Flow Boiling Patterns of Liquid Nitrogen in Micro-Tubes

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Zhang ◽  
X. Fu ◽  
R. Z. Wang

Application of liquid nitrogen to cooling is widely used in such fields as cooling of the high temperature superconducting devices, cryosurgery and so on. In order to have a full understanding of the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen in micro-tube, high-speed digital photography was employed to acquire the typical flow boiling patterns of liquid nitrogen in micro-tubes in the experiments. The main flow patterns were bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow and annular flow. And the confined bubbly flow and mist flow were also observed. These flow patterns were characterized on the flow regime maps. And the surface tension force and the size of the tube diameter were found to be the major factors affecting the flow pattern transitions.

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santosh Krishnamurthy ◽  
Yoav Peles

Flow boiling of HFE 7000 in five parallel microchannels of 222 μm hydraulic diameter, each containing a single row of 24 in-line 100 μm pin fins, was investigated. High speed photography revealed the dominant flow patterns, namely, the bubbly flow, the multiple flow, and the wavy-annular flow. The interaction of the bubble with the pin fins during nucleate boiling from G=350 kg/m2 s to G=827 kg/m2 s and wall heat fluxes from 10 W/cm2 to 110 W/cm2 is detailed.


Author(s):  
Guangyao Lu ◽  
Guisheng Zhao ◽  
Junsheng Ren ◽  
Wenyuan Xiang ◽  
Huaning Ai

Tube-bundle channels have been widely used in condenser-evaporator and other industrial heat-exchange equipments. The characteristics of two-phase flow patterns and their transitions for refrigerant R-113 through a vertical tube-bundle channel are experimentally investigated using high-speed camera. Experiments show that there are four main flow patterns in the tube-bundle channel, which are bubbly flow, bubbly-churn flow, churn flow and annular flow. And in the same cross-section of tube-bundle channels, it is shown that there might be different flow patterns in different sub-channels. The flow pattern transitions exhibit unsynchronized in different sub-channels. On the basis of experimental research, the flow pattern map is drawn and analyses are made on the comparison of differences between boiling flow patterns in circular tubes and those in tube-bundle channels.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2440
Author(s):  
Youngwoo Kim ◽  
Dae Yeon Kim ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim

A flow visualization study was carried out for flow boiling in a rectangular channel filled with and without metallic random porous media. Four main flow patterns are observed as intermittent slug-churn flow, churn-annular flow, annular-mist flow, and mist flow regimes. These flow patterns are clearly classified based on the high-speed images of the channel flow. The results of the flow pattern map according to the mass flow rate were presented using saturation temperatures and the materials of porous media as variables. As the saturation temperatures increased, the annular-mist flow regime occupied a larger area than the lower saturation temperatures condition. Therefore, the churn flow regime is narrower, and the slug flow more quickly turns to annular flow with the increasing vapor quality. The pattern map is not significantly affected by the materials of porous media.


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):  
Jianyun Shuai ◽  
Rudi Kulenovic ◽  
Manfred Groll

Flow boiling in small-sized channels attracted extensive investigations in the past two decades due to special requirements for transfer of high heat fluxes from narrow spaces in various industrial applications. Experiments on various aspects of flow boiling in narrow channels were carried out and theoretical attempts were undertaken. But these investigations showed large differences, e.g. up till now the knowledge on the development of flow patterns in small non-circular flow passages is very limited. This paper deals with investigations on flow boiling of water in two rectangular channels with dimensions (width×depth) 2.0×4.0 mm2 and 0.5×2.0 mm2 (corresponding hydraulic diameters are 2.67 mm and 0.8 mm). The pressure at the test section exit is atmospheric. For steady-state experimental conditions the effects of heat flux, mass flux and inlet subcooling on the boiling heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop are investigated. Flow patterns and the transition of flow patterns along the channel axis are visualized and documented with a video-camera. Bubbly flow, slug flow and annular flow are distinguished in both channels. Preliminary flow pattern maps are generated.


Author(s):  
Prabhu Balasubramanian ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

The use of phase change heat transfer in parallel minichannels and microchannels is one of the solutions proposed for cooling high heat flux systems. The increase in pressure drop in a two phase system is one of the problems, that need to be studied in detail before proceeding to any design phase. The pressure drop fluctuations in a network of parallel channels connected by a common head need to be addressed for stable operation of flow boiling systems. The current work focuses on studying the pressure-drop fluctuations and flow instabilities in a set of six parallel rectangular minichannels, each with 333 μm hydraulic diameter. Demonized and degassed water was used for all the experiments. Pressure fluctuations are recorded and signal analysis is performed to find the dominant frequencies and their amplitudes. These pressure fluctuations are then mapped to their corresponding flow patterns observed using a high speed camera. The results help us to relate pressure fluctuations to different flow characteristics, and their effect on flow instability.


