Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Thermal characteristics of in-tube upward supercritical CO2 flows and a

new heat transfer prediction model based on artificial neural
networks (ANN)
Feng Sun a, b, Gongnan Xie b, c, *, Jian Song d, Shulei Li b, c, Christos N. Markides d, e, *
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
b
School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
c
Research & Development Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shenzhen Shenzhen 518057, Guangdong, China
d
Clean Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United
Kingdom
e
Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The potential employment of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) flows in heated tubes in many applications
Artificial neural network (ANN) requires accurate and reliable predictions of the thermal characteristics of these flows. However, the ability to
Empirical correlation predict such flows remains limited due to a lack of a complete fundamental understanding, with traditional
Heat transfer characteristics
prediction capabilities relying on either simple empirical correlations or highly complex and computationally
Prediction accuracy
demanding simulation methods both of which limit the design of next-generation systems. To overcome this
Supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2)
challenge, a prediction model based on artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed and trained by 5780 sets of
experimental wall temperature data from upward flows with a very satisfactory root mean square error (RMSE)
and mean relative error that are less than 1.9 ◦ C and 1.8%, respectively. The results confirm that the structured
model can provide satisfactory prediction capabilities overall, as well specific performance with mean relative
error under the normal, enhanced and deteriorated heat transfer (NHT, EHT and DHT) conditions of 1.8%, 1.6%
and 1.7%, respectively. The proposed model’s ability to predict the heat transfer coefficient in these flows is also
considered, and it is shown that the mean relative error is<2.8%. Thus, it is confirmed that it has a better
prediction accuracy than traditional empirical correlations. This work indicates that such ANN methods can
provide a real alternative for adoption in select thermal science and engineering applications, shedding a new
light and giving added insight into the thermal characteristics of heated supercritical fluids.

considered for use in diverse applications including solar power stations

[7], geothermal power generation [8], waste-heat recovery [9,10] and
1. Introduction
nuclear power plants [11], amongst other. The critical pressure and
temperature of CO2 are 7.38 MPa and 31.1 ◦ C, respectively. In fact, the
Nowadays, a desire for improved thermal performance in many
temperature and pressure frequently exceed the critical values in such
fundamental engineering systems has introduced potential applications
application environments. Over the past few decades, great effort has
of high-pressure working fluids in a variety of thermodynamic cycles
been devoted to the distinct flow and heat transfer characteristics of
[1]. The fluid characteristics vary significantly compared to those at
sCO2, mainly coupled with abruptly variable thermo-physical proper­
normal pressures, particularly when the pressure exceeds the critical
ties. As a result, the basic momentum and transport properties of su­
point. Supercritical carbon dioxide (abbreviated to sCO2) is regarded an
percritical fluids show significant no-linear variations particularly near
ideal heat transfer fluid and has been extensively investigated in various
the critical-temperature region at supercritical pressures. The unpre­
applications, including for power generation [2,3], but also heating
dictable supercritical heat transfer characteristics are typically complex
and/or cooling [4–6]. In the context of power generation, sCO2 is being

* Corresponding authors at: School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, P.O. Box 24, Xi’an 710072, China (G. Xie) Clean
Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK (C.N.
Markides).
E-mail addresses: xgn@nwpu.edu.cn (G. Xie), c.markides@imperial.ac.uk (C.N. Markides).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2021.117067
Received 13 January 2021; Received in revised form 10 April 2021; Accepted 3 May 2021
Available online 8 May 2021
1359-4311/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
F. Sun et al.
Nomenclature
b bias
d tube diameter, m
l characteristic length, m
g gravity acceleration, m/s2
G mass flux, kg/m2⋅s
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2⋅K
hb specific enthalpy, J/kg
i ith input
j jth hidden unit
k layer number
Nu Nusselt number
P pressure, Pa
Pr Prandtl number
q heat flux, W/m2
r input neuron of ANN
Re Reynolds number
T temperature, K/◦ C
w weight
Greek symbol
λ thermal conductivity, W/m⋅K
and considerably sensitive to the pressure, temperature, mass flux, heat
flux, flow direction and inner diameter of the tube [11–13].
Moreover, the critical transitions also redistribute the flow patterns
and thus increase both flow and thermal complexity [14,15]. Overall,
challenges remain to be tackled before supercritical technology is widely
used, such as basic thermo-physical properties of sCO2, the design and
operation of power cycle systems, and related heat transfer problems
[16,17], amongst which the heat transfer phenomenon needs to be
studied urgently as they have a significant influence on the further
power cycle and system design and operation. The current tough chal­
lenges on heat transfer aspects can be summarized as follows: (i) a risk of
the steep rise in wall temperature (Tw) still exists, especially in cases of
deteriorated prediction of heat transfer; (ii) supercritical in-tube ex­
periments are commonly carried out but they do not enhance the un­
derstanding and prediction of supercritical heat transfer characteristics;
(iii) the accuracy of empirical correlations is uncertain under various
conditions, and a general criterion that is applicable to all conditions has
not been obtained yet; (iv) the issue of fitting correlation basically
constitute a highly non-linear problem. Although extensive efforts have
been made to investigate the heat transfer mechanism, it is very chal­
lenging to predict the heat transfer characteristics under supercritical
conditions.
Theoretically, significant empirical correlations with Nusselt
numbers (Nu), coupled with non-dimensional of Reynolds number (Re)
and Prandtl number (Pr), are employed to preliminary determine Tw and
heat transfer coefficient (h). However, these conventional methods
could cause a large error at supercritical pressure particularly near
critical-pressure or critical-temperature region [17,18]. Subsequently,
many heat transfer correlations were developed and proposed to predict
the heat transfer characteristics [11]. The common characteristics of
these correlations are: (i) the important factors of thermo-physical
properties were carefully considered to improve prediction accuracy
of the correlations; (ii) the basic form of the proposed correlations is still
based on conventional Dittus-Boelter and Ginielinski correlations. Un­
fortunately, although a number of new correlations have been accu­
mulated towards predicting and avoiding the deteriorated conditions,
the prediction results will change with the various initial boundary
conditions (heat flux, inlet temperature, pressure, mass flux, etc.) and
the tube geometry. In addition, these heat transfer correlations seem to
2
Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067
v kinematic molecular viscosity of fluid, m2/s
ρ density, kg/m3
Subscripts
ave average
b bulk
DB Dittus-Boelter
exp experimental data
HU hidden unit
pc pseudo-critical
pred prediction value by ANN
f fluid
w wall
Abbreviations
ANN artificial neural network
EHT enhanced heat transfer
DHT deteriorated heat transfer
MRE mean relative error
NHT normal heat transfer
RMSE root mean square error
sCO2 supercritical carbon dioxide
provide reasonable predictions particularly in normal and enhanced
heat transfer region, however they are not able to identify a deteriorated
heat transfer condition.
In recent decades, the rapid development of computer-based algo­
rithms has been widely adopted to solve problems in thermal applica­
tions. Such computer codes mainly consist by simplistic algorithms of
human intelligence evolutionary models. At present, the use of artificial
neural networks (ANN) models in the thermal sciences and engineering
remain relatively lacking, especially at supercritical pressures. In order
to solve the aforementioned challenges of predicting deteriorated con­
ditions, it is better to adopt a flexible function approximator to depict
the correlation for the accurate prediction. ANNs are among the systems
that consolidate physical quantities beyond the empirical results into the
structured network. Since ANN does not require any data hypothesis in
terms of statistical distribution and characteristics, they are more effi­
cient than other statistical methods.
In recent years, studies have proven that ANN models are a more
adaptive and accurate method [19], and preferable for the accurate
prediction for heat transfer related problems [20]. So far, advanced ANN
models have rarely been considered by researchers. Based on the
extracted experimental data including both horizontal and upward flow,
Scalabrin and Piazza [21] efficiently predicted the forced heat transfer
characteristics of sCO2 by a well-trained and validated ANN model, and
found that a better network structure could achieve an average absolute
deviation of 2.7% against 4.3% with empirical correlations, although
flow structure and heat transfer characteristics rapidly changed at hor­
izontal and vertical tubes. Moreover, the detailed discussion about
training methods is lacking for improving prediction accuracy and effect
of flow direction on trained and validated results. Based on the research
of Scalabrin and Piazza, Chen et al. [22] proposed a well-established
radial basis function network (RBFN) model and its prediction accu­
racy was preferable to back propagation (BP) neural network for pre­
dicting heat transfer performance of sCO2 based on large-scale database.
A modified group method of data handling (GMDH) model was well-
tested by Pesteei and Mehrabi [23], which predicted the local heat
transfer characteristics of sCO2 at conditions of Re < 2500 in vertical
tubes. After estimating the predictive results processed by few extracted
experimental data, they concluded that the accuracy improvement of
ANN strongly depends on the database scale. Chang et al. [24] proposed
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

