Prediction of Pressure Drop of Refrigerants for Two- Phase Flow inside a Horizontal Tube Using Cfd Analysis

Two phase flow in a horizontal tube has widespread applications, particularly in the condensers of refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Pressure drop prediction is especially important for condensers because the local condensing temperature is a function of local pressure, affecting the mean temperature difference in the heat exchanger. In the present analysis, two phase flow is treated as a single phase pseudo fluid with average properties of liquid and vapor using homogeneous model. CFD analysis of two phase flow of refrigerants inside a smooth horizontal tube is carried out under adiabatic conditions using commercial CFD software, FLUENT for different mass fluxes ranging from 100 to 1000kg/ms and at different saturation temperatures of 40C, 50C and 60C. The values of pressure drop obtained from the simulations for refrigerants, R22, R134a and R407C are compared with correlations and experimental data available in literature.