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Applied Thermal Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a p t h e r m e n g

Research Paper

Thermal performance calculation and analysis of heat transfer tube in

super open rack vaporizer
Jie Pan *, Ran Li, Tao Lv, Gang Wu, Zhian Deng
College of Petroleum Engineering, Xian Shiyou University, Xian 710065, Shaanxi Province, China

H I G H L I G H T S

A distributed parameter model for SuperORV heat transfer tube was developed.
Temperature and heat transfer coecient proles along tube length were estimated.
The effects of operating parameters on thermal performance were discussed.
The effects of inner n or twisted tape insert on thermal performance were studied.

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: As one of the most widely-used liqueed natural gas (LNG) vaporizer, super open rack vaporizer (SuperORV)
Received 27 June 2015 consists of panel-shaped heat transfer tubes with duplex tube conguration. In this paper, an energy balance-
Accepted 17 September 2015 based distributed parameter model for predicting the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer
Available online 8 October 2015
tube was developed, where introduces numerous empirical correlations. The results from the model exhibit
a good agreement with the experimental data, which implies the calculation model is reliable. Based on
Keywords:
this, the heat transfer process of SuperORV heat transfer tube was simulated numerically, the bulk uid
LNG
and metal temperature proles along the heat transfer tube was obtained at the condition with ice for-
SuperORV
Heat transfer tube mation and heat transfer enhancement measures, the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer
Distributed parameter model tube was analyzed, and the effects of operating parameters and heat transfer enhancement measures
Thermal performance on the thermal performance were discussed. The results show that the operating parameters have im-
portant effects on the thermal performance of heat transfer tube, and the heat transfer enhancement
measures can improve the heat transfer performance markedly. The required minimum tube length while
both inner n and twisted tape insert were applied is shortened by 60% compared with that without
heat transfer enhancement measures.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction key equipment is used to regasify LNG to meet the requirement of

Flexibility of supply and demand is essential for ecient oper-
ation of natural gas industry [1]. With the advantages consisting of
high exibility, and low storage and transportation cost, LNG links
different markets together by allowing shifting volumes between
regions, beneting from differences in their supply and demand
balance [2], and has become the worlds fastest-growing primary
energy commodity. The production and trade of LNG are increas-
ingly active, and are becoming an important hotspot for oil and
natural gas industry.
As important component of the LNG industry chain, numbers
of LNG receiving terminals have been commercially developed or
are under construction in many countries, where vaporizer as the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 29 88382932; fax: +86 29 88382932.
E-mail address: jackpan@xsyu.edu.cn (J. Pan).
fuel gas in industrial and domestic purposes. There are several types
of mainly-used vaporization schemes in LNG receiving terminal, in-
cluding submerged-combustion vaporizer (SCV), intermediate uid
vaporizer (IFV), open-rack vaporizer (ORV) and SuperORV [3].
As one of the most representative LNG vaporizers, convention-
al ORV consists of panel-shaped heat transfer tubes, and seawater
is used for the heat source. Whereas, it is limited for the increase
of vaporizing capacity and the decrease of seawater consumption
rate and installation space for conventional ORV due to the follow-
ing reasons [4]: (1) the heat transfer eciency reduces evidently
with increasing LNG ow rate; (2) it is dicult to form a falling water
lm with uniform thickness over the external surfaces of the tubes
when the rate of seawater decreases. Furthermore, the seawater
tends to form a thick ice layer on the outside surfaces of heat trans-
fer tubes due to direct heat transfer between seawater and cryogenic
LNG, and the formed thick ice results in a tremendous thermal re-
sistance that deteriorates the heat transfer eciency greatly [5]. The

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.09.047
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
28 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735