an ANN model to evaluate the prediction accuracy of supercritical water Table 1

and the results proved that all the considered ANN model had a high Existing correlations for the DHT onset [32].
reliability and prediction accuracy, with both the standard deviation References Correlations Working fluid
and mean error percentage below 0.5%, compared with many empirical
Yin et al. [33] q= 1/2.16G water
correlations. Ma et al. [25] collected 1645 datapoints from 14 groups of Yamagata et al. [34] q= 0.2G1.2 water
experimental cases to train and validate the BP neural network. The Styrikovich et al. [35] q= 0.58G water
predictive results indicated that the monitored mean error, standard Kim et al. [36] q= 0.0002G2 CO2
error and root mean square error were about 0.2%, 4.1% and 0.2%, Mokry et al. [37] q= -58.97 + 0.745G water

respectively, indicating that the established ANN model could better
predict the heat transfer characteristics of supercritical water.
Generally, existing ANN studies applicable to supercritical diabatic
flows have been mostly preliminary explorations with a narrow focus. It
remains interesting and important to perform systematic investigations
of the viability of ANN models, particularly in predicting supercritical
heat transfer characteristics. For this purpose, the prediction of super­
critical heat transfer characteristics is addressed by ANN model. We
firstly summarise the criteria of heat transfer classifications and evalu­
ates the sensitive input parameters and subsequently investigates the
prediction performance on Tw by a well-established ANN model. Finally,
we take the physical property terms as inputs and propose a new ANN
model for predicting h. Results are compared by two method of ANN and
traditional empirical correlations. The paper is expected to put forward
a new scheme for the accurate prediction under supercritical conditions
and open interdisciplinary using artificial intelligence to estimate su­
percritical heat transfer characteristics.
2. Supercritical heat transfer and the use of ANNs
A brief overview of flow and heat transfer characteristics at super­
critical pressures is presented by theoretical and experimental methods
in this section.
2.1. Identification of heat transfer characteristics
Although great effort has been made to understand the heat transfer
mechanism, it is still difficult to propose an accurate definition on spe­
cial thermal characteristics. In general, supercritical thermal charac­
teristics can be categorised into three types: (i) normal heat transfer,
abbreviated as “NHT”; (ii) enhanced heat transfer, abbreviated as
“EHT”; (iii) deteriorated heat transfer, abbreviated as “DHT”, which are
depicted in this section for the further well classified experimental
datapoints used for ANN-training.
In previous studies [26–28], the characteristic changes of Tw can be
identified along the flow direction, and DHT features an abruptly
increased Tw, EHT with a rapid decreased Tw, as well as NHT with
monotonous Tw variation. With respect to quantitative assessment, the
Dittus-Boelter correlation was usually adopted to predict the heat
transfer characteristics. Shiralkar et al. [29] proposed a formula of h/
hDB < 0.5 for prediction in DHT. This formula purports that there exists a
Note: q [kW/m2], G [kg/m2⋅s].
conditions. The first type of DHT is defined as “DHT-I”, usually occurring
under certain conditions with low G and high q [32]. The DHT-I con­
dition can be identified at the entrance part of the test tube section. The
second DHT condition, DHT-II, may be captured at any part of the test
section. It should be noted that the occurrence of DHT strongly depends
on the initial boundary conditions.
2.2. Effect factors on heat transfer
The emergence of extreme DHT is problematic and requires special
consideration. In the past decades, researchers tried to investigate the
onset of DHT and the related correlations are listed in Table 1. More
detailed information can be found in Ref. [32].
Fig. 1 shows that the changed DHT points with G display a discrete
distribution. Clearly, most the sCO2 DHT points are at the bottom and
the water DHT points at the top. The correlation q = 0.0002G2 proposed
by Kim et al. [36] predicts the sCO2 datapoints well, since it was
established based on different boundary conditions and physical ge­
ometries. However, the other four correlations significantly over­
estimate the DHT points of sCO2. In particular, the DHT points of
supercritical aviation kerosene are scattered in picture. In conclusion,
the onset criterion of DHT is quite different for different supercritical
fluids. The onset correlations contain two significant boundary param­
eters of mass flux and heat flux [12]. Generally, the complex coupling
effects by the initial boundary parameters, i.e., input pressure (P), mass
flux (G), heat flux (q), tube diameter (din) and fluid enthalpy (hb), are
responsible for influencing the supercritical heat transfer characteristics.
Consequently, these characteristic parameters are taken as basic inputs
in the ANN model.
1000
CO2
Water
Aviation kerosene
100
q [kW/m2]

