Transient Local Resolution of Flow Boiling in a Microchannel With a Streamlined Pin Fin

Author(s):  
Anatoly Parahovnik ◽  
Yingying Wang ◽  
Yoav Peles

Flow boiling around a single streamlined pin fin in a microchannel with engineering fluid, HFE-7000, was experimentally studied. A micro heater and an array of resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) were integrated into the microchannel device to enable heating and local temperature measurements on the microchannel internal wall. Thermal behavior as a function of position, heat flux, mass flux, and pressure was investigated for single phase flow and flow boiling. High-speed visualization of the two-phase flow was used to identify pertinent flow patterns and to complement the surface temperature measurements. It was found that the nucleate boiling regime and the periodic behavior of the boiling process was strongly dependent on the system’s pressure.

2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fayao Xu ◽  
Huiying Wu ◽  
Zhenyu Liu

In this paper, the flow patterns during water flow boiling instability in pin-fin microchannels were experimentally studied. Three types of pin-fin arrays (in-line/circular pin-fins, staggered/circular pin-fins, and staggered/square pin-fins) were used in the study. The flow instability started to occur as the outlet water reached the saturation temperature. Before the unstable boiling, a wider range of stable boiling existed in the pin-fin microchannels compared to that in the plain microchannels. Two flow instability modes for the temperature and pressure oscillations, which were long-period/large-amplitude mode and short-period/small-amplitude mode, were identified. The temperature variation during the oscillation period of the long-period/large-amplitude mode can be divided into two stages: increasing stage and decreasing stage. In the increasing stage, bubbly flow, vapor-slug flow, stratified flow, and wispy flow occurred sequentially with time for the in-line pin-fin microchannels; liquid single-phase flow, aforementioned four kinds of two-phase flow patterns, and vapor single-phase flow occurred sequentially with time for the staggered pin-fin microchannel. The flow pattern transitions in the decreasing stage were the inverse of those in the increasing stage for both in-line and staggered pin-fin microchannels. For the short-period/small-amplitude oscillation mode, only the wispy flow occurred. With the increase of heat flux, the wispy flow and the vapor single-phase flow occupied more and more time ratio during an oscillation period in the in-line and staggered pin-fin microchannels.


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.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Hetsroni ◽  
A. Mosyak ◽  
Z. Segal

Abstract Experimental investigation of a heat sink for electronics cooling is performed. The objective is to keep the operating temperature at a relatively low level of about 323–333K, while reducing the undesired temperature variation in both the streamwise and transverse directions. The experimental study is based on systematic temperature, flow and pressure measurements, infrared radiometry and high-speed digital video imaging. The heat sink has parallel triangular microchannels with a base of 250μm. According to the objectives of the present study, Vertrel XF is chosen as the working fluid. Experiments on flow boiling of Vertrel XF in the microchannel heat sink are performed to study the effect of mass velocity and vapor quality on the heat transfer, as well as to compare the two-phase results to a single-phase water flow.


Author(s):  
Ryan Lewis ◽  
Hayley Schneider ◽  
Yunda Wang ◽  
Ray Radebaugh ◽  
Y. C. Lee

Micro cryogenic coolers (MCCs) operating in the Joule-Thomson cycle with mixed refrigerants offer an attractive way to decrease the size, cost, and power draw required for cryogenic cooling. Recent studies of MCCs with mixed refrigerants have, when employing pre-cooling, shown pulsating flow-rates and oscillating temperatures, which have been linked to the refrigerant flow regime in the MCC. In this study we investigate those flow regimes. Using a high-speed camera and optical microscopy, it is found that the pulsations in flow correspond to an abrupt switch from single-phase vapor flow to single-phase liquid flow, followed by 2-phase flow in the form of bubbles, liquid slugs, and liquid slug-annular rings. After this period of 2-phase flow, the refrigerant transitions back to single-phase vapor flow for the cycle to repeat. Under different pre-cooling temperatures, the mole fraction of the vapor-phase refrigerant, as measured by molar flow-rate, agrees reasonably well with the quality of the refrigerant at that temperature as calculated by an equation of state. The frequency of pulsation increases with liquid fraction in the refrigerant, and the volume of liquid in each pulse only weakly increases with increasing liquid fraction. The cooling power of the liquid-flow is up to a factor of 7 greater than that of the 2-phase flows and single-phase vapor flow.


