tw are the refrigerant and water temperatures, respectively. Ai ¼ ½2nrec ða þ bÞ þ ncir ða þ pbÞL ð15Þ
Considering the test section as present in Fig. 2, and assuming
no heat loss from surroundings, the heat transfer rate from refrig- In this equation, a is height of the channel, b is the width of the
erant to cooling water as it passes the wall of the multiport mini- channel, nrec is the number of rectangular channel, ncir is the num-
channels can be calculated as follows: ber of the half-circular channel, and L is the length of the test
Q_ ¼ m
_ w Cpw ðT w;out  T w;in Þ ¼ m
_ ref ðiref ;in  iref ;out Þ ð10Þ section.

Here, Q_ is the heat transfer rate, m

_ w and m
_ ref are the mass flow rate
of the coolant water and refrigerant, respectively, and iref ;in and 4. Results and discussion
iref ;out represent the enthalpy at the respective inlet and outlet
points of the test section. Finally, the total resistance of the multi- 4.1. Flow pattern
port minichanels can be expressed this way:
It was expected that the refrigerant’s channel flow pattern will
1 1 dt 1
¼ þ þ ð11Þ influence the mechanism of heat transfer during the condensation
UA ho Ao kt Am hi Ai
process. Therefore, the flow patterns for the present experimental
The outside heat transfer coefficient, ho, can be calculated from the data were identified using the existing flow pattern map proposed
following equation: by Soliman [19]. The annular-wavy and the mist-annular transition
criterion based on experimental data from many different sources
Q_ were also proposed by Soliman [19]. The data include steam, R12,
ho ¼ ð12Þ
Ao ðT wall;av g  T w;av g Þ and R113 flowing inside tubes with hydraulic diameter of 4.8–
where Ao is the outer surface area of the multiport minichannels, 15.9 mm at the saturation temperature of 28–110 °C during con-
Tw,avg is the average water temperature measured at the inlet and densation process. This flow pattern map has often been used in
outlet of the water side, and Twall,avg refers to the average wall tem- the condensation study. The flow pattern plotted on the Soliman
peratures. Twall,avg can be calculated by the following equation: flow pattern map [19] is shown in Fig. 4. Most of the data points
lie between the wavy and the intermittent/annular transition and
1X N
annular/annular mist transition lines, while very few data points
T wall;av g ¼ T wall;i ð13Þ fall into the wavy flow region.
N i¼1
The mini-scale flow pattern map was developed by Coleman
Twall,i as expressed above is the local wall temperature at each sec- and Garimella [20,21] and Garimella [22]. They conducted the con-
tion of the multiport minichannels. densation flow visualization of R134a in nine tubes with different
From Eq. (4), the inside heat transfer coefficient can be calcu- cross-sections for hydraulic diameters between 1 and 4.91 mm un-
lated by: der the mass flux ranging between 150 and 750 kg/m2s. In their
study, four major flow regimes including annular, intermittent,
1 1 1 dt
¼   ð14Þ wavy, and dispersed flow patterns were found. The present results
hi Ai UA ho Ao kt Am
are plotted on this flow pattern map, as show in Fig. 5. Most of cur-
The inside heat transfer coefficient or the refrigerant side heat rent experimental data fall in the annular film and mist flow pat-
transfer coefficient is hi. Ai is the inside surface area and can be cal- tern regions, except the results obtained at low vapor quality,
culated by: which fall into the plug/slug and annular film flow regions.

Table 1
The details of multiport tested channels.

Test No. Hydraulic diameter (mm) Number of channel Channel width (mm) Channel height (mm) Aspect ratio Outer surface (mm2)
1 1.1 14 1 1.25 1.25 5797.5
2 1.2 8 1.8 0.9 0.5 6171
 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985 981

1200

We=30 Annular mist/Mist

1000

800

Mass flux (kg/m s)

We=20 Annular/Annular mist

2
600

400

200 Fr=7 Wavy and Intermittent/Annular

0
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor quality

Fig. 4. Flow pattern prediction by Soliman flow pattern map [19].

1200

DISPERSED
1000 BUBBLE FLOW
MIST FLOW

800 ANNULAR FILM

Mass flux (kg/m s)

AND MIST FLOW

2

600

400 PLUG/SLUG
AND ANNULAR
FILM FLOW ANNULAR FILM FLOW
200 PLUG/SLUG
FLOW

0
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor quality

Fig. 5. Flow pattern prediction by Coleman and Garimella [20,21] and Garimella [22].