DHT condition when the h value is less than 0.5hDB. Koshizuka et al. [30]
established h/hDB < 0.3 for quantitative criterion for DHT. Li et al. [31]
proposed a new criterion of h/hDB < 1 for extreme deteriorated envi­
ronment. Here, it can be briefly summarized that the quantitative 10
assessment by h/hDB formula is quite different for different operation q=0.2G1.2 Yamagata et al.
q=0.58G Styrikovich et al.
conditions. The formula is basically at the same form, however, the
q=0.745G-58.97 Mokry et al.
specific value varies with initial conditions which are further charac­
q=0.0002G2 Kim et al.
terized by different input pressure (P), temperature (T), mass flux (G), q=1/2.16G1.2 Yin et al.
heat flux (q) and tube diameter (din). Moreover, the quantitative formula
1
is limited and it is difficult to adopt a quantitative correlation that is 100 G [kg/m2·s] 1000
widely applicable in general conditions. Consequently, the qualitative
evaluation method reported in Ref. [27] are adopted in this study for Fig. 1. Comparison of DHT onset (listed in Table 1) with selected experimental
exerting division criteria for extracted experimental data. In contrast, data under different operating conditions [32].
NHT refers to the monotonic change in Tw and h. At the same conditions,
the EHT is characterized by a large value of h and decreased Tw values.
As for DHT, there is an obvious feature of quickly increased Tw or the
decreased h. It should be noted that there are two forms of DHT

3
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

Fig. 2. Flowchart of the optimal BP neural network by genetic algorithm. The weight (w) and bias (b) are optimized by evolutionary ideas of survival of the fittest,
genetic crossover (a) and random mutation (b).

3. ANN model formulation and development
3.1. GA with back-propagation
An ANN refers to a complex network structure formed by the inter­
connection of a large number of processing neurons, which imitates the
neuron activity with mathematical model. The significant parameters in
ANN operation program contains input variables, hidden layer, output
layer, network structure, computing function, momentum factors and
related learning algorithm settings, which allows to achieve excellent
ANN prediction performance. According to Ref. [12], GA-BP, a hybrid
model with genetic algorithm (GA) and back-propagation (BP), pro­
vided a global optimal convergence and a high prediction accuracy.
Fig. 2 shows the neural network structure that is adopted in this study. It
consists of input layer, hidden layer and output layer. This is followed by
a short introduction to the parameter setting of network structures.

Table 2
Experimental conditions and corresponding database of Tw for upward flow in tubes.
Reference Experimental conditions for five important parameters Ppc NHT EHT DHT-I DHT-II Total
points points points points number

Kim et al. [38] P = 7.75–8.85 MPa; G = 400–1200 kg/m2s; q = 30–150 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 196 140 113 289 738
272.9–534.9 kJ/kg; din = 4.4 mm
Huang et al. P = 8.12–8.9 MPa; G = 464–478 kg/m2s; q = 39.4–70.9 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 9 11 4 16 40
[39] 256.5–473.6 kJ/kg; din = 6.0 mm
Bae et al. [40] P = 7.75–8.12 MPa; G = 285–600 kg/m2s; q = 29.3–70 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 599 310 168 723 1800
231.4–488.8 kJ/kg; din = 6.3 mm
Bae et al. [41] P = 7.75 MPa; G = 400 kg/m2s; q = 30–50 kW/m2; hb = 232.3–506.8 kJ/kg; ≥Ppc – 118 91 420 629
din = 6.32 mm
Lei et al. [42] P = 7.50 MPa; G = 1000 kg/m2s; q = 5.1–200 kW/m2; hb = 183.5–469.4 kJ/ ≥Ppc 101 – – 291 392
kg; din = 5 mm
Kim et al. [43] P = 8.34 MPa; G = 663 kg/m2s; q = 52–216 kW/m2; hb = 232.3.-506.8 kJ/kg; ≥Ppc 61 5 6 10 82
din = 4.5 mm
Kim et al. [44] P = 8.10–8.56 MPa; G = 380–610 kg/m2s; q = 101–193 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 18 7 – 30 55
287.5–508.3 kJ/kg; din = 4.5 mm
Kim et al. [45] P = 7.53–9.23 MPa; G = 230–874 kg/m2s; q = 52.8–231 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 258 94 68 206 626
285.4–537.8 kJ/kg; din = 4.5 mm
Song et al. P = 8.12 MPa; G = 1200 kg/m2s; q = 30–50 kW/m2; hb = 213.1–510.3 kJ/kg; ≥Ppc 392 198 83 263 936
[46] din = 4.4–9 mm
Gupta et al. P = 8.38 MPa; G = 784 kg/m2s; q = 18.4 kW/m2; hb = 285.8–310.3 kJ/kg; din ≥Ppc 7 – – 11 18
[47] = 8.1 mm
Zahlan [48] P = 7.91–8.57 MPa; G = 200–1200 kg/m2s; q = 5.1–231 kW/m2;hb = ≥Ppc 302 48 56 58 464
214.3–458.5 kJ/kg; din = 8–22 mm
Total P = 7.50–9.23 MPa; G = 200–1200 kg/m2s; q = 5.1–231 kW/m2;hb = 1943 931 589 2317 5780
183.5–537.8 kJ/kg; din = 4.4–22 mm