ns outside the heat transfer tubes are also choked with thick ice important effects on the vaporization eciency and reliably of va-
layer until their conguration becomes almost invisible, which causes porizer. In this paper, a distributed parameter model for predicting
an effective decrease of heat transfer area [5]. thermal performance of heat transfer tube is developed, which in-
Therefore, a new type of open rack vaporizer (namely SuperORV) troduces numerous empirical correlations of heat transfer. Based
was jointly developed by Osaka Gas and Kobe Steel (Japan), which on the results from the model, a thermal performance analysis of
consists of panel-shaped heat transfer tubes similar to convention- superORV heat transfer tube was conducted, the structure design
al ORV except that the lower part of the tube panels has duplex tube for superORV heat transfer tubes was estimated, and the effects of
conguration. Compared with conventional ORV, the vaporizing ca- operating parameters such as LNG pressure and ow rate, seawater/
pacity of SuperORV was improved evidently and the seawater rate LNG ow rate ratio, LNG ow distribution ratio between annular
required for vaporization was reduced owing to the duplex tube con- channel, and inner tube and heat transfer enhancement measures
guration. As well, the required installation space for SuperORV is on the heat transfer performance were discussed.
reduced and the operation cost was also cut down. The duplex tube
conguration of SuperORV heat transfer tube is characterized with 2. Physical and mathematical models
the annuli between outer and inner tubes, which enhances the heat
transfer between LNG and seawater available by suppressing icing 2.1. Description of physical problem
of seawater on the outside surfaces of heat transfer tubes, and the
length and thickness of ice layer decrease remarkably since the ns Fig. 1 illustrates the geometry of superORV heat transfer tube.
on the heat transfer tubes are maintained in good temperature As shown in Fig. 1, the lower half of the heat transfer tube is de-
condition. signed to be a duplex tube conguration differently from the upper
The heat transfer performance of superORV heat transfer tube section. The lower and upper parts of the heat transfer tube are called
was compared with that of conventional ORV heat transfer tube by vaporizing section and heating section respectively. The vapor-
Morimoto et al. [5], and it was found that SuperORV heat transfer izing section consists of an outer tube with petal-shaped internal
tube can contribute to not only lowering the cost for gas produc- n and similar triangular external n, and an inner tube with double
tion, but also saving energy. The results of pilot plant tests indicate twisted tape inserts. The heating section is only a circular tube with
that superORV increases LNG vaporizing rate per heat transfer tube petal-shaped internal n and similar triangular external n, where
3 to 5 times, reduces the operating cost, construction cost and in- cross-shaped twisted tape inserts are applied.
stallation space by 15%, 10%, and 40% respectively, and seawater was LNG with low temperature of 162 C is distributed to different
reduced by approximately 15%. heat transfer tubes by the distribution header at the bottom of va-
With the aim to reveal and improve the performance of LNG va- porizer. The LNG ows upward inside heat transfer tubes while
porizer, numerous researchers respectively conducted a series of seawater ows downward along the outside surfaces of heat trans-
experimental study and numerical simulation. Jeong et al. [6] com- fer tubes. At vaporizing section, some of the cryogenic LNG ows
pared the characteristics of two types of longitudinal n air- into the annular channel between outer tube and inner tube, and
heating vaporizers experimentally by analyzing the inletoutlet is heated by external falling seawater lm and vaporized rapidly,
enthalpy difference and the outlet uid temperature at different and the other directly enters inner tube and is heated by absorb-
length scales and ambient conditions. A CFD analysis on longitu- ing the heat from outside NG until gasied to the saturated vapor.
dinally nned tube of air-heating vaporizer was conducted by Jeong The superheated NG from the annular channel and the saturated
et al. [7], the natural convection heat transfer for natural convec- NG owing out of the inner tube are mixed and further heated in
tion outside the tube was estimated, and corresponding heat transfer heating section. After adequate heat absorption in heating section,
correlation was proposed. Jeong et al. [8] also carried out a numer- it turns to superheated vapor with ambient temperature, and at last
ical analysis of vaporizer for obtaining optimum design of assembles together in collection header at the top of vaporizer.
longitudinal n air-heating vaporizer and the prediction frost deposit Outside and inside ns for the external tube, as well as a twisted
formation on vaporizer n, and proposed the optimum vaporizer
geometry at the conditions of considering the frost thickness and
without frost deposit presence. Pu et al. [3] developed a thermal
model for intermediate uid vaporizer based on the energy balance
among evaporator, condenser and thermolator, which considered
the mutual coupling and constraints fully. On this basis, the heat
transfer performance of vaporizer, and the effects of operating pa-
rameters, such as seawater temperature and ow rate, LNG pressure
and ow rate were also investigated. Himoto [9] analyzed the con-
ventional designs of submerged combustion vaporizer, including the
process and major factors impacting emissions, and systematical-
ly studied its advanced designs that have been newly developed to
reduce NOx and CO emissions in exhaust gases. Hisada and Sekiguchi
[10] established highly endurable structures through a variety of
tests or nite element method analysis to develop best-suited shapes
(such as sizes and internal/external surface shapes) of ORV heat
transfer tubes by using numerical analysis and thermal stress design.
Jin et al. [11] built a distributed parameter model to simulate the
LNG evaporating process in a SuperORV heat transfer tube, and ob-
tained some signicant results by heat transfer performance analysis.
Complex heat transfer phenomena occur inside the heat trans-
fer tubes of superORV. Whereas, above review shows that previous
studies have mainly focused on air-heating vaporizer and few studies
reported the thermal performance of superORV heat transfer tube,
which is a key indicator for the thermal design of vaporizer and has Fig. 1. Geometry of superORV heat transfer tube.
 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735 29

