International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 918–923

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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

Effects of elevation angle on pool boiling heat transfer of tandem tubes

Myeong-Gie Kang
Department of Mechanical Engineering Education, Andong National University, 388 Songchun-dong, Andong-city, Kyungbuk 760-749, South Korea

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

Article history: The effects of an elevation angle and heat fluxes of a lower tube on saturated pool boiling heat transfer of
Received 29 August 2014 tandem tubes were investigated experimentally. For the test, two smooth stainless steel tubes of 19 mm
Received in revised form 30 December 2014 diameter and the water at atmospheric pressure were used. The elevation angle was varied from the
Accepted 14 February 2015
horizontal position to the vertical position in steps of 15°. The heat flux of the lower tube was changed
from 0 to 120 kW/m2. The increases of the elevation angle and the heat flux of the lower tube enhance
heat transfer on the upper tube surface. The bundle effect is clearly observed when the elevation angle
Keywords:
is greater than 45° and the heat flux of the lower tube is higher than that of the upper tube.
Pool boiling
Heat transfer
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tandem tubes
Elevation angle

1. Introduction
The mechanism of pool boiling heat transfer has been studied
extensively in the past several decades since it is closely related
to the thermal design of more efficient heat exchangers. One of
the major issues is the bundle effect (hr ), which is defined as the
ratio of the heat transfer coefficient (hb ) for an upper tube in a bun-
dle with lower tubes activated to that for the same tube activated
alone in the bundle [1]. Most studies were focused on the bundles
consisting of many tubes for application to a flooded evaporator
[2–4].
Recently, pool boiling has been widely investigated in nuclear
power plants for the purpose of acquiring inherent safety functions
in case of no power supply [5–8]. The pool boiling heat transfer is
very attractive from the viewpoint of enhancing heat transfer rate
in a limited space. Moreover, it can run without the support of any
electric pumps. To design more efficient passive heat exchangers,
the effects of several parameters on heat transfer must be identi-
fied. In practice, several tubes are arranged in a bundle instead of
a single tube.
Along with the tube spacing, its location is also of interest.
Many researchers have been investigated the effect of tube spacing
on heat transfer for the tube bundles [1,9–13] and the tandem
tubes [9,12,14–18]. The heat transfer on the upper tube of the
tubes is enhanced compared with the single tube [15]. However,
the maximum heat transfer coefficient of the upper tube decreases
[14], increases [15], or negligible [12] with increasing tube pitch
(P) in pool boiling. This discrepancy is closely related with the type
of liquid, tube geometries, and location of the tubes. According to
Ribatski et al. [12] the spacing effects on the heat transfer became
relevant as the tubes come closer to each other at the low heat
fluxes.
The effect of tube array on heat transfer enhancement was also
studied for application to the flooded evaporators [19,20]. The
upper tube within a tube bundle can significantly increase nucleate
boiling heat transfer compared to the lower tubes at moderate heat
fluxes. At high heat fluxes these influences disappear and the data
merge onto the pool boiling curve of a single tube [10].
Since the source of the convective flow in pool boiling is the
lower heated tube, the heat flux of the lower tube (q00L ) is of interest.
Kumar et al. [16] carried an experimental study and developed a
model to predict the heat transfer coefficient of individual tube
in a multi-tube row and the bundle heat transfer coefficient.
Ustinov et al. [18] investigated effects of the heat flux of the lower
tube on pool boiling of the upper tube. They used microstructure
and identified that the increase in the heat flux of the lower tube
decreased the superheat (DT sat ) of the upper tube.
Summarizing the previous results it can be stated that heat
transfer coefficients are highly dependent on the tube geometry
and the heat flux of the lower tube. The published results for
tandem tubes were consisting of horizontal tubes in a vertical
column arrangement. In general, there are many tube arrays that
are not in a vertical plane. Therefore, the present study is
focused on the effects of an elevation angle (h). Moreover, iden-
tification of the heat transfer on the upper tube as the heat flux
of the lower tube varies is also of great importance. To the pre-