4
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

In principle, the number of input parameters is equal to the number

of input variables that mostly affect the heat transfer characteristics.
Subsequently, the input data are distributed and assigned to each neuron
in one, or more than one, hidden layer(s). The special layer(s) for pro­
cessing data is/are defined as hidden layer(s) in the middle part of ANN
network architecture. The neurons in input layer(s) are adopted to
designate the parameter space based on the considered problems, while
the output neurons recognize the unknown parameters. At each node in
hidden layer(s), the input node includes a sum of node-information from
the last neural layer and it can be modified by the significant weights (w)
and bias (b), which are individual interconnectors and also indicate the
tendency of the combinatorial input to touch the response. Therefore,
the weights as functions play a significant role in signal recognition of
relative importance by all the nodes in the last layer. Information can be
transmitted from the first input layer to output layer, by proper treat­
Fig. 3. Extended upper and lower limits at both ends indicating threshold
ment of connector and operating nodes. In particular, errors can be
values of P, G, din, q in the dispersion database; median covering 25%–75% of
calculated by comparing ANN prediction values and experimental data,
the data; and outliers above the boxplot.
and then adjust the weights and biases to achieve a satisfied minimum
error using learning and training algorithm. Further details on param­
eter setting in ANN structures are provided in Refs. [23–25]. Here, model 2264
performance was assessed by two statistical measures, i.e., the root 1591
mean square error (RMSE) and the mean relative error (MRE), which are
defined as follows:
243 20
1500
1∑ n
( )2 Count:experimental data
yexp,k − ypred,k (1)
n k=1
P: 7.5-9.23 MPa 311
1200
⃒ ⃒ G: 200-1200 kg/m2·s
⃒yexp,k − ypred,k ⃒
(2)
G [kg/m2·s]

yexp,k 900

206
where yexp,k is experimental data and ypred,k is predictive value. RMSE
600
represents the differences between experimental and predicted data, Core region
130 2881
which is adopted extensively to monitor the performance of ANN model.
MRE belongs to the relative error, and it can better reflect the credibility 300
of the predictive results. 435
(a)
0 Count
3.2. ANN structure 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5
P [MPa]

Before the experimental data can be used to build an ANN model, the
analysis of characteristic parameters and the training and design of the 2066
ANN structure are particular important, which are described here in
detail.
384
145 52 285
3.2.1. Analysis of characteristic parameters 25
Count:experimental data
The experimental sCO2 database is obtained from Kim et al. [38], 277
Huang et al. [39], Bae et al. [40,41], Lei et al. [42], Kim [43–45], Song 20
q: 5.1-231 kW/m2
[46], Gupta [47] and Zahlan [48] and listed in Table 2. Based on the
din: 4.4-22 mm
division criteria discussed in Section 2.1, the number of extracted
din [mm]

datapoints at NHT, EHT, DHT-I and DHT-II environment, are 1943, 931, 15
589 and 2317, respectively. Hence, the ANN model is obtained through
a learning process where the total 5780 datapoints are adopted to train Core region
10
and validate a neural network. Five important parameters of experi­
mental conditions are input vectors, which covers a pressure range of 2741
7.50–9.23 MPa, a mass flux of 200–1200 kg/m2⋅s, a heat flux of 5.1–231 5 1932
kW/m2, an inner diameter of tube of 4.4–22 mm, and a bulk specific (b)
Count
enthalpy of 183.5–537.8 kJ/kg. 0 50 100 150 200 250
It is well-known that the input parameters play a key role in ANN q [kW/m2]
model prediction accuracy. The neural networks have strict re­
Fig. 4. Distribution of extracted parameters (P, G, q and din) displayed as his­
quirements for training model and the proper selection of input vari­
tograms and normal distributions: (a) scatted distribution for P and G; and (b)
ables is important to improve the training accuracy. Therefore, it is
scatted distribution for q and din.
necessary to count the main data and their interval distribution before
ANN training. Based on the database, statistical analysis is performed to
assess the probable distribution of input parameters P, G, q and din. Here,
boxplot, a graphical method, is used to illustrate the threshold values in
the dispersion database. It is remarkable that the box corves a range of
25%-75% of the data. The significant values of outlier, upper limit,

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F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

Fig. 5. Distribution of experimental results for hb and Tw displayed as a bar chart.

median and lower limit are monitored simultaneously, which are
depicted in Fig. 3 in detail. It can be seen that P is mainly within the
range of 7.60 MPa–8.42 MPa, which includes the median value of 8.11
MPa. For the current available experimental techniques, sCO2 under
median pressure has notable heat transfer characteristics and the se­
lection of pressure calibration is also reasonable. The median value of G,
din and q are near 528 kg/m2⋅s, 6.5 mm and 65 kW/m2, respectively.
In addition to the specific limit values, the detailed scatted data of
input variable also needs to be analysed, as shown in Fig. 4. The scat­
tered characteristics of P and G are displayed in Fig. 4(a), reflecting by
random scatter points and histogram with a normal distribution. The
histogram represents the specific count (frequency) of the extracted
variables and couples with the probability distribution. It can be seen
that the P distribution is dispersed around the mean value of 8.11 MPa.
Pressure data are mainly concentrated between 7.60 MPa and 8.12 MPa.
For G, there is a large range for mass flux adjustment during the
experiment process. Consequently, the coverage points of extracted G
data are relatively dispersed between 200 kg/m2⋅s and 1200 kg/m2⋅s.
The G data is mainly distributed under 400 kg/m2⋅s at low mass flux
condition. In particular, the core region of scatted data can be certainly
determined by the normal distribution. Fig. 4(b) shows the scatted dis­
tribution of q and din. The main part of q locates near low heat flux of 50
kW/m2 and din data are mainly collected from 6.3 experimental tubes.
As shown in Fig. 5, the experimental results of hb and Tw are also
distributed in each delimited axis region. It can be seen that hb and Tw
cover the whole range of 183.5–537.8 kJ/kg and 13.2–217.4 ◦ C,
respectively. The normal distribution is reasonable with a mean value at
the middle part. When sCO2 fluid is heated in tubes along the flow di­
rection, a large amount of Tw are effectively measured. Overall, the
narrow din data limit the sensitivity of ANN to various tube
configurations. Comparatively, a variety of input G and q data can
improve the fitting accuracy of ANN model. To some extent, the ANN
prediction errors exist as a result of the limited range of the obtained
experimental data. This means that the multi-condition experiments
with different input parameters needs to be conducted, and the database
also needs to be further supplemented and expanded.
3.2.2. Training and testing of ANN model
A well-established network structure is expected, generally, to
improve the prediction accuracy of ANN models. The entire database is
classified into a training database and a validation database with a ratio
of 4:1. Normalization method is employed for all the data, which means
that datapoints are processed to the same order of magnitude which
locates the range of [0.05, 0.95]. From an information processing
perspective, it is advisable to normalize the input and output parameters
using the maximum and minimum values of each data set. It has been
mentioned above that the further training and validation is the most
critical step for the ANN process, in which the measured deviation value
existing at output layer can be reduced continuously by automatically
adjusting the weight and biases in the whole network, so as to meet the
user requirement at last. For given layers and nodes in network struc­
ture, the first step for the ANN-training is to calculate and assign the
initial values to all the weights and biases. These significant parameters
in this network structure may be either positive values or negative
values and the absolute values are processed to be less than unity in
general practice. The next step is to achieve all the node input and
output calculation task in all existing layers. When a calculation cycle is
completed, it determines a maximum or average error and then the
important weights and biases are updated in succession. Despite the
simple computational procedure, great validation effort is still a key

Table 3
Network structures and testing RMSE value of Tw.

