Numerical Investigation of Condensation of Refrigerant in a Serpentine Condenser Considering Phase-Change Heat Transfer

This study explores condensation in a serpentine condenser of multi-fuction radar cooling device. The numerical model using Volume-of-Fluid(VOF) method is developed to compute the flow field considering phase change heat transfer. The effects of inlet velocities and gravitational acceleration are examined. The condensation heat transfer coefficients at upper and lower surface of each channel are then calculated. The results show that the differences of the condensation heat transfer coefficients between upper and lower surface are noticeable except for the first channel. These results are shown to be closely related to the liquid fraction distributions in a U-bend tube. While the flow regimes in the channels are depending on the presence of gravity, the flow regimes in the U-bend tube and the trends of the condensation heat transfer coefficients on each channel are regardless of the presence of gravity.