tape insert in inner tube, are used to further improve the heat trans-  hsw 2
h1sw
fer eciency of heat transfer tube. msw = ( do + 2b ) sw 1
( Tsw1 T01 )
z
2 k ( T01 T11 )
( do + 2b ) sw ( Tsw T0 ) =
1 1 1
2.2. Mathematical model ln (1 + 2b do ) (2)

Based on the steady-state heat transfer theory, a distributed pa- ( do + 2b ) 1
sw ( T 1
sw T 1
0 ) = di i1 ( Tl1 Tg1 )
h2 h1g
rameter model was developed for the vaporizing section under icing mg g = di i1 ( Tl1 Tg1 )
condition, on the assumption that the ow pressure drop along the z
heat transfer tube, the axial and circumferential heat transfer, the
At no icing condition, the heat transfer equations of vaporizing
radial thermal resistance of internal and external tube wall, and the
section, with 5 independent unknown variables of z , T11, T21, hsw2
,
effects of formed ice layer on heat transfer area are ignored. Based
hg2 , were given by:
on above assumption, Fig. 2 shows the heat ow transfer process
of vaporizing section with ice layer presence.  hsw 2
h1sw
This model consists of some discretized equations derived from msw = d1,o sw 1
( Tsw1 T11 )
z
the energy balance of heat transfer tube, which illustrates that: (1)
d1,o sw ( Tsw T0 ) = d1,i1,i ( T1 Tg )
1 1 1 1 1 1
the increase of seawater enthalpy, the convective heat transfer rate
h hg
2 1
from the seawater to the external surface of ice layer, the heat trans- mg g = d1,i11,i ( T11 Tg1 ) d2,o 21,o ( Tg1 T21 ) (3)
fer rate through the ice layer by thermal conduction, and the z
convective heat transfer rate from the internal surface of outer tube d2,o 21,o ( Tg1 T21 ) = d2,i 21,i ( T21 Tl1 )
to the NG in annular channel are equal; (2) the enthalpy changes
 hl hl
2 1

ml z = d2,i 2,i ( T2 Tl )
1 1 1
of the NG owing in annular channel and the LNG inside inner tube
are respectively equal to the sum of the heat transfer rates through
its boundaries; (3) the heat ow transferred from NG to inner tube and the heat transfer equations of heating section without ice layer
wall is equal to that from inner tube wall to LNG. The proposed presence were obtained by the same way:
discretized equations are expressed as follows:
 hsw 2
h1sw
 hsw 2
h1sw msw = do sw 1
( Tsw1 T11 )
= ( d1,o + 2b ) sw
1
( Tsw1 T01 ) z
msw z do sw ( Tsw T0 ) = di i ( T1 Tg )
1 1 1 1 1 1
(4)
2 k ( T01 T11 ) h hg
2 1
( d1,o + 2b ) sw ( Tsw T0 ) = m = di i1 ( T11 Tg1 )
1 1 1
 g
ln (1 + 2b d1,o ) g z
( d1,o + 2b ) sw

1
( Tsw T0 ) = d1,i11,i ( T11 Tg1 )
1 1
(1) where only 3 independent unknown variables exist, including z ,
 hg hg
2 1

m g z = d1,i1,i ( T1 Tg ) d2,o 2,o ( Tg T2 )

1 1 1 1 1 1 T11 , hsw
2
.

d2,o 2,o ( Tg T2 ) = d2,i 2,i ( T2 Tl )
1 1 1 1 1 1
2.3. Heat transfer correlations