Hidden layer nodes RMSE [◦ C] Hidden layer 1 Hidden layer2

10 20 30 40 50 60, 70, …,120

10, 20, 30…,140 3.07–8.91 10 3.3 3.5 3.2 2.7 2.5 2.3–5.7
150 2.0 20 3.6 3.6 3.2 3.0 2.5
160 2.6 30 3.7 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.4
170 2.8 40 2.8 2.7 2.7 3.2 3.0
180 2.9 50 3.1 3.5 3.7 3.1 2.8 2.7–5.5
190, 200, 210, …,500 3.0–4.2 60, 70, …,120 2.4–4.9 2.6–6.8

6
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

Table 4 as configuring polynomial curve fitting scheme on specific datapoints,

Range of input and target parameters based on 150 random test datapoints. which will result in large errors within the interpolation between
Total test NHT EHT DHT-I, II continuous datapoints. Here, one interesting idea to deal with the node-
data number problem is systematically adding nodes as ANN-training pro­
Pressure [MPa] 7.62–9.23 7.75–9.23 7.62–8.85 7.75–9.23 ceeds. Moreover, a grid search is usually employed with an equal in­
Mass flux [kg/ 203–1200 203–1200 238–1200 285–868 terval. For example, it can start from 10, and increases to 20, 30, 40, etc.
m2⋅s] The maximum number of neurons is strictly limited by computer
Heat flux [kW/ 20–231 20–231 52–110 30–231 memory. In this work, the accuracy with one and two hidden layers are
m2 ]
Tube diameter 4.4–6.3 4.4–6.3 4.4–6.3 4.4–6.3
compared and analysed. The RMSE is the generally used monitoring
[mm] parameter, which is employed to characterize the performance indicator
Specific enthalpy 237.4–501.0 237.4–475.0 272.3–415.1 261.0–501.0 of prediction results. In order to avoid over-fitting behaviour, each ANN
[kJ/kg] network calculates five RMSE values, then removing the maximum and
Wall temperature 30.4–212.0 30.4–211.0 41.5–98.5 59.4–212.0
minimum values, and finally average RMSE is obtained from the
[◦ C]
RMSE [◦ C] 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.9 remaining three values.
MRE [%] 1.8 1.8 1.6 1.7 As shown in Table 3, the designed multi-grid groups are verified to
Point number 150 21 62 67 select the better ANN structure. Herein, multiple groups of neurons in
every ten neurons are properly selected. It can be seen that the factor of
neuron number has a great impact on the results deviation and RMSE
step, since a large number of nodes can slow down the training process.
achieves the minimum value of 2.0 ◦ C under a reasonable group with
In this study, the strategy was to seek as few as possible hidden layers
150 numbers of hidden neurons. It means that the deviation between
and nodes in each layer to ensure that the model still remains highly
predictive values and the selected experimental data is small. For the
efficient in information flow from input to output layers.
network with two hidden layers, all the RMSE values are far greater than
It should be noted that too many nodes may encounter the same fate

Table 5
Heat transfer correlations for supercritical upward CO2 flow in the available literature.
References Correlation Parameter
ranges: P
[Pa], G [kg/
m2⋅s], q or qw
[W/m2], Reb,
tb [K or ◦ C],
din [mm]

Dittus- Nub = 0.0023Re0.8

b Prb
0.4 Wide
Boelter application
[49] range
( )1.305 ( )− 0.75 ( )−
Pioro et al. − 0.14 ρw λw μw 0.22 P = 8.38–8.80
[50] Nuw = 0.0038Re0.96
w Prw MPa, G =
ρb λb μb
700–3200 kg/
m2⋅s, qw =
18.4–161.2
kW/m2, d = 8
mm
( )0.46 ( )− 0.43 ( )0.53
Preda et al. 0.76 ρw λw μw P = 7.58–9.58
[51] Nuw = 0.0015Re1.03
w Prw MPa, G =
ρb λb μb
419–1200 kg/
m2⋅s, qw =
20–130 kW/
m2, d = 0.9–9
mm
( )0.299
Kim et al. 0.515 ρw P = 7.75–8.85
[52] Nub = 0.0182Re0.824
b Prb MPa, G =
ρb
400–1200 kg/
m2⋅s, qw =
0–150 kW/m2,
d = 4.4 mm
⎧
Jackson ⎪ Tb Tw Tb Tw Applicable
⎪
⎪ 0.4 < ≤ 1 or 1.2 ≤ <
et al. ⎪
⎪
⎪ Tpc Tpc Tpc Tpc ranges not
⎪
⎪
[53] ⎪
⎪
⎪ clearly given
( )0.3 ( )n ⎪ ( )
ρw cp
⎨ Tw Tb Tw
Nub = 0.0183Re0.82 Pr0.5 n = 0.4 + 0.2 − 1 ≤1≤ Note: Tpc, Tw are in K
b b
ρb cp,b ⎪
⎪ Tb Tpc Tpc
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ( )[ ( )]
⎪
⎪ T T Tb Tb Tw
⎪ 0.4 + 0.2 w − 1 1 − 5 b − 1
⎪ 1< < 1.2 and <
⎩
Tb Tpc Tpc Tpc Tpc
Bringer- Nux = 0.0375Re0.77
x Pr0.55
w
P = 8.27 MPa,
Smith ⎧ ( ) Reb = 3 × 104-
[54] ⎪ T pc − T b 3 × 105, tb =
⎪ Tb if T − T < 0
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
w b 21–48.9 ◦ C, d
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ ( ) = 4.6 mm
Tpc − Tb
Tx = Tpc if0 ≤ ≤1
⎪
⎪ Tw − Tb
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ( )
⎪
⎪ T − Tb
⎪ Tw if pc
⎪
⎩ >1
Tw − T b

