Experimental heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop during refrigerant R-134a vaporisation inside a commercial brazed plate heat exchanger

This paper presents the experimental heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop measured during refrigerant R-134a vaporisation inside a commercial brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE). The BPHE tested consists of 10 plates 72 mm in width and 310 mm in length, which present a macro-scale herringbone corrugation with inclination angle around 65° and corrugation amplitude of 2 mm. The experimental set-up is fully described together with measurements, procedures, data reduction and accuracy. The effects of heat flux, refrigerant mass flux and pressure are investigated. The experimental heat transfer coefficients are compared against semi-empirical correlations