A simplified approach to simulate bubble nucleation in flow boiling

Author(s):  
X. Q. Xing ◽  
Y. J. Lee ◽  
Y. Y. Hoe ◽  
X. Zhang ◽  
S. Gao ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Ankit Kalani ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

Flow boiling in microchannels offers many advantages such as high heat transfer coefficient, higher surface area to volume ratio, low coolant inventory, uniform temperature control and compact design. The application of these flow boiling systems has been severely limited due to early critical heat flux (CHF) and flow instability. Recently, a number of studies have focused on variable flow cross-sectional area to augment the thermal performance of microchannels. In a previous work, the open microchannel with manifold (OMM) configuration was experimentally investigated to provide high heat transfer coefficient coupled with high CHF and low pressure drop. In the current work, high speed images of plain surface using tapered manifold are obtained to gain an insight into the nucleating bubble behavior. The mechanism of bubble nucleation, growth and departure are described through high speed images. Formation of dry spots for both tapered and uniform manifold geometry is also discussed.


Author(s):  
Jacqueline Barber ◽  
Khellil Sefiane ◽  
David Brutin ◽  
Lounes Tadrist

Boiling in microchannels remains elusive due to the lack of full understanding of the mechanisms involved. A powerful tool in achieving better comprehension of the mechanisms is detailed imaging and analysis of the two phase flow at a fundamental level. We induced boiling in a single microchannel geometry (hydraulic diameter 727 μm), using a refrigerant FC-72, to investigate several flow patterns. A transparent, metallic, conductive deposit has been developed on the exterior of rectangular microchannels, allowing simultaneous uniform heating and visualisation to be conducted. The data presented in this paper is for a particular case with a uniform heat flux of 4.26 kW/m2 applied to the microchannel and inlet liquid mass flowrate, held constant at 1.33×10−5 kg/s. In conjunction with obtaining high-speed images and videos, sensitive pressure sensors are used to record the pressure drop profiles across the microchannel over time. Bubble nucleation, growth and coalescence, as well as periodic slug flow, are observed in the test section. Phenomena are noted, such as the aspect ratio and Reynolds number of a vapour bubble, which are in turn correlated to the associated pressure drops over time. From analysis of our results, images and video sequences with the corresponding physical data obtained, it is possible to follow visually the nucleation and subsequent both ‘free’ and ‘confined’ growth of a vapour bubble over time.


Author(s):  
Guodong Wang

In this paper, a simultaneous visualization and measurement study have been carried out to investigate bubble nucleation frequency of water in micro-channel at various heat fluxes and mass fluxes. A single micro-channel with an identical rectangular cross-section having a hydraulic of 137 μm and a heating length of 30 mm was used in this experiment. It is shown that the frequency of bubble nucleation increased drastically with the increase of heat flux and was also strongly dependent on the mass flux. A dimensionless frequency of bubble nucleation was correlated in terms of the Boiling number. The predictions of bubble nucleation frequency in the microchannel are found in good agreement with experimental data with a MAE of 10.4%.


Author(s):  
Yuhao Lin ◽  
Junye Li ◽  
Kan Zhou ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Kuang Sheng ◽  
...  

Abstract The micro structured surfaces have significant impact on the flow patterns and heat transfer mechanisms during the flow boiling process. The hydrophobic surface promotes bubble nucleation while the hydrophilic surface supplies liquid to a heating surface, thus there is a trade-off between a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic surface. To examine the effect of heterogeneous wetting surface on flow boiling process, an experimental investigation of flow boiling in a rectangular vertical narrow microchannel with the heterogeneous wetting surface was conducted with deionized water as the working fluid. The heat transfer characteristics of flow boiling in the microchannel was studied and the flow pattern was photographed with a high-speed camera. The onset of flow boiling and heat transfer coefficient were discussed with the variation of heatfluxes and mass fluxes, the trends of which were analyzed along with the flow patterns. During the boiling process, the dominated heat transfer mechanism was nucleate boiling, with numerous nucleate sites between the hydrophilic/hydrophobic stripes and on the hydrophobic ones. In the meantime, after the merged bubbles were constrained by the channel walls, it would be difficult for them to expand towards upstream since they were restricted by the contact line between hydrophilic/hydrophobic stripes, thereby reduce the flow instability and achieve remarkable heat transfer performance.


Author(s):  
Sambhaji T. Kadam ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan ◽  
Ritunesh Kumar ◽  
Aziz Rahman

Abstract Inception of the boiling, in pool or flow boiling, is the formation of the vapour bubble at active nucleation site. The bubble dynamics plays an important role in the boiling process. It is critical as it unfolds many facets especially when channel size is reduced to submicron. The detailed knowledge of the bubble dynamics is helpful in establishing the thermal and hydraulic flow behaviour in microchannel. In this paper, the bubble dynamics which include bubble nucleation at nucleation site, its growth, departure and motion along the flow in a microchannel are discussed in details. Different models are developed for the critical cavity radius are compiled and observed that they show large variation when compare. The bubble growth models are compiled and concluded that a development of more generalized bubble growth model is necessary to account for the inertia controlled and thermal diffusion controlled regions. The bubble at the nucleation site in a microchannel grows under the influence of various forces such as surface tension, inertia, shear, gravitational and evaporation momentum. Parametric variations of these forces are critically studied and reckoned that the slope of these forces seems to be reduced beyond 500 μm. Eventually, possible impact of the various factors such as operating conditions, geometrical parameters, and thermophysical properties of fluid on bubble dynamics in microchannel has been reported.


