Experimental investigation of heat transfer coefficient of R134a during condensation in vertical downward flow at high mass flux in a smooth tube

The two-phase heat transfer coefficients of pure HFC-134a condensing inside a smooth tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 0.5 m long double tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is constructed from smooth copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 8.1 mm inner diameter. The test runs are performed at average saturation condensing temperatures between 40–50 °C. The mass fluxes are between 260 and 515 kg m^− 2s^− 1 and the heat fluxes are between 11.3 and 55.3 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The average heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerant is determined by applying an energy balance based on the energy transferred from the test section. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and condensation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients are also discussed. Eleven well-known correlations for annular flow are compared to each other using a large amount of data obtained from various experimental conditions. A new correlation for the condensation heat transfer coefficient is proposed for practical applications.     

Experimental study of evaporation heat transfer characteristics of refrigerants R-134a and R-407C in horizontal small tubes

An experiment is carried out here to investigate the characteristics of the evaporation heat transfer for refrigerants R-134a and R-407C flowing in horizontal small tubes having the same inside diameter of 0.83 or 2.0 mm. In the experiment for the 2.0-mm tubes, the refrigerant mass flux G is varied from 200 to 400 kg/m² s, imposed heat flux q from 5 to 15 kW/m², inlet vapor quality x_in from 0.2 to 0.8 and refrigerant saturation temperature T_sat from 5 to 15 °C. While for the 0.83-mm tubes, G is varied from 800 to 1500 kg/m² s with the other parameters varied in the same ranges as those for D_i = 2.0 mm. In the study the effects of the refrigerant vapor quality, mass flux, saturation temperature and imposed heat flux on the measured evaporation heat transfer coefficient h_r are examined in detail. The experimental data clearly show that both the R-134a and R-407C evaporation heat transfer coefficients increase almost linearly and significantly with the vapor quality of the refrigerant, except at low mass flux and high heat flux. Besides, the evaporation heat transfer coefficients also increase substantially with the rises in the imposed heat flux, refrigerant mass flux and saturation temperature. At low R-134a mass flux and high imposed heat flux the evaporation heat transfer coefficient in the smaller tubes (D_i = 0.83 mm) may decline at increasing vapor quality when the quality is high, due to the partial dryout of the refrigerant flow in the smaller tubes at these conditions. We also note that under the same x_in, T_sat, G, q and D_i, refrigerant R-407C has a higher h_r when compared with that for R-134a. Finally, an empirical correlation for the R-134a and R-407C evaporation heat transfer coefficients in the small tubes is proposed.     

Experimental study of R-134a evaporation heat transfer in a narrow annular duct

An experiment is carried out here to investigate the evaporation heat transfer and associated evaporating flow pattern for refrigerant R-134a flowing in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm. In the experiment, the effects of the duct gap, refrigerant vapor quality, mass flux and saturation temperature and imposed heat flux on the measured evaporation heat transfer coefficient h_r are examined in detail. For the duct gap of 2.0 mm, the refrigerant mass flux G is varied from 300 to 500 kg/m² s, imposed heat flux q from 5 to 15 kW/m², vapor quality x_m from 0.05 to 0.95, and refrigerant saturation temperature T_sat from 5 to 15 °C. While for the gap of 1.0 mm, G is varied from 500 to 700 kg/m² s with the other parameters varied in the same ranges as that for δ = 2.0 mm. The experimental data clearly show that the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases almost linearly with the vapor quality of the refrigerant and the increase is more significant at a higher G. Besides, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient also rises substantially at increasing q. Moreover, a significant increase in the evaporation heat transfer coefficient results for a rise in T_sat, but the effects are less pronounced in the narrower duct at a low imposed heat flux and a high refrigerant mass flux. Furthermore, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases substantially with the refrigerant mass flux except at low vapor quality. We also note that reducing the duct gap causes a significant increase in h_r. In addition to the heat transfer data, photos of R-134a evaporating flow taken from the duct side show the change of the dominant two-phase flow pattern in the duct with the experimental parameters. Finally, an empirical correlation for the present measured heat transfer coefficient for the R-134a evaporation in the narrow annular ducts is proposed.     