 hl hl = d2,i 21,i ( T21 Tl1 )
2 1
m
l z Diverse heat transfer mechanisms exist in different parts of
SuperORV heat transfer tube, which are the bases for thermal cal-
An assumption different from Ref. [11] was applied in the present culation. In the present model, the heat transfer tube was divided
model, where the external surface temperature of ice layer was con- into different heat transfer regimes through corresponding crite-
sidered to be a known parameter slightly smaller than the freezing ria, including pure liquid convection zone, subcooled boiling zone,
point of seawater, and the ice thickness was treated as an unknown saturated boiling zone, mist ow evaporation zone and super-
variable. There are 6 independent unknown variables in the above- heated vapor convection zone, and a series of applicable empirical
mentioned equations, containing z , b, T11, T21, hsw
2
, hg2 . correlations were introduced to evaluate the heat transfer in various
Considering the ice formation, the heat transfer equations of zones.
heating section were obtained in the similar manner, which has 4
independent unknown variables including z , b, T11, hsw 2
:
2.3.1. Convective heat transfer for single-phase uid
A trial calculation shows that the Reynolds numbers of the
subcooled LNG in inner tube and the superheated NG in both annular
channel and heating section were more than 104, thereby the ow
proles all belonged to turbulent ow according to corresponding
criterion. Therefore, the classic DittuseBoelter correlation was
applied to calculate the heat transfer coecients of above-mentioned
single-phase uid, and the formula is expressed by [12]:

Nu = 0.023Re0.8 Pr n (5)

where n = 0.4 for heating the uid and n = 0.3 for cooling the uid,
and the scope of application is l/d > 60, Re > 104, 0.7 < Pr < 120.

2.3.2. Heat transfer for subcooled ow boiling

For partial subcooled ow boiling, the total heat ux was assumed
to be the sum of contributions due to single-phase forced
convection qspl and nucleate boiling qsnb, which can be determined
Fig. 2. Heat ow of vaporizing section with ice layer presence. by Rohsenow method [12]. In this method, conventional
30 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735

single-phase correlation was used to predict the convective k Pr x + (1 x )( v l )( kv kl )

contribution, and the nucleate boiling contribution was x, l , l , v , v =
v kv l Prl x + (1 x ) ( v l )( v l )
computed by: (15)
0.4
x + (1 x )( v l )
1 1

g ( l v )
2
0.33
c (T T ) 0.33 x + (1 x )( v l )( Prv Prl )
qsnb = l ilv Pr 1.7 pl w sat (6)
C sf ilv
The recommended value of x is 0.95 according to Ref. [12].
The detailed denition for the correlation can be found in Ref.
[12]. 2.3.5. Heat transfer for convective condensation
In two-phase region, the heat transfer between the outside surface
of inner tube and the NG in annular channel was considered to be
2.3.3. Heat transfer for saturated ow boiling convective condensation. A correlation for downow internal con-
The Chen correlation was used to calculate the heat transfer co- vective condensation from Ref. [12] was used to calculate the heat
ecients for saturated convective boiling, which is based on linear transfer in saturated boiling zone, which is cast in the form:
superposition presupposition of the microscopic (nucleate boiling)
0.5
and microscopic (bulk convective) contributions, and the formula 20 1
= 0.028 l Rel0.9 Prl0.5 1 +
k
is expressed by: + (16)
d Xtt Xtt2
tp = mic + mac (7)
For mist ow evaporation zone, the heat transfer between the
outside surface of inner tube and the NG in annular channel was
In Chen correlation, the microscopic contribution is evaluated
assumed to be convective condensation with annular ow, and the
as:
local heat transfer coecient correlation was proposed as [12]:
mac = l F ( Xtt ) (8) 0.5
1.376 + 8 Xtt1.655
= 0.0274 l Rel0.6792Prl x0.2208
k
(17)
where
d Xtt2

1 for Xtt1 0.1 The detailed denition for the correlation can be found in

F ( Xtt ) = 1
0.736 (9) Ref. [12].
2.35 0.213 + for Xtt1 > 0.1
Xtt
2.3.6. Heat transfer for seawater falling lm ow
and the single-phase coecient for liquid alone hl is calculated using The thickness of ice layer on the outside surfaces of heat trans-
the DittuseBoelter equation, fer tube is seen to be invariable at steady state conditions. Thereby,
seawater only released its explicit heat to the NG in heat transfer
l = 0.023 l Rel0.8 Prl0.4
k
(10) tube by convective heat transfer. The Wilke formula [13] was applied
d
to the convective heat transfer of seawater side, which are given
The microscopic contribution to the overall heat transfer coef- by
cient is determined by applying the following correction:
* = 0.00681Re0.43 Pr 0.344 (18)
1
k c 0.79 0.45
0.49 2 where the dimensionless heat transfer coecient * is dened by
hmic = 0.00122 0.5 0.29 0.24 0.24 [Tw Tsat ( pl )] [ psat ( Tw ) pl ] S
l pl l 0.24 0.75

l hlv v
* = ( h ) ( 2 g )
13
(11)
where
The applicable range of the above formula is Re > 3200,
S ( Retp ) = (1 + 2.56 106 Re1tp.17 )
1
(12) 5 < Pr < 210.

