Experimental adiabatic two-phase pressure drop of R134a flowing inside a multiport minichannel

The paper reports experimental adiabatic two-phase pressure drop of R134a in smooth and groove mnichannels having 20 channels with hydraulic diameters of 0.81 mm and 0.64 mm, respectively. The pressure drop measurements were done under mass flux range of 50-200 kg/m2s, saturation temperature range of 30-35 °C, and inlet vapor quality range of 0.1-0.9. The effects of mass flux, saturation temperature, inlet vapor quality and channel geometry on pressure drop were investigated. The results showed that the mass flux, inlet vapor quality, saturation temperature and channel size play an important role in increasing or decreasing the pressure drop. The results also showed that the total pressure drop is dominated by the frictional pressure drop. The present experimental data were compared with some existing well known pressure drop correlation available in the open literature.