An experimental study of flow and heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide in multi-port mini channels under cooling conditions

This paper presents the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical CO₂ in a horizontal multi-port extruded aluminum test section consisting of 10 circular channels with an inner diameter of 1.31 mm. Both local and average pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients were measured as CO₂ was cooled in the multi-port circular channels with pressures ranging from 7.4 to 8.5 MPa, inlet fluid temperatures ranging from 22 to 53°C, and mass velocity ranging from 113.7 to 418.6 kg/m² s. The results indicate that the operating pressure, the mass velocity and the temperature of CO₂ had significant effects on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics. The pressure drop and the average heat transfer coefficient increased greatly with increasing the average temperatures of CO₂ in the near-critical region; the average heat transfer coefficient attained a peak value near the corresponding pseudocritical temperature; and the maximum heat transfer coefficient decreased as the pressure increased. Both the pressure drop and the heat transfer coefficient increased with the mass velocity, but decreased with the operating pressure. The measured average heat transfer coefficients were compared with the experimental data reported in the literatures and a large discrepancy was observed. Based on the experimental data collected in the present work, a new correlation was developed for forced convection of supercritical CO₂ in horizontal multi-port mini channels under cooling conditions.