Retp = Rel [ F ( Xtt )]

1.25
(13) 2.4. Enhanced heat transfer calculation

Three heat transfer enhancement measures, including similar tri-

2.3.4. Heat transfer for mist ow evaporation
At low to moderate heat ux and wall superheat levels, the crit-
ical heat ux (CHF) transition corresponds to liquid lm dryout and
is a transition to mist ow evaporation. The mist ow evaporation
regime is also referred to as liquid decient region and the regime
of dispersed ow heat transfer. The dispersed mist ow behaves like
single-phase ow of a pseudo-uid with appropriately dened mean
properties of vapor and liquid, thereby the homogeneous ow model
was introduced in the DittuseBoelter correlation to evaluate the
mist ow evaporation heat transfer [12]:
k Pr
Nuv = 0.023 Re0v.8 Prv04 x, l , l , v , v
v kv l Prl
where the correction factor represents the average property of
the two-phase pseudo-uid:
angular n, petal-shaped n, and twisted tape insert are applied
in SuperORV heat transfer tubes, as introduced in Ref. [4,5]. The
similar triangular ns and petal-shaped ns are respectively applied
on the external and internal surface of both the outer tube of va-
porizing section and the heating section part, which can enhance
the heat transfer between bulk uid and tube wall by extending heat
transfer surface and increasing turbulence intensity. The cross-
shaped twisted tape insert is applied in the inner tube of vaporizing
section to enhance the convective heat transfer because vortex ow
induces the reduction of thermal boundary layer thickness and the
increase of secondary ow intensity.
Since the actual heat transfer coecient of seawater side is far
(14)
lower than calculated value, the enhancement effect of the similar
triangular n outside the heat transfer tube is ignored in this paper,
and the heat transfer coecient for numerical calculation is 85%
of the results computed from Wilke correlation, in the light of the
 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735 31

comparison between the calculated tube length and the experi- Table 2
mental data from Ref. [10]. The enhancement mechanism of twisted Basic technical parameters for numerical simulation.

tape insert on heat transfer can be attributed to the following three Parameter Value
aspects: smaller hydraulic diameter, stronger secondary ow and LNG mass ow rate (kg/s) 0.0972
good thermal contact between tape and tube wall [14]. In the present Inlet temperature of LNG (K) 130
model, a twisted tape with a helix angle of 45 was chosen for inner Seawater outlet temperature (K) 277.65
tube, which can improve the Nusselt number to 1.8 times for tur- Seawater pressure (MPa) 0.1
Required outlet temperature of NG (K) 275
bulent ow according to Ref. [15]. The petal-shaped internal n in Seawater freezing point (K) 271.25
outer tube was equivalent to rectangular straight n with the n Thermal conductivity of ice (W m1 K1) 2.22
height of 3.0 mm and the n base thickness of 2.2 mm, and its en-
hancement effects can be evaluated by n eciency and increased
surface area. The n eciency of rectangular straight n is calcu-
temperature was supposed to be the freezing point of seawater
lated by
which is generally considered to be 271.25 K (1.9 C). The thermal
tanh ( mH ) conductivity of ice was postulated to be 2.22 W m1 K1, and the at-
f = (19) mospheric pressure of 0.1 MPa was adopted as the outlet pressure
mH
of seawater.
and
4. Results and discussion
2 H +
mH = (20)
k 2 4.1. Model validation and heat transfer performance analysis

3. Solution procedure To assess the predictive accuracy of the proposed model, a nu-
merical simulation for the thermal performance of conventional ORV
A FORTRAN code based on above-mentioned distributed pa- heat transfer tube was conducted. Fig. 4 shows the comparison
rameter models was developed to calculate the thermal performance between the calculation results and the data from the experi-
of SuperORV heat transfer tube numerically. In the calculation, ments in Ref. [10]. Most of the calculation results are in good
methane as the main composition was used to replace the LNG and agreement with the experimental data, which implies that the nu-
NG, and its thermal properties of methane were computed with a merical simulation with this model is reliable. As illustrated in Fig. 4,
code in the REFPROP package developed by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (US) [16]. Because the salt content of
seawater is very little, a subroutine for thermodynamic properties
of water and steam based on IAPWS-IF97 was applied in the thermal
properties calculation of seawater.
In the iterative solution of models, the SuperORV heat transfer
tube was divided into different heat transfer elements along the ow
direction based on constant enthalpy difference. For each element,
the outlet parameters can be calculated from the inlet parameters
according to the energy conservation equations, and numerous heat
transfer correlations and thermal properties data. Then, they were
applied in the calculation of next element as the inlet parameters.
At last, the data for all elements can be obtained by the model
solution.
The thermal performance calculation and analysis of SuperORV
heat transfer tube was carried out for the following two cases, dif-
fering by whether these form ice layers on the outside surfaces of
outer nned tube. The superheated NG owing out of the annular
channel and the saturated NG from the inner tube converge in the
heating section. The temperature of the mixed NG at the inlet of
the heating section was derived from its enthalpy which was pos-
tulated to be the sum of those of the NG out of the inner tube and
the annular channel.
The basic geometrical and technical parameters available for the
numerical calculation of heat transfer tube are respectively sum-
marized in Table 1 and Table 2, and the calculation procedure is
illustrated in Fig. 3. In the present calculation, the ices surface