From two existing flow pattern maps of this study, it can be
concluded that most of the presently available experimental data
are for annular flow, and this can be considered as a flow mecha-
nism for heat transfer during the condensation flow process.
4.2. Average heat transfer coefficient
The effects of mass flux, heat flux, saturation temperature, and
vapor quality on the average heat transfer coefficients of R134a
during condensation in multiport minichannels were examined
and discussed in this study. Results were obtained for three differ-
ent mass fluxes in the range of 340–680 kg/m2s, heat fluxes from
15 to 25 kW/m2, and saturation temperatures of 35, 40, and
45 °C over the vapor quality range.
Fig. 6 depicts the variation in the average heat transfer coeffi-
cient, with the vapor quality of R134a in multiport minichannels
at a saturation temperature of 40 °C and heat flux of 20 kW/m2
for different mass fluxes from 340 to 680 kg/m2s. We found that
the average heat transfer coefficient decreased as condensation
proceeded, meaning, it corresponded to a decrease in vapor qual-
ity. At high vapor quality, the velocity of the vapor and liquid
phases is high; shear stress at the interface between the vapor
and liquid film is higher than that at low vapor quality. More tur-
bulence is caused by increases in shear stress, which lead to a cor-
responding increase in the heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore,
Fig. 6 also demonstrates that the average heat transfer coefficients
increase according to the increases in mass flux. The dependence of
mass flux on heat transfer coefficient suggests that the contribu-
tion of forced convective heat transfer is dominant.
The effects of heat flux on average heat transfer coefficient at
heat fluxes of 15, 20, and 25 kW/m2 at mass flux of 340 kg/m2s
and saturation temperature of 40 °C are presented in Fig. 7.
Increasing the heat flux means the average heat transfer coefficient
also increase. The authors suggest that the increase in heat flux
also changes the momentum of the liquid and vapor phase, which
causes the observed increase in the heat transfer coefficient. These
trends are quite similar to that found by Yang and Webb [1].
By changing the system saturation temperature and keeping
mass flux and heat flux constant, the effect of saturation tempera-
ture on the average heat transfer coefficient can be investigated.
Fig. 8 shows the effect of saturation temperature at mass flux of
340 kg/m2s and heat flux of 25 kW/m2. The experiment indicates
that the average heat transfer coefficient at a saturation tempera-
ture of 35 °C is higher than that of 40 or 45 °C. This is related to
982 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985

3000
R134a
Multiport minichannel (dh=1.1mm., n=14)
T =40oC, q''=20kW/m2

Heat transfer coefficient (kW/m K)

sat

2
2500

2000

1500 G''(kg/m2s)
350
500
690
1000
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor quality

Fig. 6. The effect of mass flux on average heat transfer coefficient.

3000
R134a
Multiport minichannels (dh=1.1mm.,n=14)
T =40oC, G=350kg/m2s.
Heat transfer Coefficient (kW/m )
2

sat
2500

2000

1500 q'' (kW/m2)

15
20
25

1000
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor Quality

Fig. 7. The effect of heat flux on average heat transfer coefficient.

the properties of R134a, since the thermal conductivities of liquid
film for R134a at 35 °C are higher than those of R134a at 40 °C and
at 45 °C, respectively.
In addition, the measured average heat transfer coefficients of
two different numbers of channels, as tested with multiport mini-
channels in similar experimental conditions, are compared in this
study. The results of two are presented in Fig. 9, shows that the
heat transfer coefficients for the multiport mini-channels No. 1
are higher than those for the multiport mini-channels No. 2 about
5–15%. The higher velocity of refrigerant in the multiport mini-
channels No. 1, which has smaller hydraulic diameter, causes the
liquid film to become thinner which results in higher heat transfer
coefficient.
4.3. Comparison with existing correlations
The experimental data were compared against existing correla-
tions to predict the condensation heat transfer coefficient. Two
condensation heat transfer coefficient correlations obtained from
the data taken from multiport mini-microchannels as shown in Ta-
ble 4 were proposed by Webb et al. [11] and Koyama et al. [23].
The first comparison, depicted in Fig. 10, shows the experimen-
tal data was predicted by Webb et al. correlation[11]. This was
developed for a copper round tube and multiport minichannel with
a hydraulic diameter of 2.13 mm. We found that the agreement be-
tween the experimental results and our prediction was quite clear;
about 90% of the data points fell within a ±25% error margin.
Comparison of the heat transfer coefficient obtained from the
present experiment with those calculated by the Koyama et al.
[23] correlation which was modeled by the combination of convec-
tive and film condensation term of R134a in two multiport mini-
chanels, is shown in Fig. 11. It can be seen from this figure that
72% of the data fall within ±40% of the correlation.
5. Conclusion
This study mainly examined the heat transfer characteristics of
R134a as it flowed inside multiport minichannels. Tests covering
several conditions were conducted; mass fluxes ranged from 340
to 680 kg/m2s, heat fluxes, 15 to 25 kW/m2, and saturation temper-
ature, 35 to 45 °C. From these experiments, we can make the fol-
lowing conclusions.
 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985 983