Author(s):  
Tomio Okawa ◽  
Naoki Miyano ◽  
Kazuhiro Kaiho ◽  
Koji Enoki

The process of bubble nucleation in subcooled flow boiling was visualized using a high speed camera to show that the bubble size can be significantly different between the nucleation sites. However, the bubble size is usually assumed constant in the numerical simulation of subcooled flow boiling. To explore the effect of the bubble size distribution on the void fraction in subcooled flow boiling, numerical simulations were performed using a bubble tracking method in which the size and position of each bubble are calculated individually using a Lagrangian coordinates. In the present simulation, the void fraction was greater when the bubble size distribution was taken into consideration. Since the bubble tracking method requires many correlations, further improvement is necessary. The present numerical results however indicate that the bubble size distribution should be taken in to consideration to evaluate the void fraction in subcooled flow boiling accurately.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuefei Han ◽  
Andrei Fedorov ◽  
Yogendra Joshi

In the first part of this paper, a review of fundamental experimental studies on flow boiling in plain and surface enhanced microgaps is presented. In the second part, complimentary to the literature review, new results of subcooled flow boiling of water through a micropin-fin array heat sink with outlet pressure below atmospheric are presented. A 200 μm high microgap device design was tested, with a longitudinal pin pitch of 225 μm, a transverse pitch of 135 μm, and a diameter of 90 μm, respectively. Tested mass fluxes ranged from 1351 to 1784  kg/m2s, and effective heat flux ranged from 198 to 444 W/cm2 based on the footprint surface area. The inlet temperature varied from 6 to 12 °C, and outlet pressure ranged from 24 to 36 kPa. The two-phase heat transfer coefficient showed a decreasing trend with increasing heat flux. High-speed visualizations of flow patterns revealed a triangular wake after bubble nucleation. Flow oscillations were seen and discussed.


Author(s):  
Nishant Tiwari ◽  
Manoj Kumar Moharana

Flow boiling in microchannel heat sink offers an effective cooling solution for high power density micro devices. A three-dimensional numerical study based on volume of fraction model (VOF) coupled with evaporation condensation model accounting for the liquid-vapor phase change is undertaken to recreate vapor bubble formation in saturated flow boiling in wavy microchannel. Constant wall heat flux imposed at the bottom surface of the substrate while other faces are insulated. To understand the conjugate effects, simulations has been carried out for substrate thickness to channel depth ratio (δsf ∼ 1–5), substrate wall to fluid thermal conductivity ratio (ksf ∼ 22–300) and waviness (γ ∼ 0.008–0.04). Bubble nucleation, growth, and departure of bubble plays a significant role in heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in two-phase flow in wavy microchannel. The coolant (water) temperature at the inlet is taken to be 373 K while flow was at atmospheric pressure. This makes shorter waiting period of bubble nucleation, and the number density of bubbles on the solid surface increases. This results in enhancement of the boiling effect, and thus with the presence of bubbles, the mixing of laminar boundary layers improves and enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient. Channel amplitude play an important factor that can suitably reduce the friction factor and enhances the heat transfer coefficient.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Edel ◽  
Abhijit Mukherjee

The preferable cooling solution for micro-electronic systems could be forced flow boiling in micro heat exchangers. Nanoparticle deposition affects nucleate boiling via alteration of surface roughness, capillary wicking, wettability, and nucleation site density. In this study, flow boiling was investigated using water and nanofluids in a single rectangular microchannel at different heat fluxes. The observed change in flow regime transition revealed the effect of nanoparticles on the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) and the onset of bubble elongation (OBE). The addition of nanoparticles was found to stabilize bubble nucleation and growth and increase heat transfer in the thin film regions.


Author(s):  
Zachary Edel ◽  
Abhijit Mukherjee

The preferable cooling solution to the problem of thermal management of modern electronics for increasing power dissipation could be micro heat exchangers based on forced flow boiling. Nanoparticle deposition can affect nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient via alteration of surface thermal conductivity, roughness, capillary wicking, wettability, and nucleation site density. It can also affect heat transfer by changing bubble departure diameter, bubble departure frequency, and the evaporation of the micro and macrolayer beneath the growing bubbles. In this study, flow boiling was investigated using degassed, deionized water, and 0.001 vol% aluminum oxide nanofluids in a single rectangular brass microchannel for one inlet fluid temperature of 63°C, one flow rate of Re = 100, and two heat fluxes of 130 kW/m2 and 300 kW/m2. High speed images were taken periodically for water and after durations of 25, 75, and 125 minutes of nanofluid flow boiling. The change in regime timing revealed the effect of nanoparticle suspension and nanoparticle deposition on the Onset of Nucelate Boiling (ONB) and the Onset of Bubble Elongation (OBE). Single phase flows at the channel outlet were recorded and compared for different durations of nanofluid flow boiling. The addition of nanoparticles was found to stabilize bubble nucleation and growth and increase heat transfer in the thin film regions of the evaporating menisci.


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