Table 1
Basic geometrical parameters of SuperORV heat transfer tube.

Parameter Value

Outside diameter of outer tube (mm) 36

Inside diameter of outer tube (mm) 22
Outside diameter of inner tube (mm) 18
Inside diameter of inner tube (mm) 16
Helix angle of twisted tape insert 45
Fig. 3. Logical diagram of the calculation program.
32 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735
Fig. 4. Temperature proles in conventional ORV heat transfer tube.
an obvious reduction of nned tube temperature is found to exist
in two-phase zone on account of the heat transfer enhancement re-
sulting from ow boiling. There is no similar change trend in practical
case owing to the existence of the heat transfer difference between
LNG and methane in two-phase zone.
In the lower part of heat transfer tube, the low temperature LNG
temperature and the nned tube temperature increase monoto-
nously with increasing tube length through continual decalescence.
While the tube length reaches 1.36 m, the ow enters two-phase
zone and the tube wall temperatures have a sharp decrease due to
the heat transfer enhancement of two-phase boiling. Then, the LNG
temperature is maintained at saturation value of 177.2 K, as the tube
wall temperature experience an obvious jump with respect to the
abrupt augment of convective heat transfer coecient in different
heat transfer regimes. At a tube length of 2.36 m, the nned tube
temperature has an abrupt rise by reason of liquid lm dryout. While
the tube length exceeds 2.53 m, the nned tube temperature in-
creases speedily once again with the temperature increase of the
superheated NG in tube.
Figs. 5 and 6 respectively present the temperature and heat trans-
fer coecient (considering the effects of heat transfer enhancement
Fig. 5. Temperature proles in SuperORV heat transfer tube.
Fig. 6. Heat transfer coecient proles in SuperORV heat transfer tube.
measures) proles in SuperORV heat transfer tube at the pressure
of 4 MPa, where the operating parameters and boundary condi-
tions for numerical calculation are also given. In Fig. 5, at the lower
part of the heat transfer tube, the monotonous temperature rise of
the low temperature LNG in inner tube and annular channel with
increasing tube length derived from continual decalescence, and the
temperature curves of external nned tube and inner tube show a
similar change trend. At the same location, the heat transfer coef-
cients for the seawater side and the inside of inner tube are almost
constant, and these for the inside of nned tube and the outside
of inner tube have a slight increase, as shown in Fig. 6.
While the tube length reaches 0.99 m, the ow in annular channel
enters two-phase zone, the heat transfer coecients for the inside
of nned tube and the outside of inner tube are augmented evi-
dently due to the heat transfer enhancement of two-phase boiling,
and commensurately, the wall temperature of inner tube experi-
ences an obvious jump. In two-phase zone, the LNG is maintained
at the saturation temperature of 177.2 K, and the inner tube shows
a similar trend with a constant temperature slightly lower than the
saturation value. Whereas, the wall temperatures of external nned
tube decrease sharply and then have an abrupt augment at tube
length of 1.62 m accompanying obvious jump of heat transfer co-
ecient, by reason of liquid lm dryout.
While the tube length exceeds 1.69 m, the superheated NG and
metal temperatures of the heat transfer tube increase speedily once
again along the ow direction, and the heat transfer coecients for
the inside of nned tube and the outside of inner tube are reduced
commensurately. The wall temperature increase of external nned
tube is slowed down over the tube length of 2.40 m because no ice
layer forms on the outside surface of nned tube accompanied by
a low and almost constant heat transfer coecient. Similar tem-
perature trend of the LNG in annular channel and the inner tube
appears at a larger tube length.
Also, constant LNG temperature and obvious jump of the inner
tube temperature occur in inner tube at the tube length from 3.02 m
to 3.95 m and the heat transfer coecient between LNG and inner
tube is augmented markedly owing to two-phase ow boiling, ac-
companied by almost invariable temperature of the nned tube and
the NG in annuli. At the tube length of 3.95 m, the temperatures
of nned tube and NG experience obvious jumps because the mixing
process of superheated NG owing out of the annular channel and
the saturated NG from the inner tube at the interface between the
vaporizing and heating sections were ignored. Similar jump exists
 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735 33