3000
R134a
Multiport minichannel (dh=1.1mm., n=14)
G=350kg/m2s, q''=25kW/m2

Heat transfer coefficient (kW/m K)

2
2500

2000

1500 Tsat(oC)
35
40
45
1000
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor quality

Fig. 8. The effect of saturation temperature on average heat transfer coefficient.

3000
R134a
Multiport minichannel
Tsat=40oC, q''=25kW/m2, G=500kg/m2s
Heat transfer Coefficient (kW/m K)
2

2500

2000

1500 Multiport minichannels

1.1 mm, 14 channels
1.2 mm, 8 channels

1000
0.0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1.0
Vapor quality

Fig. 9. Comparison of heat transfer coefficient between multiport minichannels No. 1 and multiport minichannels No. 2.

Table 4
Correlations from literature.

No Author(s) Correlation Conditions

1 Webb h ¼ hf ð1:31Pr0:815 ðRþ ÞA ReBf where Rþ ¼ 0:994Reeq 7=8
; A ¼ 0:126Pr 0:448 ; B ¼ 0:113Pr0:563 Circular tube, dh = 3.25 mm. and Multiport
f f f
et al. [11]  0:5 minichannels, dh = 2.13 mm., R134a
d q  
3
0:25
Reeq ¼ 0:5 f h l2l dP
dz f
and f l;eq ¼ 0:079Re eq
f ;eq l

2 Koyama k
h ¼ df ðNu2F þ Nu2B Þ1=2 Where NuF ¼ 0:0112Pr1:37 ðX ttg ÞRe0:7 with Ref ¼ Gð1xÞd h / Local heat transfer coefficient, Two multiport
h f f lf
et al. [23] pffiffiffiffi  1=4 minichannel dh = 0.8 and 1.1 mm, R134a
Ga Pr pffiffiffi pffiffiffi
NuB ¼ 0:725ð1  e0:85 Bo ÞHðeÞ Phf f f With HðeÞ ¼ e þ ½10ð1  eÞ0:1  8:9 e 1  e
g q2 d3h cpf ðT r T w Þ
2
d gðqf qg Þ
Ga ¼ lf 2 ; Phf ¼ hfg
and Bo ¼ r
f

There were two flow pattern maps used for experimental data of these plotted results, the average heat transfer tends to increase
plotting. The first is a well-known flow pattern map for condensa- along with average vapor quality, mass flux, and heat flux. On the
tion research by Soliman [19]; the other is maps flow in minichan- other hand, the average heat transfer tends to decrease with in-
nels and was designed by Coleman and Garimella [20,21] and creases in saturation temperature. Apart from that, when the
Garimella [22]. Most of the plotted data points were located in hydraulic diameter is decreased from 1.2 mm to 1.1 mm under
the region of annular flow regime. When we consider the trend the same testing conditions, the average heat transfer coefficients
984 K. Sakamatapan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 64 (2013) 976–985

4000
Webb et al. [11] 25%

Predicted heat transfer coefficient (W/m k)

2
3000

-25%

2000

1000

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
2
Experimental heat transfer coefficient (W/m K)

Fig. 10. Comparison of experimental average heat transfer coefficient with Webb et al. [11] correlation.

5000
40%
Koyama et al. [23]
Predicted heat transfer coefficient (kW/m K)
2

4000

3000
-40%

2000

1000

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
2
Experimental heat transfer coefficient (kW/m K)

Fig. 11. Comparison of experimental average heat transfer coefficient with Koyama et al. [23] correlation.

increase by about 5–15%. Using existing correlations by Webb et al. [3] C.Y. Yang, R.L. Webb, A predicted model for condensation in small hydraulic
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