Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Experimental investigation of the heat and mass transfer in a tube bundle absorber of an absorption chiller

  • Original
  • Published:
Heat and Mass Transfer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The design of the absorber of absorption chillers is still subject to great uncertainty since the coupled processes of heat and mass transfer as well as the influence of systemic interactions on the absorption process are not fully understood. Unfortunately, only a few investigations on the transport phenomena in the absorber during operation in an absorption chiller are reported in the literature. Therefore, experimental investigations on the heat and mass transfer during falling film absorption of steam in aqueous LiBr-solution are carried out in an absorber installed in an absorption chiller in this work. An improvement of heat and mass transfer due to the increase in convective effects are observed as the Ref number increases. Furthermore, an improvement of the heat transfer in the absorber with increasing coolant temperature can be identified in the systemic context. This is explained by a corresponding reduction in the average viscosity of the solution in the absorber. A comparison with experimental data from literature obtained from so-called absorber-generator test rigs shows a good consistency. Thus, it has been shown that the findings obtained on these simplified experimental setups can be transferred to the absorber in an absorption chiller. However, a comparison with correlations from the literature reveals a strong deviation between experimental and calculated results. Hence, further research activities on the development of better correlations are required in future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

A:

Area (m2)

cp :

Specific heat capacity (kJ/kgK)

Cpc :

Compactness factor (−)

d:

Diameter of tube(m)

D:

Diffusion coefficient (m2/s)

g:

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

j:

Number of parallel tube columns

k:

Overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

l:

Length of tube (m)

L:

Inter tube distance in the bundle (m)

\( \dot{\mathrm{m}} \) :

Mass flow rate(kg/s)

p:

Pressure (bar)

\( \dot{\mathrm{q}} \) :

Heat flux (W/m2)

\( \dot{\mathrm{Q}} \) :

Rate of heat flow (W)

R:

Radius (m)

T:

Temperature (°C)

x:

Mass related concentration (mass fraction kgLiBr/kgsolution) (%)

Nu:

Nusselt number (−)

Pr:

Prandtl number(−)

Re:

Reynolds number (−)

Ref :

Film Reynolds number (−)

Sc:

Schmidt number (−)

Sh:

Sherwood number (−)

α:

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

β:

Mass transfer coefficient (m/s)

Γ:

Mass flow rate per tube length and side (kg/m·s)

ε:

Roughness (m)

η:

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

λ:

Heat conduction (W/m)

ν:

Kinetic viscosity (m2/s)

ρ:

Density (kg/m3)

ξ:

Friction factor

0:

Reference

c:

Coolant

coolant:

Cooling water

cold:

Cold water

crit:

Critical

Cu:

Copper

exp:

Experimental

f:

Film

h:

Horizontal

H2O:

Water

hot:

Hot water

i:

Inner / inlet

L:

Liquid

LiBr:

Lithium bromide

lm:

Logarithmic mean

o:

Outer / outlet

p:

Parallel

pred:

Predicted

poor:

Poor solution

ref:

Refrigerant

rich:

Rich solution

s:

Solution

st:

Steam

sv:

Symmetric vertical

svref:

Symmetric vertical reference

eq:

Equilibrium

References

  1. Killion JD, Garimella S (2001) A critical review of models of coupled heat and mass transfer in falling-film absorption. Int J Refrig 24:755–797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Olbricht M, Luke A 2015 prediction and experimental investigation of heat and mass transfer characteristics of a horizontal tube bundle absorber, proceedings of the 24th IIR international congress of refrigeration (ICR 2015)

  3. Park CW, Kim SS, Cho HC, Kang YT (2003) Experimental correlation of falling film absorption heat transfer on micro-scale hatched tubes. Int J Refrig 26:758–763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kim J-K, Park CW, Kang YT (2003) Wettability correlation of microscale hatched tubes for falling film absorption application. Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer 10:421–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wohlfeil A 2009 Wärme- und Stoffübergang bei der Absorption an Rieselfilmen in Absorptionskälteanlagen; Forschungsberichte des DKV Nr. 78, Berlin

  6. Vliet GC, Consenza FB 1991 Absorption phenomena in water-Lithium bromide films, proceedings of the international sorption heat pump conference 1991 Tokyo