Fig. 8. Thermal performance of heat transfer tube at different LNG pressure.

Fig. 7. Comparison of ice thickness between SuperORV and conventional ORV.

Fig. 9 illustrates the required minimum length of LNG vaporiz-

ing section and heating section, and the length and thickness of ice
in the heat transfer coecient of the heating section. While the tube layer formed outside the nned tube at different seawater/LNG ow
length exceeds 3.95 m, the mixed NG ows into the heating section, rate ratio. In Fig. 9, the ice thickness and the length of ice layer are
the heat transfer coecient of NG almost keeps constant, and the reduced monotonously with increasing seawater/LNG ratio, and the
temperature of nned tube increases gradually with increasing tube required length of LNG vaporizing section shows a similar trend.
length because of continuous heat absorption, at last near the sea- These are because the heat transfer between seawater and outside
water temperature. The required minimum tube length of vaporizing surface of nned tube is enhanced evidently. In contrast, the re-
section and heating section are 3.95 m and 2.596 m respectively. As quired length of LNG heating section has an obvious increase with
shown in Fig. 5, the temperature variation of seawater is about the augment of seawater/LNG ratio. The reason is that low heat trans-
3.4 K, which results in an almost invariable heat transfer coe- fer rate results from low seawater temperature, as illustrated in Fig. 9,
cient in Fig. 6. because the larger the seawater/LNG ratio is, the lower the average
The thickness distribution curves of ice layer formed outside the temperature of seawater outside the nned tube becomes.
heat transfer tube of SuperORV and conventional ORV are given in Fig. 10 shows the required minimum length of LNG vaporizing
Fig. 7. It shows that the length and average thickness of ice layer section and heating section, and the length and thickness of ice layer
on conventional ORV are 2.88 m and 3.15 mm respectively. Com- formed outside the nned tube at different LNG ow distribution
pared with conventional ORV, SuperORV has a shorter length of ice ratio between annular channel and inner tube. In Fig. 10, the ice
layer of 2.40 m and a smaller ice thickness of 2.89 mm, even with thickness and the length of ice layer rise monotonously with in-
a larger LNG ow rate, which indicates the heat transfer enhance- creasing LNG ow distribution ratio in virtue of lower temperature
ment effect of duplex tube conguration. of external nned tube derived from the heat transfer enhance-
ment between external nned tube and the LNG/NG in annular
4.2. Effects of operating parameters channel. The required length of LNG vaporizing section and heating
section shows an opposite trend due to the same reason.
Fig. 8 shows the required minimum length of LNG vaporizing
section and heating section, and the length and thickness of ice layer
formed outside the nned tube at different LNG pressure. As shown
in Fig. 8, the ice thickness is reduced and the length of ice layer rises
monotonously with increasing pressure since the two-phase zone
in annular channel becomes shorter which weakens the heat trans-
fer inside nned tube at icing region. However, the required
minimum tube length shows a nonmonotonic change trend with
the increased LNG pressure. The required length of vaporizing section
rises from 4.02 to 4.21 m while the LNG pressure is augmented from
2 to 2.5 MPa, then decreases continually with increasing pressure,
and is reduced to 3.95 m at pressure of 4.0 MPa. This is because the
enthalpy of saturated vapor is reduced with increasing pressure al-
though the heat transfer is weakened at the same time owing to
the shortened two-phase boiling zone. In Fig. 8, the required length
of heating section has a little decrease from 2.52 to 2.45 m with the
increase of LNG pressure from 2.0 to 3.0 MPa, and then increases
to 2.60 m when LNG pressure falls to 4.0 MPa. It depends on the en-
thalpy of the mixed NG at the interface between the vaporizing and
heating sections and the heat transfer in heating section which is
enhanced with the augment of pressure. Fig. 9. Thermal performance of heat transfer tube at different seawater/LNG ratio.
34 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735
Fig. 10. Thermal performance of heat transfer tube at different LNG ow distribu-
tion ratio.
4.3. Effects of heat transfer enhancement measures
Fig. 11 illustrates the required minimum length of LNG vapor-
izing section and heating section, and the length and thickness of
ice layer formed outside the nned tube with different heat trans-
fer enhancement methods applied. In Fig. 11, the required length
of LNG vaporizing section and heating section while there is no heat
transfer enhancement measures apply, are far larger than those for
