Analysis of Condensation Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics Inside Spiral Tubes

Spiral wound tube heat exchanger (SWHE) was confirmed as the core equipment of natural gas liquefaction (LNG). However, there was rare experimental research on large-scale SWHE for LNG, and the theory of heat transfer is not perfect. To investigate the tube-side flow and heat transfer characteristics in spiral tubes, an experimental system was proposed. To ensure the accuracy of the experimental data, the heat transfer coefficients of liquid propane under different conditions were measured, and the data acquired through the experiment were compared with two classical heat transfer correlation (Dittus–Boelter and Geielinski) under the identical working conditions. The applicability of the existing correlation was analyzed using the experimental data, and a novel heat transfer correlation was developed. As indicated by the results, the deviation between the experimental system and the classical correlation under the identical working condition was lower than ±10%. Furthermore, the error comparison between the novel correlation prediction value and the experimental data was less than ±15%.