7
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

Experimental data ANN prediciton Dittus-Boelter Pioro

Preda Kim Jackson Bringer-Smith
1400 8.42 MPa, 230 kg/m2•s, 82.6 kW/m2, 4.5 mm 8.12 MPa, 400 kg/m2•s, 50 kW/m2, 9 mm

ANN
ANN
Exp data
550 Exp data
1200

500
1000 Sample Sample

Tw [K]
450
Tw [K]

Tw
800

400
hb,pc=343
600 hb,pc=341
350

400
Test-1 Test-2
300
300 250 hbb300
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg] 350 400
hb 400
[kJ/kg] 500

8.19 MPa, 488 kg/m2•s, 103 kW/m2, 4.5 mm 540 8.12 MPa, 400 kg/m2•s, 50 kW/m2, 4.4 mm

ANN
ANN Exp data
600 Exp data

480
Tw [K]

Sample
Sample
[K]
TwTw[K]

500

420
hb,pc=341

400 hb,pc=341
360

Test-3 Test-4
300 hb [kJ/kg] 350 400 240 280 hhb b[kJ/kg]
320
[kJ/kg] 360 400

450 8.19 MPa, 488 kg/m2•s, 103 kW/m2, 4.5 mm 900 8.12 MPa, 400 kg/m2•s, 50 kW/m2, 4.4 mm

ANN
800 Exp data

400
700
ANN
Exp data
Sample
Tw [K]

w [K]
TwT[K]

600

350 hb,pc=341
Sample hb,pc=341 500

400

300
Test-5 Test-6
300
200 hb 300
[kJ/kg] 400 240 300
hhbb [kJ/kg] 360

Fig. 6. Prediction performance of Tw for the case of Test 1–6 data characterized by DHT, EHT and NHT conditions.

8
F. Sun et al.
Table 6
Test results of MRE [%] by ANN model and selected six heat transfer correlations.
Dittus-Boelter Pioro Preda
Test 1 109.5 33.4 24.8
Test 2 36.1 9.0 6.6
Test 3 33.0 19.0 13.5
Test 4 26.6 8.8 7.2
Test 5 27.1 4.6 1.6
Test 6 134.0 32.1 42.3
Average 61.1 17.8 16.0
2.0 ◦ C and no established ANN structures perform a preferable predic­
tion under two hidden layers. Consequently, the ANN structure of
5–150-1 is adopted for the next ANN calculation.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. ANN-based prediction of Tw
In this section, we specifically focus on the ANN-predictive ability
under NHT, EHT, DHT-I and DHT-II conditions. To better validate the
prediction accuracy of ANN model, the new150 test datapoints of Tw
under different operating conditions are completely independent of
entire dataset. As shown in Table 4, it consists of 21 NHT data, 62 EHT
data and 67 DHT data with the detailed parameter ranges. Here, the
RMSE and MRE are adopted to assess prediction accuracy. The test re­
sults based on the ANN model and empirical heat transfer correlations
are discussed.
4.1.1. Prediction under NHT, EHT and DHT conditions
The test results are summarised in Table 4. In terms of local error
results, the RMSE and MRE under NHT condition are 1.7 ◦ C and 1.8%,
respectively. ANN shows an improved prediction accuracy at EHT
environment, and RMSE and MRE value are reduced to 1.4 ◦ C and 1.6%,
respectively. It means that the ANN model provides better prediction
under EHT condition. At extreme DHT environment with significant
variation in thermo-physical properties, the RMSE is up to 1.9 ◦ C and
MRE is 1.7%. To some extent, the deteriorated condition increases the
uncertainty of ANN prediction. As can be seen, the proposed ANN model
has the best test performance with the total RMSE of 1.7 ◦ C and total
MRE of 1.8%. These small errors indicate that the prediction model has a
strong learning ability even if the thermo-physical properties vary
significantly. Furthermore, the test results suggest that the ANN is fully
applicable to heat transfer prediction at supercritical conditions.
4.1.2. Comparison with empirical correlations
In order to design a heat transfer system with high efficiency, the
thermal conditions need to be evaluated for the in-tube sCO2 fluid.
Presently, many empirical correlations were employed to predict the
supercritical heat transfer characteristics [11,30]. In fact, the traditional
dimensional parameters are adopted to construct the heat transfer cor­
relations which is also obtained strongly dependent on physical property
variations. Hence, the physical phenomena increase the complexity of
solving the dimensionless equations used in the heat transfer correla­
tions. The ANN method provides an alternative way for the problem
solving of heat transfer prediction. It is a technique that is usually
adopted for the response prediction of a physical system that cannot be
established mathematically. In this section, the prediction performance
is compared by two methods of ANN and empirical correlations. There
are still some significant issues to be solved in the supercritical heat
transfer correlations, e.g., (i) the applicability of some developed cor­
relations strongly depends on their own operating range, but can be
predictable for other beyond conditions; (ii) there is no general proposed
correlations suitable for different supercritical fluids, particular not only
for NHT and EHT environment, but also for DHT condition.
Only several classical correlations developed for vertical tube for
9
Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067
Kim Jackson Bringer-Smith ANN
6.7 14.3 7.1 1.3
6.3 8.9 1.8 1.7
5.5 14.0 4.0 1.0
3.3 6.7 3.3 1.2
1.1 1.4 1.7 1.0
67.7 48.7 6.8 2.8
15.1 15.7 4.1 2.0
sCO2 are available. Here, six representative empirical correlations are
adopted to estimate the Tw based on the collected experimental data.
Table 5 lists the frequently-used empirical correlations including the
detailed parameter range. In supercritical flow, distinct variable thermo-
physical properties have a great impact on heat transfer performance,
which are considered and added to empirical correlations. Most of them
are improved by adding new factor of important thermo-physical pa­
rameters in terms of wall temperature and bulk fluid temperature on a
qualitative basis. They can be summarized as Nu = CRen1 n2
b Prb,ave H, where
C and H represent the constant term and thermo-physical term,
respectively. These operation conditions are different in form and
parameter operating range, thus lead to different correlation recom­
mended by different researchers. Moreover, it is also necessary to assess
the applicability of correlation coupled with experimental test data and
ANN-prediction values. In order to further verify the reliability of ANN
method compared with selected empirical correlations, the two valida­
tion steps are performed in the following study. The first step is to exert
the analysis process on prediction accuracy between ANN values and
correlation calculation, which is only based on the established database.
In the second step, the other new experimental data beyond the database
are collected, and the prediction ability of ANN model is further verified
Based on the database, six typical validation groups are defined as
Test-1, Test-2, Test-3, Test-4, Test-5 and Test-6, which are picked out
including NHT, EHT, DHT-I and DHT-II characteristic data. Their
parameter ranges are all within database and the significant parameter
of Tw is selected to determine the assessment results. The predictive
results against the selected heat transfer correlations are shown in Fig. 6
under different initial boundary conditions. The Dittus-Boelter formula
calculated by the qualitative fluid temperature and the physical
parameter is expressed by the subscript of “b”. For the Pioro, Preda, Kim,
Jackson and Bringer-Smith correlations, it is necessary to consider the
effect of both the qualitative fluid temperature and wall temperature on
the calculation of thermo-physical properties. In general, rapid change
of heat transfer characteristics occurs near the critical region. Table 6
provides the detailed MRE deviation values for quantitative comparison.
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the conventional Dittus-Boelter correla­
tion cannot predict the Tw accurately with MRE values much higher than
other correlations at the same conditions. Recently, great efforts have
been made to develop new supercritical heat transfer correlations. The
key strategy is to use a simple structure of the correlation formulas, and
to establish the connection with significant physical phenomenon. This
means that, firstly, several parameters affecting heat transfer are iden­
tified according to the phenomenological assessment of heat transfer
characteristics. Then, a new structure of heat correlation is derived on
the evaluation of a well-established experimental database. Finally, a
dimensionless factor of physical properties can be proposed for the
further correction of possible heat transfer deviations. Here, the Pioro,
Preda, Kim, Jackson and Bringer-Smith correlations are typically
representative of the developed correlation structures. Fig. 6 shows six
test examples with detailed comparisons.
The common features are summarized as follows: (i) the basic trend
of experimental data including DHT-I, DHT-II, EHT and NHT conditions,
can be fully capture by the Pioro, Preda and Jackson correlations, even if
the MRE value of the Kim correlation is small and local trend is similar to
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

