Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics of Methane in a Horizontal Tube

Forced two-phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficients of methane through a smooth horizontal tube with an inner diameter of 6 mm were measured. Experimental investigations were carried out at a particular set of test variables with the pressure range from 0.3 MPa to 0.6 MPa, heat flux range from 5 kW/m(2) to 63 kW/m(2), mass flux from 110 kg/m2-s to 275 kg/m(2)-s, and the vapor quality from 0 to 0.25. The influences of different experimental parameters on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient were discussed. The data were also compared against ten heat transfer coefficient predictive methods. The correlations suggested by Kew-Conwell and Lazarek-Black both show good agreements with a mean absolute relative deviation less than 10%, and over 95% points within an error bandwidth of +/- 30.0%.