sent author’s knowledge, no results of this effect have as yet
been published.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.02.041
0017-9310/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.-G. Kang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 918–923
Nomenclature
D diameter of the heating tube, m
hb boiling heat transfer coefficient, W/m2-°C
hr bundle effect (=hb =hb;q00L ¼0 )
I supplied current, A
L heated tube length, m
P pitch distance, m
q00L heat flux on the lower tube, W/m2
2. Experiments
A schematic view of the present experimental apparatus is
shown in Fig. 1. The water tank (Fig. 1(a)) is made of stainless steel
and has a rectangular cross section (950  1300 mm) and a height of
1400 mm. The tank has a double container system. The sizes of the
inner tank are 800  1000  1100 mm (depth  width  height).
The bottom side of the inner tank is situated at 200 mm above the
bottom of the outer tank. Drainage of the inside tank was done by
the two passages situated at the bottom side. The inside tank has
several flow holes (28 mm in diameter) to allow fluid inflow from
the outer tank. To diminish the effects of inflow from outside tank,
holes are situated at 300 and 800 mm high from the bottom of the
inside tank. Although some area around the hole can be affected
by the inlet flow, it is not expected that the inflow would change
the flow characteristics nearby the heated tube. Four auxiliary hea-
ters (5 kW/heater) were installed in the space between the inside
and the outside tank bottoms to boil the water and to maintain
the saturated condition. To reduce heat loss to the environment,
the left, right, and rear sides of the tank were insulated with glass
wool of 50 mm thickness. The up side of the water storage tank is
covered with two stainless steel plates to minimize the loss of the
water as small as possible while the water boils. Only a very small
area is opened to the atmosphere to maintain the atmospheric pres-
sure condition. Most of the evaporated vapor condenses on the
downward surface of the upside cover and returns to the water sur-
face. Only a small amount of the vapor escapes from the water tank
and its effect on the pool boiling is negligible. The heat exchanging
tubes are resistance heaters (Fig. 1(b)) made of very smooth
Outer tank
Inner tank 1300
950
Flow
holes
Power
supply
1400
Heaters
Reinforced glass Water drain
Test section and supporter Filter
(a) Water tank
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus.
919
q00T heat flux on the upper tube, W/m2
Ra surface roughness, lm
T sat saturation temperature, °C
TW tube wall temperature, °C
V supplied voltage, V
DT sat tube wall superheat (¼ T W  T sat ), °C
h elevation angle, deg
stainless steel tubes of 19 mm outside diameter (D) and 400 mm
heated length. The tube pitch (P) was 28.5 mm. The surface of the
tube is finished through a buffing process to have a smooth surface.
The value of the surface roughness was measured by a stylus type
profiler. The arithmetic mean of all deviations from the center line
over the sampling path has the value of Ra = 0.15 lm. Electric power
of 220 V AC is supplied through the bottom side of the tube.
For the tests, the assembled test section was located in the
water tank as shown in Fig. 1(a). The elevation angle (shown in
Fig. 2) of the tubes was changed from the horizontal position
(h = 0°) to the vertical position (h = 90°) in steps of 15°. The heat
flux of the lower tube was (1) set a fixed value of 0, 30, 60, and
90 kW/m2 or (2) varied equal to the heat flux of the upper tube
(q00T ). The water tank was filled with the filtered tap water until
the initial water level reached 1.1 m; the water was then heated
using four pre-heaters at constant power. When the water tem-
perature was reached the saturation value, the water was then
boiled for 30 min to remove the dissolved air. The temperatures
of the tube surfaces (T W ) were measured when they were at steady
state while controlling the heat flux on the tube surface with the
input power.
The tube outside was instrumented with six T-type sheathed
thermocouples (diameter is 1.5 mm). The thermocouple tip (about
10 mm) was brazed on the sides of the tube wall. The local heat
transfer coefficient measured at the sides can be recommended
as the average value of the tube periphery [21]. The brazing metal
is a kind of brass and the averaged brazing thickness is less than
0.1 mm. The temperature decrease along the brazing metal was
calibrated by the one dimensional conduction equation. Since the
Unit: mm
Water
Supporter
supply Rotating
line
Thermocouple
100 100 100
T/C
lines
P
D
L(400)
(b) Assembled test section
920 M.-G. Kang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 918–923