Generalized neural network model of alternative refrigerant (R600a) inside a smooth tube

The correct prediction of refrigerant condensation heat transfer performance is important for design of condensers. A generalized neural network correlation for condensation heat transfer coefficient of alternative refrigerant R600a inside horizontal tube has been developed in this paper. Mass flow rate, vapor qualities, saturation temperature, difference value temperature are selected as the input parameters, while the Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient as the output. Three-layer network is used for predicting the Nusselt number and the heat transfer coefficient. The number of the neurons in the hidden layer was determined by a trial and error process together with cross-validation of the experimental data evaluating the performance of the network and standard sensitivity analysis. The trained network gives the best values over the correlations with less than 4% mean relative error. The experimental data of the heat transfer coefficients of R600a, a hydrocarbon refrigerant, in a horizontal smooth copper tube with an inner diameter of 4 mm and outer diameter of 6 mm are from Agra et al. [O. Agra, “Condensation of refrigerants in a horizontal tube in annular flow regime”, PhD thesis Yildiz Technical University, 2007]. The condensing heat transfer coefficients obtained from the experimental study were seen to be consistent by ± 20% with the correlations developed by Shah [M.M. Shah, A general correlation for heat transfer during film condensation inside pipes, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 22 (1979) 547–556], Travis [D.P. Traviss, W.M. Rohsenow, A.B. Baron, Forced convection condensation inside tubes: a heat transfer equation for condenser design, ASHRAE Trans. 79 (1972) 157–165] and Cavallini-Zecchin [A. Cavallini, R. Zecchin, A dimensionless correlation for heat transfer in forced convection condensation, Proceedings of the Fifth International Heat Transfer Conference, vol. 3, 1974, pp. 309–313]. And it is seen that results from the trained network shows good agreement with the experimental data and better results than the correlations given by Shah, Cavallini and Travis.     

Experimental study of condensation heat transfer of R-134a flow in corrugated tubes with different inclinations

This experimental study is performed to investigate condensation heat transfer coefficient of R-134a flow inside corrugated tube with different inclinations. Different inclinations of test condenser ranging from − 90^° to + 90^° and various flow mass velocities in the range of 87 to 253 [kg/m²s] are considered in this study. Data analysis showed that change in the tube inclination had a significant effect on condensation heat transfer behavior. At low mass velocities, and low vapor qualities, the highest condensation heat transfer coefficient was obtained for α = + 30^° which was 1.41 times greater than the least one obtained for α = − 90^°. The results also showed that at all mass velocities, the highest average heat transfer coefficients were achieved for α = + 30^°. Based on the experimental results, a new empirical correlation is proposed to predict the condensation heat transfer coefficient of R134a flow in corrugated tubes with different inclinations.     

CFD modeling of heat transfer of CO2 at supercritical pressures flowing vertically in porous tubes

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool has been used for investigation of convective heat transfer of CO₂ in two porous tubes. Effects of some important parameters such as pressure, inlet temperature, mass flow rate, wall heat flux and porosity on temperature distribution and local heat transfer coefficients have been studied numerically. Near the supercritical conditions, these parameters are very effective on temperature gradient and local heat transfer coefficients. For example at p = 9.5 MPa, under the same conditions, the heat transfer coefficient in a tube with particle diameters of 0.1–0.12 mm is about 20–30% higher than when the particle diameter of 0.2–0.28 mm were used. The heat transfer coefficient increases with decreasing pressure and increasing mass flow rate. Also the porosity of the bed has the important role on the heat transfer. The CFD predictions have been compared to the experimental data and showed pretty good agreement.     