For ANN model, the MRE values in Tests 1–6 are 1.3%, 1.7%, 1.0%,
1.2%, 1.0% and 2.8%, respectively. The ANN method was proved to be
more attractive with a remarkable global and local prediction capability.

4.2. ANN-based prediction of h

In this section, a prediction performance on h was performed by a

Fig. 7. Proposed prediction model for predicting heat transfer coefficient (h)
based on GA-BP neural network.
experimental case in some regions, but they overestimate the experi­
mental data in the region of less than the fixed hb,pc values; (ii) in each
case, the prediction accuracy of the Bringer-Smith formula is superior to
other correlations; (iii) the ANN prediction is preferable to the con­
ventional and developed correlations in normal, enhanced and deteri­
orated environments.
As shown in Table 6, the MRE values by Bringer-Smith correlation in
Tests 1–6 are 7.1%, 1.8%, 4.0%, 3.3%, 1.7% and 6.8%, respectively, and
the accuracy is relatively satisfactory compared with other correlations.
Moreover, it manifests that the prediction by correlation method can be
effectively improved by using one of partition method of qualitative
temperature, to determine the selection of Tb, Tpc and Tw partitioned by
the formula values of “Tpc-Tb/Tw-Tb”. With respect to further correlation
studies, the partition method can be adopted with a satisfied accuracy.
new proposing ANN model. Technically, the underlying physical
mechanism of heat transfer characteristics can be preliminarily under­
stood by these empirical correlations in Table 5. Such physical property
variations need to be considered in order to propose a more feasible and
adaptive new prediction model. Hence, the input characteristic param­
eter in new model is given in form of variables of empirical correlations
in Table 5. In addition, approximately 2395 experimental data of h were
collected from literature [38–42,48].
Here, the Reb, Prb, Rew, Prw, ρw/ρb, λw/λb, μw/μb, cp,w/cp,b and cp /cp, b
are regarded as significant parameters useful to establish a ANN model.
Fig. 7 shows the neural connection with fixed thermo-physical property
terms.
The initial physical properties can be certainly determined as the
important two whole-field information of the qualitative Tf and Tw ob­
tained from the database. Therefore, the neural network circulates the
weight information of physical property terms from input neural to
output neural. The major evaluation factor of h (or h = Nuλ/l) is defined
as the output parameter. In particular, the hidden-layer function is
appropriately named as “black box” which cannot be simply treaded as
the expected linear correlations. It is difficult to obtain the specific
correlation form by fitting the input data between each layer. But for
existing correlations, the specific correlations and the relationship be­
tween variable parameters can be determined. Therefore, the prediction
accuracy requires the comparison and analysis in depth for the further
exploration of new methods on developing the supercritical correla­
tions. Based on 2395 experimental data, Table 7 exhibits the significant

Table 7
Significance test of variable factors directly affecting convective heat transfer coefficient h.
Initial parameter terms Dimensionless terms Thermophysical terms

P G q din Reb Prb Rew Prw pw/pb λ w/ μw/μb cp, w/cp, b cp /cp,b
λb

Pearson 0.001 0.591* − 0.357* − 0.027 0.073* 0.509* 0.207* 0.739* − 0.295* 0.031 − 0.110* 0.141* − 0.129*
value
P value 0.95 3.4 × 10- 2.5 × 10- 0.239 8.8 × 10- 5.3 × 10- 1.4 × 10- 0 1.0 × 10- 0.163 4.9 × 10- 1.1 × 10- 3.6 × 10-
195 63 4 137 21 42 7 10 9

Mean 8.00 410 44.4 6.03 84,700 5.69 12,000 1.45 2.26 2.00 1.64 5.58 0.627
SD 0.267 47.7 12.3 0.689 33,900 4.58 21,200 0.625 1.069 0.703 0.688 5.71 0.458

Note: * P < 0.001, Mean: mean values, SD: standard deviation values.

Fig. 8. Pearson distribution of selected significant parameters on heat transfer coefficient.