140

θ=90
o
120
q L''= 0 kW/m2
100 q L''= 30 kW/m2
q L''= 60 kW/m2
q L''= 90 kW/m2

qT'', kW/m 2
80
q L''= q T''

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8
ΔTsat , C
o

Fig. 3. Plots of q00T versus DTsat at h = 90°.

Fig. 2. Elevation angle and bubble movement.
thermal conductivity of the brass is nearby 130 W/m-°C at 110 °C
[22], the maximum temperature decrease through the brazing
metal is 0.12 °C at 160 kW/m2. The value was calculated by the
product of the heat transfer rate and the thermal resistance. The
measured temperatures were calibrated considering the above
error. The water temperatures were measured with six sheathed
T-type thermocouples attached to a stainless steel tube that placed
vertically in a corner of the inside tank. All thermocouples were
calibrated at a saturation value (100 °C since all tests are done at
atmospheric pressure). To measure and/or control the supplied
voltage and current, two power supply systems were used.
The heat flux from the electrically heated tube surface is calcu-
lated from the measured values of the input power as follows:
VI
q00 ¼ ¼ hb DT sat ¼ hb ðT W  T sat Þ
pDL
where V and I are the supplied voltage and current, and D and L are
the outside diameter and the length of the heated tube, respective-
ly. T W and T sat represent the measured temperatures of the tube
surface and the saturated water, respectively. The surface tem-
peratures were measured when the heat flux was increasing.
Every temperature used in Eq. (1) is the arithmetic average value
of the temperatures measured by the thermocouples.
variation in the elevation angle of 90°. As shown in the figure the
activation of the lower tube enhances the heat transfer on the
upper tube compared with the results for the single tube (i.e.,
q00L = 0 kW/m2). The heat transfer on the upper tube is increased
as the heat flux of the lower tube is increased. The change of q00L
from 0 to 90 kW/m2 results in 37.1% (from 6.2 to 3.9 °C) decrease
of DT sat when q00T = 30 kW/m2. The gradual increase in q00L results
in the decrease in DT sat for the given heat flux. Throughout the heat
fluxes tested the enhancement in heat transfer is much clearly
observed at low or moderate heat fluxes. When q00T > 80 kW/m2
the curve for q00L – 0 kW/m2 converges to the curve for the single
tube. The result of q00L ¼ q00T is very unique compared to the other
results. The curve for q00L ¼ q00T shows a kind of transition from
enhanced to deteriorated heat transfer as the heat flux decreases.
When the heat fluxes are lower than 30 kW/m2, the tube wall
superheat is higher than the curve for q00L = 30 kW/m2. As the heat
flux increases, the curve for q00T versus DT sat shift left side and the
ð1Þ
20
Rohsenow [22]
Cooper [24]
Cornwell et al. [25]
Stephan and Abdelsalam [26]
15
hb, cal, kW/m - C

The uncertainties of the experimental data were calculated from

2o

the law of error propagation [23]. The 95% confidence uncertainty

10
of the measured temperature has the value of ±0.11 °C. The uncer-
tainty in the heat flux was estimated to be ±0.7%. Since the values of
the heat transfer coefficient were the results of the calculation of
q00T =DT sat , a statistical analysis of the results was performed. After
calculating and taking the mean of the uncertainties of the propaga- 5
tion errors, the uncertainty of the heat transfer coefficient was
determined to be ±6%.

3. Results and discussion 0

0 5 10 15 20
2 o
Fig. 3 shows plots of q00T versus DT sat data obtained from the hb, exp, kW/m - C
experiments. The heat flux on the lower tube was kept constant
while the upper tube experienced the whole range of heat flux Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental data to calculated heat transfer coefficients.
 M.-G. Kang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 918–923 921

2.0 enhancement of heat transfer is observed. When q00T > 80 kW/m2

the curve converges to the curve for q00L = 90 kW/m2.
The bundle effect is expected as the convective onflow of bub-
1.8 bles and liquid, rising from the lower tube, enhances the heat
q L''=30kW/m 2
transfer on the upper tube [15]. The intensity of the convective
q L''=60kW/m 2
flow is increased as q00L increases. The heat transfer on the upper
1.6 q L''=90kW/m 2
q L''=qT'' tube is associated with (1) the bulk movement of bubble and liquid
coming from the lower side and (2) micro-convective component
hb/hb, q ''=0

relates to the heat transfer associated with the bubble nucleation

1.4
L

and growth on the tube surface [14]. The possible mechanisms

affecting on heat transfer on the upper tube surface can be counted
1.2 as convective flow, liquid agitation, and the nucleation site density.
The increase in the heat flux also results in the increase in the
nucleation sites which increase heat transfer. The convective flow
1.0 generated by the bulk movement enhances heat transfer and is
important for the heat transfer analysis at low heat fluxes. The
liquid agitation also enhances heat transfer. The intensity of the
0.8 liquid agitation depends on the amount of bubbles and the active
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
movement of the bubbles. When the upper tube is at low heat flux
2
qT'' , kW/m a convection-controlled regime prevails. Therefore, the turbulent
flow generated by the departed bubbles from the lower tube
Fig. 5. Plots of bundle effect against q00T at h = 60°. enhances heat transfer much. However, as the heat flux of the

3 3
2 2
qL''=30kW/m qL''=30kW/m
qL''=60kW/m2 qL''=60kW/m2
qL''=90kW/m2 qL''=90kW/m2
qL''=qT'' qL''=qT''
2 2
hb / hb,q ''=0
L

1 1
2
(a) qT''=10kW/m2 (b) qT''=30kW/m

0 15 30 45 60 75 90 0 15 30 45 60 75 90

3 3
2
qL''=30kW/m qL''=30kW/m
2

qL''=60kW/m2 qL''=60kW/m2
qL''=90kW/m2 qL''=90kW/m2
q L''=qT'' qL''=qT''
2 2
hb / hb,q ''=0
L