Condensation heat transfer of R-134a inside a microfin tube with different tube inclinations

Experimental heat transfer studies during condensation of pure R-134a vapor inside a single microfin tube have been carried out. The microfin tube has been provided with different tube inclination angles of the direction of fluid flow from horizontal, α. The data are acquired for seven different tube inclinations, α, in a range of −90 to +90° and three mass velocities of 54, 81, and 107 kg/m²-s for each inclination angle during condensation of R-134a vapor. The experimental results indicate that the tube inclination angle of, α, affects the condensation heat transfer coefficient in a significant manner. The highest heat transfer coefficient is attained at inclination angle of α = +30°. The effect of inclination angle, α, on heat transfer coefficient, h, is more prominent at low vapor quality and mass velocity. A correlation has also been developed to predict the condensing side heat transfer coefficient for different vapor qualities and mass velocities.     

Two-phase friction factor in vertical downward flow in high mass flux region of refrigerant HFC-134a during condensation

The two-phase pressure drop of the pure refrigerant HFC-134a during condensation inside a vertical tube-in-tube heat exchanger was investigated. The double tube test section was 0.5 m long with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube was constructed from smooth copper tubing of 8.1 mm inner diameter and 9.52 mm outer diameter. The test runs were performed at average condensing temperatures of 40–50 °C. The mass fluxes were between 260 and 515 kg m^− 2 s^− 1 and the heat fluxes between 11.3 and 55.3 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section was calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section was directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. A new correlation for the two-phase friction factor of R134a flow is proposed by means of the equivalent Reynolds number model. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and condensation temperature on the pressure drop are also discussed.     

Artificial neural network techniques for the determination of condensation heat transfer characteristics during downward annular flow of R134a inside a vertical smooth tube

In this study, the best artificial intelligence method is investigated to estimate the measured convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R134a flowing downward inside a vertical smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 8.1 mm and a length of 500 mm during annular flow numerically. R134a and water are used as working fluids in the tube side and annular side of a double tube heat exchanger, respectively. The ANN training sets have the experimental data of in-tube condensation tests including six different mass fluxes of R134a such as 260, 300, 340, 400, 456 and 515 kg m^− 2 s^− 1, two different saturation temperatures of R134a such as 40 and 50 °C and heat fluxes ranging from 10.16 to 66.61 kW m^− 2. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated considering the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. Input of the ANNs are the measured values of test section such as mass flux, heat flux, the temperature difference between the tube wall and saturation temperature, average vapor quality, while the outputs of the ANNs are the experimental condensation heat transfer coefficient and measured pressure drop in the analysis. Condensation heat transfer characteristics of R134a are modeled to decide the best approach using several artificial neural network (ANN) methods such as multilayer perceptron (MLP), radial basis networks (RBFN), generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Elimination process of the ANN methods is performed by means of 183 data points, divided into two sets randomly, obtained in the experiments. Sets of test and training/validation include 33 and 120/30 data points respectively for the elimination process. Validation process, in terms of various experimental conditions, is done by means of 368 experimental data points having 68 data points for test set and 300 data points for training set. In training phase, 5-fold cross validation is used to determine the best value of ANNs control parameters. The ANNs performances were measured by means of relative error criteria with the usage of unknown test sets. The performance of the method of multi layer perceptron (MLP) with 5-13-1 architecture and radial basis function networks (RBFN) were found to be in good agreement, predicting the experimental condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop with their deviations being within the range of ± 5% for all tested conditions. Dependency of outputs of the ANNs from input values is also investigated in the paper.     

Two-phase flow in high-heat-flux micro-channel heat sink for refrigeration cooling applications: Part II—heat transfer characteristics

This paper is the second of a two-part study concerning two-phase flow and heat transfer characteristics of R134a in a micro-channel heat sink incorporated as an evaporator in a refrigeration cycle. Boiling heat transfer coefficients were measured by controlling heat flux (q″ = 15.9 − 93.8 W/cm²) and vapor quality (x_e = 0.26 − 0.87) over a broad range of mass velocity. While prior studies point to either nucleate boiling or annular film evaporation (convective flow boiling) as dominant heat transfer mechanisms in small channels, the present study shows heat transfer is associated with different mechanisms for low, medium and high qualities. Nucleate boiling occurs only at low qualities (x_e < 0.05) corresponding to very low heat fluxes, and high fluxes produce medium quality (0.05 < x_e < 0.55) or high quality (x_e > 0.55) flows dominated by annular film evaporation. Because of the large differences in heat transfer mechanism between the three quality regions, better predictions are possible by dividing the quality range into smaller ranges corresponding to these flow transitions. A new heat transfer coefficient correlation is recommended which shows excellent predictions for both R134a and water.     