the heat transfer tube with inner n or twisted tape insert, and the
length of formed ice layer is augmented at heat transfer enhance-
ment conditions. These indicators are minimums when both the
inner n and twisted tape insert are all used to enhance heat trans-
fer. The change trend of ice thickness is, nevertheless, more complex
while different heat transfer enhancement methods are applied. The
thickness of formed ice layer has a little decrease when the heat
transfer inside outer tube is improved by n structures. However,
it is increased when twisted tape insert is applied. The main reason
is that the heat transfer enhancement in inner tube resulting from
twisted tape insert causes the decrease of nned tube tempera-
ture, which benets ice layer formation. The increase of ice thickness
is weakened when both the inner n and twisted tape insert are
Fig. 11. Thermal performance of heat transfer tube with different heat transfer en-
hancement measures.
all used, because the above-mentioned two opposite inuences may
cancel out. As indicated in Fig. 11, the required minimum tube length
can be reduced by 60% when both inner n and twisted tape insert
were applied in SuperORV heat transfer tube.
All in all, the heat transfer enhancement measures can improve
the heat transfer performance markedly, although the enhanced heat
transfer will induce more serious icing which has negative effect
on heat transfer. In addition, the results show that the heating section
is more susceptible to the heat transfer enhancement measures than
the vaporizing section.
5. Conclusions
A distributed parameter model was developed in this paper to
explore the LNG evaporating process in the new-type heat trans-
fer tube. In terms of diverse heat transfer mechanisms, the heat
transfer tube was divided into different heat transfer regions by cor-
responding criteria, and appropriate correlations were introduced
to evaluate the heat transfer in various regions.
The model was validated by experimental data from Ref. [10] and
the comparison shows a good agreement, which implies that the
distributed parameter model is reliable. Based on this, the heat trans-
fer process of SuperORV heat transfer tube was simulated
numerically, the temperature and heat transfer coecient temper-
ature proles along the heat transfer tube was obtained at the
condition with ice formation and heat transfer enhancement mea-
sures, the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer tube was
analyzed, and the effects of LNG pressure and ow rate, seawater/
LNG ow rate ratio, LNG ow distribution and heat transfer
enhancement measures on the thermal performance including the
length of vaporizing section and heating section, the length and thick-
ness of ice layer formed outside the nned tube were discussed.
The results show that the operating parameters have impor-
tant effects on the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer
tube. The required minimum tube length of vaporizing section is
reduced with increasing seawater/LNG ratio and LNG ow distri-
bution ratio, and that of heating section rises with the increase of
seawater/LNG ratio and decreases with the augment of LNG ow
distribution ratio. However, the required tube length shows a
nonmonotonic change trend with the increased LNG pressure. The
ice thickness decreases with increased LNG pressure and seawater/
LNG ow rate ratio, and increases with the augment of LNG ow
distribution ratio. The length of ice layer rises with increasing LNG
pressure and LNG ow distribution ratio, and is reduced with the
increase of seawater/LNG ratio. The required seawater is sensitive
to the change of seawater/LNG ratio.
The heat transfer enhancement measures can improve the heat
transfer performance markedly, and the required tube length can
be reduced by 60% although the enhanced heat transfer will induce
more serious icing which has negative effect on heat transfer.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (Grant No. 51304160) and Natural Science Basic
Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Program No.
2014JQ7274).
Nomenclature
A heat transfer area, m2
b thickness of ice, m
Csf constant referring liquidsurface combination
cp specic heat at constant pressure, J kg1 K1
d tube diameter or hydraulic diameter, m
g acceleration of gravity, m s2
 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735 35

H n height, mm mac macroscopic (bulk convective) contribution

h specic enthalpy, J kg1 o outside surface
hlv enthalpy difference between saturated vapor and satu- sw seawater
rated liquid, J kg1 snb nucleate boiling
i latent heat, J/kg1 K1 sat saturation state
k thermal conductivity, W m1 K1 tp two-phase
m  mass ow rate, kg s1 v vapor
Nu Nusselt number w wall
f n eciency
Pr Prandtl number References
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