RT Journal Article ID 680b1e5e595d1654 A1 Lopez-Belchi, Alejandro A1 Vera-Garcia, Francisco A1 Garcia-Cascales, Jose Ramon T1 NON-UNIFORM CONDENSATION OF REFRIGERANT R134A IN MINI-CHANNEL MULTIPORT TUBES: TWO-PHASE PRESSURE DROP AND HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT JF Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer JO JEH(T) YR 2015 FD 2016-05-11 VO 22 IS 5 SP 391 OP 416 K1 extended surface K1 two-phase flow convection K1 condensation K1 compact heat exchanger K1 experimentation K1 numerical modeling AB This study analyzes the refrigerant R134a non-uniform condensation flowing through a 10-port multiport mini-channel tube. The idea is to show that non-uniform flow yields a lower overall heat transfer coefficient. Experimental data are analyzed to get the influence of non-uniform flow over the global heat transfer coefficient taking into account the differences with the local heat transfer coefficient for each simple port. A mathematical method is presented to calculate a possible non-uniform distribution in multiple ports. This calculation procedure can be extended to any number of ports. Condensation in a single tube is uniform but in a multiport tube the amount of refrigerant going through each port may be not constant. Since the condensation process depends heavily on the vapor quality and mass flow in each port, in parallel flow condensers non-uniform distribution is surely present. In this work, various possible distributions have been evaluated under different operating conditions to assess the resultant change in its flow distribution and thermal performance. Our goal is to numerically determine how the non-uniform distribution of the refrigerant in a multiport mini-channel tube affects the heat transfer coefficient and compare these results with our experimental measurements. PB Begell House LK https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/4c8f5faa331b09ea,38a7cebe5edbc6fd,680b1e5e595d1654.html