New proposed two-phase multiplier and evaporation heat transfer coefficient correlations for R134a flowing at low mass flux in a multiport minichannel

New correlations of the two-phase multiplier and heat transfer coefficient of R134a during evaporation in a multiport minichannel at low mass flux are proposed. The experimental results were obtained from a test using a counter-flow tube-in-tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and hot water in the gap between the outer and inner tubes. Test section is composed of the extruded multiport aluminium inner tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 1.2 mm and an acrylic outer tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 25.4 mm. The experiments were performed at heat fluxes between 10 and 35 kW/m², and a refrigerant mass flux between 45 and 155 kg/(m² s). Some physical parameters that influenced the frictional pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient are examined and discussed in detail. The pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient results are also compared with existing correlations. Finally, new correlations for predicting the frictional pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient at low mass fluxes are proposed.     

Modelling and performance study of a continuous adsorption refrigeration system driven by parabolic trough solar collector

This article suggests a numerical study of a continuous adsorption refrigeration system consisting of two adsorbent beds and powered by parabolic trough solar collector (PTC). Activated carbon as adsorbent and ammonia as refrigerant are selected. A predictive model accounting for heat balance in the solar collector components and instantaneous heat and mass transfer in adsorbent bed is presented. The validity of the theoretical model has been tested by comparison with experimental data of the temperature evolution within the adsorber during isosteric heating phase. A good agreement is obtained. The system performance is assessed in terms of specific cooling power (SCP), refrigeration cycle COP (COP_cycle) and solar coefficient of performance (COP_s), which were evaluated by a cycle simulation computer program. The temperature, pressure and adsorbed mass profiles in the two adsorbers have been shown. The influences of some important operating and design parameters on the system performance have been analyzed.The study has put in evidence the ability of such a system to achieve a promising performance and to overcome the intermittence of the adsorption refrigeration systems driven by solar energy. Under the climatic conditions of daily solar radiation being about 14 MJ per 0.8 m² (17.5 MJ/m²) and operating conditions of evaporating temperature, T_ev = 0 °C, condensing temperature, T_con = 30 °C and heat source temperature of 100 °C, the results indicate that the system could achieve a SCP of the order of 104 W/kg, a refrigeration cycle COP of 0.43, and it could produce a daily useful cooling of 2515 kJ per 0.8 m² of collector area, while its gross solar COP could reach 0.18.     

Refrigerant flow boiling heat transfer in parallel microchannels as a function of local vapor quality

Flow boiling of refrigerant HFC-134a in a multi-microchannel copper cold plate evaporator is investigated. The heat transfer coefficient is measured locally for the entire range of vapor qualities starting from subcooled liquid to superheated vapor. The test piece contains 17 parallel, rectangular microchannels (0.762 mm wide) of hydraulic diameter 1.09 mm and aspect ratio 2.5. The design of the test facility is validated by a robust energy balance as well as a comparison of single-phase heat transfer coefficients with results from the literature. Results are presented for four different mass fluxes of 20.3, 40.5, 60.8, and 81.0 kg m^?2 s^?1, which correspond to refrigerant mass flow rates of 0.5–2.0 g s^?1, and at three different pressures 400, 550 and 750 kPa corresponding to saturation temperatures of 8.9, 18.7, and 29 °C. The wall heat flux varies from 0 to 20 W/cm² in the experiments. The heat transfer coefficient is found to vary significantly with refrigerant inlet quality and mass flow rate, but only slightly with saturation pressure for the range of values investigated. The peak heat transfer coefficient is observed for a vapor quality of approximately 20%.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerant R-410A flow in a vertical plate heat exchanger