Author(s):  
Claudi Marti´n-Callizo ◽  
Bjo¨rn Palm ◽  
Wahib Owhaib ◽  
Rashid Ali

The present work reports on flow boiling visualization of refrigerant R-134a in a vertical circular channel with internal diameter of 1.33 mm and 235 mm in heated length. Quartz tube with a homogeneous ITO-coating is used allowing heating and simultaneous visualization. Flow patterns have been observed along the heated length with the aid of a digital camera with close-up lenses. From the flow boiling visualization, seven distinct two-phase flow patterns have been observed: Isolated bubbly flow, confined bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow, slug-annular flow, annular flow, and mist flow. Two-phase flow pattern observations are presented in the form of flow pattern maps. Finally, the experimental flow pattern map is compared to models developed for conventional sizes as well as to a microscale map for air-water mixtures available in the literature, showing a large discrepancy.


Author(s):  
Rui Zhou ◽  
Tao Xia ◽  
Xiaobin Zhang

Abstract A droplet entrainment model was applied to characterize the flow pattern transition in the countercurrent horizontal flow with liquid nitrogen (LN2) and vapor nitrogen (VN2). A two-fluid three-field model consisting of liquid film, gas, and droplet was implemented based on the Eulerian-Eulerian model in ANSYS Fluent®. In the droplet entrainment model, the condition and position of the droplet generation were realized by calculating the velocity gradient in the normal direction of the interface towards the gas core. The droplet entrainment and deposition rates were also included and validated according to the available data of water/air in the literature. Three flow patterns, including stratified-wavy flow, churn flow, and pseudo-slug flow, were identified in simulation results with LN2/VN2. Furthermore, ligament breakup was found to be the main droplet entrainment mechanism in the churn and pseudo-slug flow, and there can be a high probability of the occurrence of bubble burst as well. Compared with water/air, the droplets are more easily to be entrained in LN2/VN2 due to the smaller viscosity and surface tension according to the results of droplet mass flow rate. Pressure drop signals of the three flow patterns were also obtained and analyzed.


Author(s):  
X. H. Yan ◽  
J. Z. Xu ◽  
D. W. Tang

This work presents experiments on the visualization of flow boiling of water in a horizontally placed and uniformly heated micro capillary tube. Three micro capillary tubes of quartz glass with inner diameters of 520, 315 and 242 μm are prepared. Experiments are performed with deionized water over a mass flux range from 39.3 to 362.5kg/m2s, and the inlet temperatures of 30, 45, and 60 °C respectively. By a video system with microscope and high-speed camera, the vapor-water two-phase flow’s patterns are recorded and analyzed. It has been found that periodic change of two-phase flow patterns and dramatic fluctuations of pressure drop occur in the micro capillary tubes. A new arch flow pattern, liquid film evaporating, and liquid droplet have been observed firstly. Bubbly flow has not been observed during our visual experiments for the inner diameter of 242 μm, the flow patterns are only made up of single liquid phase flow and two-phase elongate slug flow. The main flow regimes in these micro-tubes are single-liquid flow, slug flow, and annular flow with liquid film surrounded in the micro-tube with inner diameter of 520 and 315μm. Trends of pressure drop and flow patterns’ transition are compared and the results show that the increasing process of pressure drop is approximately in the single-liquid flow and bubbly flow, while the decreasing process of pressure drop is in the state of annular flow.


Author(s):  
P. Zhang

Flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen in mini/micro-channels own many particular aspects and are very important for applications. In the present study, the investigation of flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen in mini/micro-channels is presented. It is found that small viscosity enables the flow state in mini/micro-channels to be turbulent state, which proves that the classical theory for pressure drop is still valid if the surface roughness of the passage is properly taken into consideration. Experiments of flow boiling of liquid nitrogen are conducted under both adiabatic and diabatic conditions. It is shown that confinement number Co = 0.5 can be applicable in classifying the heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen in macro- and micro-channels. Flow visualization in micro-channels at low temperatures poses big challenges in image magnification and illumination. These two problems have been subtly overcome in the investigation and clear images have been obtained. The flow patterns and flow regimes of two-phase flow of liquid nitrogen indicate different features from the room-temperature fluidss. Furthermore, a very simple but effective method for 3D flow visualization by one high-speed camera is proposed and implemented. Finally, numerical analysis of the flow boiling of liquid nitrogen in mini/micro-channel is carried out to deepen the understanding of mechanism.


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