Numerical simulation on shell-side flow pattern transition and heat transfer of non-azeotropic refrigerant mixture

• Evaporation of non-azeotropic hydrocarbon mixture in shell-side were studied. • Sheet flow, semi-annular flow, droplet flow, falling film flow, shear flow and spray flow were observed. • Ethane has smoother liquid film on tube wall than methane-ethane mixture. • The increasing of methane promotes the flow pattern transition. • For falling film flow, the heat transfer coefficient of pure ethane is higher than the methane-ethane mixture. The non-azeotropic hydrocarbon refrigerant mixture flowing across shell-side of spiral wound heat exchanger is widely used in liquefied natural gas production industry. However, the phase-change heat transfer mechanism is still lack of thorough understanding. A numerical model is presented for simulating evaporation heat transfer of non-azeotropic hydrocarbon refrigerant mixture, CH 4 /C 2 H 6 , across multiple spiral wound tubes. Volume of Fluid model (VOF) was used to obtain liquid–vapor interface. The heat and mass transfer rates for each component were given as source terms. Thermophysical properties of the mixture were given using mixing laws in the literature. A flow pattern map was developed based on simulation results. The flow pattern transition and heat transfer were analyzed for the mixture with several component mixing ratios. With increasing vapor quality, pure ethane and methane-ethane mixture appear different flow patterns. The pure ethane has smoother liquid film on the tube wall than the methane-ethane mixture. The increasing of methane promotes the flow pattern transition. With vapor quality of 0.2–0.3, falling film flow transfers to shear flow. Shear flow transfers to spray flow for vapor quality of 0.7–0.8, where the heat transfer coefficient starts to decrease for methane-ethane mixture. For falling film flow, the heat transfer coefficient of pure ethane is higher than the methane-ethane mixture. The outcomes may help spiral wound heat exchanger design and evaluation for liquefied natural gas production.