Heat transfer and associated frictional pressure drop in the condensing flow of the ozone friendly refrigerant R-410A in a vertical plate heat exchanger (PHE) are investigated experimentally in the present study. In the experiment two vertical counter flow channels are formed in the exchanger by three plates of commercial geometry with a corrugated sinusoidal shape of a chevron angle of 60°. Downflow of the condensing refrigerant R-410A in one channel releases heat to the upflow of cold water in the other channel. The effects of the refrigerant mass flux, imposed heat flux, system pressure (saturated temperature) and mean vapor quality of R-410A on the measured data are explored in detail. The results indicate that the R-410A condensation heat transfer coefficient and associated frictional pressure drop in the PHE increase almost linearly with the mean vapor quality, but the system pressure only exhibits rather slight effects. Furthermore, increases in the refrigerant mass flux and imposed heat flux result in better condensation heat transfer accompanying with a larger frictional pressure drop. Besides, the imposed heat flux exhibits stronger effects on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop than the refrigerant mass flux especially at low refrigerant vapor quality. The friction factor is found to be strongly influenced by the refrigerant mass flux and vapor quality, but is almost independent of the imposed heat flux and saturated pressure. Finally, an empirical correlation for the R-410A condensation heat transfer coefficient in the PHE is proposed. In addition, results for the friction factor are correlated against the Boiling number and equivalent Reynolds number of the two-phase condensing flow.     

Effect of tube diameter on boiling heat transfer of R-134a in horizontal small-diameter tubes

The boiling heat transfer of refrigerant R-134a flow in horizontal small-diameter tubes with inner diameter of 0.51, 1.12, and 3.1 mm was experimentally investigated. Local heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were measured for a heat flux ranging from 5 to 39 kW/m², mass flux from 150 to 450 kg/m² s, evaporating temperature from 278.15 to 288.15 K, and inlet vapor quality from 0 to 0.2. Flow patterns were observed by using a high-speed video camera through a sight glass at the entrance of an evaporator. Results showed that with decreasing tube diameter, the local heat transfer coefficient starts decreasing at lower vapor quality. Although the effect of mass flux on the local heat transfer coefficient decreased with decreasing tube diameter, the effect of heat flux was strong in all three tubes. The measured pressure drop for the 3.1-mm-ID tube agreed well with that predicted by the Lockhart–Martinelli correlation, but when the inner tube diameter was 0.51 mm, the measured pressure drop agreed well with that predicted by the homogenous pressure drop model. With decreasing tube diameter, the flow inside a tube approached homogeneous flow. The contribution of forced convective evaporation to the boiling heat transfer decreases with decreasing the inner tube diameter.     

Condensation pressure drop characteristics of various refrigerants in a horizontal smooth tube

The two-phase pressure drop characteristics of the pure refrigerants R410a, R502, and R507a during condensation inside a horizontal tube-in-tube heat exchanger were investigated to determine the two-phase friction factor, the frictional pressure drop, and the total pressure drop. The two-phase friction factor and frictional pressure drop are predicted by means of an equivalent Reynolds number model. Eckels and Pate's experimental data, presented in Choi et al.'s study provided by NIST, were used in the analysis. In their experimental setup, the horizontal test section was a 3.81 m long countercurrent flow double tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner smooth copper tube (8.01 mm i.d.) and cooling water flowing in the annulus (13.7 mm i.d.). Their test runs were performed at saturated condensing temperatures from 38.33 °C to 51.78 °C while the mass fluxes were between 119 and 617 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ for the horizontal test section. The separated flow model was modified by ten different void fraction models and correlations, as well as six different correlations of friction factors, in order to determine the best combination for the validation of the experimental pressure drop values. Carey's friction factor was found to be the most predictive. The refrigerant side total and frictional pressure drops were determined within ± 30% using the above friction factor and the void fraction combinations of Carey, Baroczy, and Armand for R410a; and those of Carey, Spedding and Spence, and Rigot for R502 and R507a. The equivalent Reynolds number model was modified using the void fraction correlation of Rigot in order to determine the frictional condensation pressure drop and the two-phase friction factor. The effects of vapor quality and mass flux on the pressure drop are discussed in this paper. The importance of using the alternative void fraction and friction factor models and correlations for the separated flow model is also addressed.     

