Prediction of two-phase pressure drop in heat exchanger for mixed refrigerant Joule-Thomson cryocooler

The overall efficiency of a mixed refrigerant Joule-Thomson (MR J-T) cryocooler is governed by the performance of the recuperative heat exchanger. In the heat exchanger, the hot stream of the mixed refrigerant undergoes condensation at high pressure while the cold stream gets evaporated at low pressure. The pressure drop in the low pressure stream is crucial since it directly influences the achievable refrigeration temperature. However, experimental and theoretical studies related to two-phase pressure drop in mixtures at cryogenic temperatures, are limited. Therefore, the design of an efficient MR J-T cryocooler is a challenging task due to the lack of predictive tools.In the present work, the existing empirical correlations, which are commonly used for the prediction of pressure drop in the case of pure refrigerants, evaporating at near ambient conditions, are assessed for the mixed refrigerants. Experiments are carried out to measure the overall pressure drop in the evaporating cold stream of the tube-in-tube helically coiled heat exchanger. The predicted frictional pressure drop in the heat exchanger is compared with the experimental data. The suggested empirical correlations can be used to predict the hydraulic performance of the heat exchanger. (paper)