10
F. Sun et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067

NHUk
∑
HUkj (X) = ReLU( wkji HUk− 1,i + bkj ) (5)
i=1

NHUL
∑- 1
ANN(X) = ( wo,i HUL− 1,i + b0 ) (6)
i=1

where Nin is the total number of inputs. i is the ith input and j represents
the jth hidden units that is defined as HU. The input data are introduced
and processed by weight (w) and bias (b) in the first hidden layer. Then,
the output in first layer are passed to next hidden layer in which they are
also corrected and adjusted by w and b. In Eq. (5), k is the layer number
and NHUk is defined as the total number of HU in the kth layer. Finally,
the output in the last hidden layer is passed to outer most layer (output
layer) to give outputs. It should be noted that the selected structure with
9–50-50–1 is presented based on the trial-and-error training and the
training process and method are presented in Section 3.2.2.
Subsequently, Test-7 and Test-8 data were sort out to compare the
prediction accuracy between adopted correlations and ANN model at
various conditions. As shown in Fig. 9, the values by ANN prediction
agree well with the selected experimental data, while the calculated
correlation values are quite different. It also can be seen that the RMSE
and MRE are 0.2 kW/m2⋅K and 1.8% in Test-7, and 0.2 kW/m2⋅K and
2.8% in Test-8, respectively. It indicates that the developed model by
using ANN has a higher prediction accuracy compared with using
empirical correlation. Moreover, the new method of ANN technology
can be used to predict the heat transfer characteristics for any heat tubes
as well as Brayton cycle systems.
Finally, Nu is predicted again by ANN model based on new 127 sets
experimental data at different conditions. As demonstrated in Fig. 10,
the Dittus-Boelter, Pioro, Preda, Kim, Jackson and Bringer-Smith cor­
relations exhibit large deviations in predicting the actual magnitude of
the Nuexp. The RMSE and MRE values are at least 48.3 and 35.9%, which
dissatisfy the accuracy requirements of thermal engineering. Fortu­
nately, the prediction accuracy is preferable to the conventional corre­
lation with calculation deficiency. Its accuracy was proved to be
satisfactory with a deviation error of 4.8 and 2.8% of RMSE and MRE,
respectively.
The memory and prediction ability of ANN depend on training
Fig. 9. Comparisons of correlations and ANN method based on Test-7 and Test- database. Thus, the prediction effectiveness of the proposed ANN model
8 data. depends mainly on recent entire database. To some extent, the heat
transfer information besides the collected database is unpredictable.
effect of important physical parameter on h. The results show that G, q, Moreover, more high-quality experimental data is needed to further
Reb, Prb, Rew, Prw, ρw/ρb, μw/μb, cp,w/cp,b and cp /cp, b have a significant improve the prediction accuracy. This study provides a new insight and
effect on h, that q, din, ρw/ρb and μw/μb show negative relevant relations promising tool to predict supercritical heat transfer information in
to the h change, and that the remaining parameters of P, G, Reb, Prb, Rew, thermal engineering.
Prw, λw/λb, cp,w/cp,b are positively correlated. As shown in Fig. 8, among
all correlation coefficients, the maximum reaches 0.739 for Prw, fol­ 5. Conclusions
lowed by G, Prb, q and ρw/ρb with 0.591, 0.509, 0.357 and 0.295,
respectively. During the input parameter assessment, the rearranged Supercritical fluids enable high efficiency and compact design in
parameters are presented in accordance with the significance order for thermal power cycles and similar engineering systems and applications.
establishing a h or Nu correlation. Although the interest toward supercritical fluids has been growing,
The new ANN model can be expressed as hANN = ANN(x) where × is many approaches used for predicting their thermal characteristics still
the input vector given by: remain lacking. In this paper, a prediction model based on ANN was
proposed and developed to predict the heat transfer characteristics
{ }
ρ cp *** cp,w *** μw *** *** λw under NHT, EHT and DHT conditions. An extensive data pre-processing,
x = Prw*** , Prb*** , w , Re*** , , , , Re , (3)
ρb w
cp,b cp,b μb b
λb data normalization, parameter evaluation and Pearson correlation
analysis, were carried out to improve the general prediction accuracy.
They are ranked in order of significance values. The Rectified Linear The prediction performance was first considered in predicting wall
Unit (ReLU) activation function is used within the network, and a fully temperature (Tw). A potential model with high accuracy depends on the
non-linear relationship is established between input layer and output high-quality experimental data. Here, 5780 sets of experimental data
layer, which is given by: were collected and the pressure (P), mass flux (G), heat flux (q), inner
tube (din) and fluid enthalpy (hb) were taken as characteristic parame­
∑
Nin
HU1j (X) = ReLU( w1ji xi + b1j ) (4) ters. The RMSE and MRE attained by the ANN model were shown to be
i=1 within 1.9 ◦ C and 1.8%, respectively.

11
F. Sun et al.
Fig. 10. Prediction analysis of Nu: (a) based on classical correlation of Dittus-Boelter, Pioro and Preda; (b) based on correlation of Kim, Bringer-Smith and Jackson;
(c) based on ANN model.
A comparative analysis between ANN and traditional empirical
correlations was also conducted. In all cases, the ANN model showed a
better prediction accuracy with a satisfactory MRE of<2.8%. The well-
known Dittus-Boelter, Pioro, Preda, Kim, Jackson and Bringer-Smith
correlations were associated with larger deviations in predicting Tw
and heat transfer coefficient (h). To some extent, ANN model features
higher predictive accuracy and is more accurate than the above empir­
ical heat transfer correlations.
Finally, physical property terms were considered as effective inputs
to develop a predictive model of h. The results indicated that artificial
neural network model is capable of capturing the underlying heat
transfer mechanism compared to traditional heat transfer correlations.
This study provides a promising method for modelling thermal processes
for which there is no clear mathematical expression between effective
parameters to show their physical manner.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
12
Applied Thermal Engineering 194 (2021) 117067
Acknowledgments
This work was sponsored by the National Natural Science Founda­
tion of China (51676163), the National 111 Project under Grant No.
B18041, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(3102020HHZY030005), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research
Foundation (2019A1515111146) and the Fundamental Research Funds
of Shenzhen City (JCYJ20170306155153048). The work was also sup­
ported by Russian Government “Megagrant” project 075-15-2019-1888.
Data supporting this publication can be obtained upon request.
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