Heat transfer properties of nanoparticle-in-fluid dispersions (nanofluids) in laminar flow

The convective heat transfer coefficients of several nanoparticle-in-liquid dispersions (nanofluids) have been measured under laminar flow in a horizontal tube heat exchanger. The nanoparticles used in this research were graphitic in nature, with aspect ratios significantly different from one (l/d ≈ 0.02). The graphite nanoparticles increased the static thermal conductivities of the fluid significantly at low weight fraction loadings. However, the experimental heat transfer coefficients showed lower increases than predicted by either the conventional heat transfer correlations for homogeneous fluids, or the correlations developed from the particle suspensions with aspect ratios close to one. New correlations on heat transfer need to be developed for nanofluid systems.     

Evaporating heat transfer and pressure drop of hydrocarbon refrigerants in 9.52 and 12.70 mm smooth tube

Experimental results of heat transfer characteristic and pressure gradients of hydrocarbon refrigerants R-290, R-600a, R-1270 and HCFC refrigerant R-22 during evaporating inside horizontal double pipe heat exchangers are presented. The test sections have one tube diameter of 12.70 mm with 0.86 mm wall thickness, another tube diameter of 9.52 mm with 0.76 mm wall thickness was used for this study. The local evaporating heat transfer coefficients of hydrocarbon refrigerants were higher than those of R-22. The average evaporating heat transfer coefficient increased as the mass flux increased. It is showed the higher values in hydrocarbon refrigerants than R-22. Comparing the heat transfer coefficient of experimental results with that of other correlations, the obtained results from the experiments had coincided with most of the Kandlikar’s correlation. Hydrocarbon refrigerants have higher pressure drop than R-22 in 12.7 mm and 9.52 mm. This results form the study can be used in the case of designing heat transfer exchangers using hydrocarbons as the refrigerant for the air-conditioning systems.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a in a helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger

The two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of pure HFC-134a condensing inside a smooth helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 5.786 m long helically coiled double tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is made from smooth copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 8.3 mm inner diameter. The outer tube is made from smooth copper tubing of 23.2 mm outer diameter and 21.2 mm inner diameter. The heat exchanger is fabricated by bending a straight copper double-concentric tube into a helical coil of six turns. The diameter of coil is 305 mm. The pitch of coil is 35 mm. The test runs are done at average saturation condensing temperatures ranging between 40 and 50 °C. The mass fluxes are between 400 and 800 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ and the heat fluxes are between 5 and 10 kW m⁻². The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The average heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerant is determined by applying an energy balance based on the energy rejected from the test section. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and, condensation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop are also discussed. It is found that the percentage increase of the average heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop of the helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger, compared with that of the straight tube-in-tube heat exchanger, are in the range of 33–53% and 29–46%, respectively. New correlations for the condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are proposed for practical applications.     

Species heat and mass transfer in a human upper airway model

Steady 3-D airflow and scalar transport of ultrafine particles, d_p<0.1 μm, and fuel vapors within the human upper airways are simulated and analyzed for laminar as well as locally turbulent flow conditions. Presently, our respiratory system consists of two major segments of a simplified human cast replica, i.e., a representative oral airway from mouth to trachea (Generation 0) and a symmetric four-generation upper bronchial tree model (G0-G3). The simulation has been validated with experimental data in terms of ultrafine particle deposition efficiencies. The present computational results show the following: (1) At low breathing rates (Q_in≈15 l/min), ambient temperature variations (ΔT_max=47 °C) influence the local velocity fields and vapor concentrations; however, the total and segmental deposition fractions of fuel vapor in the upper airway are essentially unaffected. (2) The inlet flow rate has a significant effect on vapor deposition, i.e., the higher the flow rate the lower the deposition fraction. (3) The convective heat transfer coefficient averaged over an individual bifurcation unit can be correlated as Nu=0.568(RePr)^0.495 (600 < Re < 6000). (4) Two new Sherwood number correlations capture the convective mass transfer for the oral airway and individual bifurcations.The methodology outlined and physical insight provided can be also applied to other intake configurations, such as engine ports and inlets to air-breathing propulsion systems.