The boiling heat transfer characteristics of R290 in smooth horizontal copper tubes with inner diameters of 4

6 mm was investigated experimentally. The effects of mass flux

heat flux

saturated temperature and inner diameter of tube on boiling heat transfer coefficient and critical quality were analyzed. Five boiling heat transfer correlations which are suitable to predict the boiling heat transfer coefficients of R290 in horizontal tube were chosen to obtain the calculated data compared with experimental data of boiling heat transfer coefficient. The correlation with the minimum error between calculated and experimental data among these five correlations was considered as the most suitable one for the investigation. The results showed that boiling heat transfer coefficient increased with the decrease of inner diameter of tube

with the increase of mass flux

or with the increase of saturated temperature. It increased first and then decreased with the increase of heat flux while vapor quality was increasing gradually. Heat flux and inner diameter had more evident effects on critical quality than mass flux and saturated temperature. Critical quality increased with the decrease of heat flux and inner diameter. Among the five correlations

Fang correlation showed the best capacity of prediction for the boiling heat transfer coefficients.