  7. Babadi F, Farhanieh B (2005) Characteristics of heat and mass transfer in vapor absorption of falling film flow on a horizontal absorber. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32:1253–1265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nosoko T, Miyara A, Nagata T (2002) Characteristics of falling film flow on completely wetted horizontal tubes and the associated gas absorption. Int J Heat Mass Transf 45:2729–2738

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Auracher H, Wohlfeil A, Ziegler F (2008) A simple physical model for steam absorption into a falling film of aqueous lithium bromide solution on a horizontal tube, journal of. Heat Mass Transf 44:49–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Patek J, Klomfar J (2006) A computationally effective formulation of the thermodynamic properties of LiBr-H2O from 273 to 500 K over full composition range. Int J Refrig 29:566–578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. DiGuilio RM, Lee RJ, Jeter SM, Teja AS 1990 Properties of Lithium Bromide-Water Solutions at High Temperatures and Concentrations - I Thermal Conductivity, ASHRAE Transactions, Paper 3380, RP-527, 702–708

  12. Lee RJ, DiGuilio RM, Jeter SM, Teja AS 1990 Properties of Lithium Bromide-Water Solutions at High Temperatures and Concentrations-II Density and Viscosity, ASHRAE Transactions, Paper 3381, RP-527, 709–714

  13. Gierow M, Jernqvist A 1993 Measurement of mass diffusivity with holographic interferometry for H2O/NaOH and H2O/LiBr Workig pairs; Proceedings of the International Absorption Heat Pump Conference

  14. Olbricht M 2017 Einfluss des Wärme- und Stofftransports im thermischen Verdichter auf das Systemverhalten von Absorptionskältemaschinen, Dissertation, University of Kassel

  15. Gnielinski V (1976) New equations for heat and mass transfer in turbulent pipe and channel flow. Int Chem Eng 16:359–368

    Google Scholar 

  16. Serth WR 2007: Process heat transfer–principles and applications; Elsevier, pp. 79–84

  17. DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V.: DIN V ENV 13005 Leitfaden zur Angabe der Unsicherheit beim Messen 1999 Beuth Verlag Berlin

  18. Kern W 1993 Aufbau und Betrieb einer zweistufigen Absorptionswärmepumpe zum Heizen und Kühlen; Forschungsberichte des DKV Nr. 40, München

  19. Rahimi F-A 2014 Literaturstudie zu experimentellen Untersuchungen zum Wärme- und Stoffübergang in Absorbern von Absorptionskältemaschinen, Master Thesis, University of Kassel

  20. Yoon JI, Kim E, Choi KH, Seol WS (2002) Heat transfer enhancement with a surfactant on horizontal bundle tubes of an absorber. Int J Heat Mass Transf 45(4):735–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kyung I, Herold KE, Kang YT (2007) Experimental verification of H2O/LiBr absorber bundle performance with smooth horizontal tubes. Int J Refrig 30(4):582–590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Yoon J-I, Phan TT, Moon C-G, Lee H-S, Jeong S-K (2008) Heat and mass transfer characteristics of a horizontal tube falling film absorber with small diameter tubes. Heat Mass Transf 44(4):437–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Herold KE, Kyung IS (2002) Performance of horizontal smooth tube absorber with and without 2-ethyl-Hexanol. J Heat Transf 124(1):177–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Tomforde C, Luke A 2014 Experimental Investigation of the Transport Phenomena on a Falling Film Absorber with Micro-Structured Tubes, International Sorption Heat Pump Conference March 31–April 3 2014 Washington

  25. Andberg JW, Vliet GC 1983 Nonisothermal absorption of gases into falling liquid films; ASME JMSE thermal engineering joint conference proceedings, volume two, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 20-24, 1983: S. 423–431

  26. Furukawa M, Sasaki N, Kaneko T, Nosetani T (1993) Enhanced heat transfer tubes for absorber of absorption chiller/heater. Trans JAR 10(2):219–226

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, University of Kassel, Kurt-Wolters-Straße 3, Kassel, Germany

    Michael Olbricht & Andrea Luke

Authors
  1. Michael Olbricht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrea Luke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Olbricht.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Olbricht, M., Luke, A. Experimental investigation of the heat and mass transfer in a tube bundle absorber of an absorption chiller. Heat Mass Transfer 55, 81–93 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2363-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2363-x

Search

Navigation