1 1

(c) qT''=60kW/m
2
(d) qT''=120kW/m2

0 15 30 45 60 75 90 0 15 30 45 60 75 90
θ, deg θ, deg
Fig. 6. Variation of bundle effect with h and q00L .
922 M.-G. Kang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 918–923
upper tube increases, the portion of the liquid convection gets
decreased and, accordingly, the enhancement in heat transfer gets
decreased.
Fig. 4 shows a comparison of the present experimental heat
transfer coefficient (hb;exp ) to the calculated values (hb;cal ) by the
well known correlations. The tendency is different from the gener-
al correlations suggested by Rohsenow [22], Cooper [24], Cornwell
et al. [25], and Stephan and Abdelsalam [26]. The published corre-
lations were developed using the data for plates, wires, and outside
surfaces of tubes. Since the correlations do not contain the effects
of the lower tube heat flux and the elevation angle, the calculated
heat transfer coefficients underpredict the present experimental
data. Therefore, it is not reasonable to predict the present
experimental data by the published correlations.
Fig. 5 shows variations in the bundle effect against the heat flux
on the upper tube for h = 60°. As q00L increases, the bundle effect
increases dramatically. The maximum bundle effect is observed
at q00T = 10 kW/m2. Significant bundle effect has been found at
q00T < 60 kW/m2. However, the bundle effect converges to unity at
higher heat fluxes regardless of the value of q00L . Throughout the
heat fluxes tested, the increases in q00L increases the bundle effect.
To identify the bundle effect the ratios of hb =hb;q00L ¼0 were
obtained for the different q00L as the elevation angle changes from
0° to 90°. Results for the four q00T are shown in Fig. 6. The increase
of h results in heat transfer enhancement on the upper tube sur-
face. The increase in the bundle effect is clearly observed at
h P 45°. The bundle effect is obvious when q00L > q00T and q00T is at
low heat fluxes less than 60 kW/m2. The major reason of the heat
transfer enhancement on the upper tube is due to the convective
flow and liquid agitation caused by the lower tube. The intensity
of the effects is magnified when the upper tube is just above the
lower tube. Since the mixed flow of bubble and liquid goes upward
due to the buoyancy, the decrease in the elevation angle decreases
the effects of the convective flow on heat transfer. This decreases
the bundle effect. Fig. 2 shows the schematic of the movement of
the flow.
Through the experiments, a total of 336 data points have been
obtained for the heat flux versus the wall superheating for various
combinations of the elevation angles and the heat fluxes on the
lower tube. Although it is not realistic to obtain any general theo-
retical correlation for heat transfer coefficients in nucleate boiling
since it contains inherent unidentified uncertain parameters, we
2.5
+10%
2.0
-10%
1.5
hr, cal
1.0
0.5
0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
hr, exp
Fig. 7. Comparison of experimental data to calculated bundle effects.
continue the development of the correlation nevertheless. This is
because the quantification of the experimental results could broad-
en its applicability to the thermal designs. To take account of
effects of the elevation angle and the heat fluxes a simple correla-
tion is sought and, as a result, an empirical correlation has been
obtained using present experimental data and the statistical analy-
sis computer program (which uses the least square method as a
regression technique) as follows:
hb 00ð0:0001h2 þ1:07Þ=q00T
hr ¼ ¼ 0:955qL ð2Þ
hb;q00L ¼0
In the above equations, the dimensions for hb , q00 , and h are kW/m2-
°C, kW/m2, and deg, respectively. Apparently the correlations only
apply for the testing pressure and parameters. The above correla-
tion is only valid for boiled water on a smooth stainless steel sur-
face. To confirm the validity of the correlation the statistical
analyses on ratios of the measured and the calculated heat transfer
coefficients (i.e., hr;exp =hr;cor ) have been performed. The mean and
the standard deviation are 1.001 and 0.058, respectively. A compar-
ison between the bundle effect from the tests (hr;exp ) and the calcu-
lated value (hr;cor ) by Eq. (2) is shown in Fig. 7. The developed
correlation predicts the present experimental data is within ±10%,
with some exceptions. The scatter of the present data is of similar
size to that found in other existing pool boiling data.
4. Conclusions
To investigate effects of the elevation angle and the heat flux on
the lower tube on pool boiling heat transfer on the upside tube, the
elevation angle was varied from the horizontal position to the ver-
tical position in steps of 15°. The heat flux of the lower tube was
changed from 0 to 120 kW/m2. For the test, a heated tube of
19 mm diameter and the water at atmospheric pressure have been
used. The increases in the elevation angle and the heat flux on the
lower tube increase the bundle effect. The increase in the bundle
effect is clearly observed at h P 45°and q00T < 60 kW/m2 when
q00L > q00T . The major reason of the heat transfer enhancement on
the upper tube is due to the convective flow and liquid agitation
caused by the lower tube. The intensity of the effects is magnified
when the upper tube is just above the lower tube.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by a Grant from 2014 Research Fund
of Andong National University.
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