Author(s):  
S. E. Tarasevich ◽  
A. B. Yakovlev

In paper the experimental results on a heat transfer in annular channels with continuous twisting at length at one- and two-phase flows are observed. For a flow twisting the wire was spirally coiled on the central body of the annular channel (diameter of a wire is equal to annular gap altitude). Results of experimental data of a heat transfer of authors and various researchers at a single phase flow in annular channels with a continuous twisting are analyzed. Sampling of diagnostic variables (equivalent diameter and velocity) is spent and generalizing associations for heat transfer calculation on the concave and convex surfaces in a single-phase phase are offered. Also the technique of definition of temperature of the subcooled flow boiling beginning on surfaces of annular channels with a twisting is offered. Features of boiling, origination of heat transfer crisis and results of visualization of a two-phase flow structure in annular channels with twisting are described.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leyuan Yu ◽  
Aritra Sur ◽  
Dong Liu

Single-phase convective heat transfer of nanofluids has been studied extensively, and different degrees of enhancement were observed over the base fluids, whereas there is still debate on the improvement in overall thermal performance when both heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics are considered. Meanwhile, very few studies have been devoted to investigating two-phase heat transfer of nanofluids, and it remains inconclusive whether the same pessimistic outlook should be expected. In this work, an experimental study of forced convective flow boiling and two-phase flow was conducted for Al2O3–water nanofluids through a minichannel. General flow boiling heat transfer characteristics were measured, and the effects of nanofluids on the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) were studied. Two-phase flow instabilities were also explored with an emphasis on the transition boundaries of onset of flow instabilities (OFI). It was found that the presence of nanoparticles delays ONB and suppresses OFI, and the extent is correlated to the nanoparticle volume concentration. These effects were attributed to the changes in available nucleation sites and surface wettability as well as thinning of thermal boundary layers in nanofluid flow. Additionally, it was observed that the pressure-drop type flow instability prevails in two-phase flow of nanofluids, but with reduced amplitude in pressure, temperature, and mass flux oscillations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamanna Alam ◽  
Wenming Li ◽  
Wei Chang ◽  
Fanghao Yang ◽  
Jamil Khan ◽  
...  

AbstractHigh performance miniaturized electronic devices require enhanced, compact and reliable thermal management system. As an efficient compact space cooling technique, flow boiling in microchannels has recently gained wide acceptance. However, weak buoyancy effects and microgravity in avionics and numerous space systems operations hinder the performance of flow boiling microchannel thermal management system due to poor bubble departure capacity and unfavorable development of flow regimes. Here we report the flow boiling silicon nanowires (SiNWs) microchannels which can favorably regulate two-phase flow regimes by enhancing explosive boiling, minimizing bubble departure diameter, and smoothing flow regime transition. Extensive experimental investigations along with high speed visualizations are performed. The experiments are performed with the dielectric fluid HFE-7100 in a forced convection loop for wide range of heat and mass fluxes. High speed flow visualizations have been employed at up to 70 k frames per second (fps) to understand the boiling mechanism in terms of bubble dynamics, flow patterns, and flow regime developments for SiNWs microchannels. These studies show that SiNWs reduce intermittent flow regimes (slug/churn), improve rewetting and maintain thin liquid film at wall. Therefore, flow boiling in SiNW microchannels is promising to thermal management owing to its high heat transfer rate with low pressure drop and negligible microgravity sensitivity.


Author(s):  
Fayao Xu ◽  
Huiying Wu ◽  
Zhenyu Liu

Flow patterns during boiling instability of deionized water across silicon-based microchannels with inner pin-fin arrays have been studied experimentally. Three types of microchannels with different pin-fin structures and a hydraulic diameter of 210 μm were used. During the unstable flow boiling, two types of instability modes of temperature and pressure oscillations occurred: long-period/large-amplitude oscillation mode and short-period/small-amplitude oscillation mode. There were increasing and decreasing stages of the temperature measurement during a period of long-period/large-amplitude oscillation mode. According to visualization observation, in the increasing stage of temperature oscillation for the in-line pin-fin microchannel, four two-phase flow patterns, including bubbly flow, vapor-slug flow, stratified flow, and stream flow, occurred sequentially with time; for the staggered pin-fin microchannels, the four two-phase flow patterns, together with single liquid-phase flow and single vapor-phase flow occurred sequentially with time. The flow pattern transitions were inverse between the increasing and decreasing stages of temperature measurement. Under the short-period/small-amplitude oscillation mode, only the stream flow occurred. With the increase of heat flux, the stream flow and the single vapor-phase flow occupied more and more time ratio during an oscillation period in the in-line and staggered pin-fin microchannels, respectively.


Author(s):  
Dae W. Kim ◽  
Emil Rahim ◽  
Avram Bar-Cohen ◽  
Bongtae Han

The thermofluid characteristics of a chip-scale microgap cooler, including single-phase flow of water and FC-72 and flow boiling of FC-72, are explored. Heat transfer and pressure drop results for single phase water are used to validate a detailed numerical model and, together with the convective FC-72 data, establish a baseline for microgap cooler performance. Experimental results for single phase water and FC-72 flowing in 120 μm, 260 μm and 600 μm microgap coolers, 31mm wide by 34mm long, at velocities of 0.1 – 2 m/s are reported. “Pseudo-boiling” driven by dissolved gas and flow boiling of FC-72 are found to provide significant enhancement in heat transfer relative to theoretical single phase values.


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