Characteristics of Two-Phase Flow Pressure Drop of Propane in Horizontal Circular Small Tube

This study experimentally investigated two-phase flow pressure drop of propane as refrigerant in horizontal small tube. Inner diameter and length of the tube were 7.6 mm and 1.07 m, respectively. In order to get pressure drop data, the experiment was conducted in various conditions of 10 to 25 kW m-2 heat flux, 200 to 628 kg m-2 s-1 mass flux, and 4.0 to 11.7°C saturation temperature. This study clearly showed the effect of heat flux, mass flux, and saturation temperature on the pressure drop of propane. This study also investigated which fluid properties gave higher effect on the frictional pressure drop due to its change over the process based on the recent experiment data. The existing pressure drop correlations were evaluated against the experimental result.