Numerical investigation of cooling heat transfer to supercritical CO2 in a horizontal circular tube

Recent Advances in Transcritical CO2 (R744) Heat Pump System: A Review

Heat pump (HP) is one of the most energy efficient tools for address heating and possibly cooling needs in buildings. Growing environmental concerns over conventional HP refrigerants, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) have forced legislators and researchers to look for alternatives. As such, carbon dioxide (R744/CO2) has come to light due to its low global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depleting characteristics. Even though CO2 is environmentally benign, the performance of CO2 HP has been of concern since its inception. To improve the performance of CO2 HP, research has been playing a pivotal role in developing functional designs of heat exchangers, expansion devices, and compressors to suit the CO2 transcritical cycle. Different CO2 HP cycles coupled with auxiliary components, hybrid systems, and refrigerant mixtures along with advanced control strategies have been applied and tested. This paper presents a complete overview of the most recent developments of transcritical CO2 HPs, their components, and applications.

Numerical Study on the Heat Transfer of Carbon Dioxide in Horizontal Straight Tubes under Supercritical Pressure

Cooling heat transfer of supercritical CO₂ in horizontal straight tubes with wall is numerically investigated by using FLUENT. The results show that almost all models are able to present the trend of heat transfer qualitatively, and the stand k−ε with enhanced wall treatment model shows the best agreement with the experimental data, followed by LB low Re turbulence model. Then further studies are discussed on velocity, temperature and turbulence distributions. The parameters which are defined as the criterion of buoyancy effect on convection heat transfer are introduced to judge the condition of the fluid. The relationships among the inlet temperature, outlet temperature, the mass flow rate, the heat flux and the diameter are discussed and the difference between the cooling and heating of CO₂ are compared.