Film Condensation of R-134a and R-236fa, Part 1: Experimental Results and Predictive Correlation for Single-Row Condensation on Enhanced Tubes

New predictive methods for falling film condensation on vertical arrays of horizontal tubes using different refrigerants are proposed, based on visual observations revealing that condensate is slung off the array of tubes sideways and significantly affects condensate inundation and thus the heat transfer process. For two types of three-dimensional enhanced tubes, advanced versions of the Wolverine Turbo-C and Wieland Gewa-C tubes, the local heat flux is correlated as a function of condensation temperature difference, the film Reynolds number, the tube spacing, and liquid slinging effect. The proposed methods work best when using R-134a, as these tubes were designed with this refrigerant in mind.