Confined Bubble and Heat Transfer during Flow Boiling in a High Aspect Ratio Mini-Channel

2011 ◽  
Vol 312-315 ◽  
pp. 548-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Wang ◽  
Khellil Sefiane

Single vapour bubble growth and heat transfer mechanism during flow boiling in a rectangular horizontal mini-channel were experimentally investigated. The hydraulic diameter of the channel was 1454 μm, with an aspect ratio (Win/din) of 10. Degassed FC-72 was used as the working liquid. In this paper, bubble equivalent radius was found to increase linearly till a critical time, beyond which the growth turned into exponential. Bubble growth rate increases with increasing heat flux. Heat transfer mechanisms of the bubble growth at different heat fluxes and mass fluxes were discussed. In addition, the relation between thermal and flow conditions with bubble temporal geometry was explored.

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

Flow boiling of 1-methoxyheptafluoropropane (HFE 7000) in 222 μm hydraulic diameter channels containing a single row of 24 inline 100 μm pin fins was studied for mass fluxes from 350 kg/m2 s to 827 kg/m2 s and wall heat fluxes from 10 W/cm2 to 110 W/cm2. Flow visualization revealed the existence of isolated bubbles, bubbles interacting, multiple flow, and annular flow. The observed flow patterns were mapped as a function of the boiling number and the normalized axial distance. The local heat transfer coefficient during subcooled boiling was measured and found to be considerably higher than the corresponding single-phase flow. Furthermore, a thermal performance evaluation comparison with a plain microchannel revealed that the presence of pin fins considerably enhanced the heat transfer coefficient.


Author(s):  
Junye Li ◽  
Kan Zhou ◽  
Wei Li

Abstract An experimental investigation of subcooled flow boiling in a large width-to-height-ratio, one-sided heating rectangular mini-gap channel was conducted with deionized water as the working fluid. The super-hydrophobicity micro-porous structured copper surface was utilized in the experiments. High speed flow visualization was conducted to illustrate the effects of heat flux and mass rate on the heat transfer coefficient and flow pattern on the surfaces. The mass fluxes were in the range of 200–500 kg/m2s, the wall heat fluxes were spanned from 40–400 kW/m2. With increments of imposed heat flux, the slopes of boiling curves for superhydrophobic micro-porous copper surfaces increased rapidly, indicating the Onset of Nucleate Boiling. Heat transfer characteristics were discussed with variation of heat fluxes and mass fluxes, the trends of which were analyzed with the aid of high speed flow visualization.


Author(s):  
Pega Hrnjak ◽  
Seongho Kim

Flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of CO2 with and without oil were investigated experimentally in horizontal smooth and enhanced tubes with an inner diameter of 11.2 mm. The visualization of flow pattern provides a detailed attributes of the nucleate and the convective boiling heat transfer. In order to investigate the effect of the miscible oil on the heat transfer of CO2, POE (polyolester) RENSIO C85E oil is added to give an oil circulation rate (OCR) between 0.5% and 2%. Results are compared with those of pure CO2. The experimental conditions include evaporation temperatures of −15 °C, mass fluxes from 40 to 200 kg/m2 s, heat fluxes from 0.5 to 10 kW/m2, and vapor qualities from 0.1 to 0.8. Oil generally deteriorates the heat transfer coefficient of pure CO2. The reduction in heat transfer coefficient is most apparent at low vapor qualities, 0.1 to 0.4, and at low mass fluxes, 100 and 200 kg/m2. It is caused by the suppression of nucleate boiling due to increased surface tension. At conditions where the convective boiling contribution is dominant, vapor qualities above 0.5, oil increases heat transfer coefficients. Through visualization, it is shown that the wetted area on the perimeter of inner tube is enhanced due to formation of foaming in the smooth tube. However, such enhancement of heat transfer due to forming is negligible in the enhanced tube, because the enhanced factor due to micro-finned structures is dominant.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saptarshi Basu ◽  
Sidy Ndao ◽  
Gregory J. Michna ◽  
Yoav Peles ◽  
Michael K. Jensen

An experimental study of two-phase heat transfer coefficients was carried out using R134a in uniformly heated horizontal circular microtubes with diameters from 0.50 mm to 1.60 mm over a range of mass fluxes, heat fluxes, saturation pressures, and vapor qualities. Heat transfer coefficients increased with increasing heat flux and saturation pressure but were independent of mass flux. The effects of vapor quality on heat transfer coefficients were less pronounced and varied depending on the quality. The data were compared with seven flow boiling correlations. None of the correlations predicted the experimental data very well, although they generally predicted the correct trends within limits of experimental error. A correlation was developed, which predicted the heat transfer coefficients with a mean average error of 29%. 80% of the data points were within the ±30% error limit.


Author(s):  
Fanghao Yang ◽  
Mohammad Alwazzan ◽  
Chen Li

Improving mixing is an effective method to enhance flow boiling in microchannels. However, it is challenging to induce since the flow in microchannels is laminar under typical operating conditions. We report that flow boiling of 1-methoxyheptafluoropropane (HFE 7000) in a parallel microchannel array was significantly enhanced by chaotic mixers patterned on the bottom walls. The microchannel array consists of five parallel channels (height, width, length: 250 μm × 220 μm × 10 mm). The chaotic mixers consist of seven cycles with 12 staggered herringbone grooves (50 μm depth and width with 90° between two asymmetric arms) in each cycle. Its asymmetry is defined by the off center position of the apex of the herringbone groove. Compared with a smooth-wall microchannel array with identical channel dimensions, heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux of flow boiling on HFE 7000 were enhanced up to 45 % and 61 % using chaotic mixer pairs in microchannels. Mass fluxes range from 1000 to 2200 kg/m2-s and wall heat fluxes from 10 to 198 W/cm2.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
C.-J. Kuo ◽  
Y. Peles

Flow boiling was experimentally studied using coolant HFE-7000 for two types of parallel microchannels: a plain-wall microchannel and a microchannel with structured reentrant cavities on the side walls. Flow morphologies, boiling inceptions, heat transfer coefficients, and critical heat fluxes were obtained and studied for mass fluxes ranging from G=164 kg/m2 s to G=3025 kg/m2 s and mass qualities (energy definition) ranging from x=−0.25 to x=1. Comparisons of the performance of the enhanced and plain-wall microchannels were carried out. It was found that reentrant cavities were effective in reducing the superheat at the onset of nucleate boiling and increasing the heat transfer coefficient. However, they did not seem to increase the critical heat flux.


Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Vahid Ebrahimpour Ahmadi ◽  
Akam Aboubakri ◽  
Abdolali Khalili Sadaghiani ◽  
Khellil Sefiane ◽  
Ali Koşar

Flow boiling is one of the most effective phase-change heat transfer mechanisms and is strongly dependent on surface properties. The surface wettability is a crucial parameter, which has a considerable effect on the heat transfer performance, particularly in flow boiling. The contact angle determines the number of nucleation sites as well as bubble dynamics and flow patterns. This study introduces three new generation mixed wettability surfaces and compares them with a wholly hydrophobic surface reference sample, in flow boiling in a high aspect ratio microchannel. The mixed wettability substrates have five regions as fully Al2O3, (hydrophobic zone) region, three different patterned configurations with various A* values, and fully SiO2 (hydrophilic zone) region, where A* is defined as A Al2O3/A total (hydrophobicity ratio). Boiling heat transfer results were obtained for each surface at various wall heat fluxes and three different mass fluxes. According to the obtained results, significant enhancements in heat transfer (by up to 56.7%) could be obtained with biphilic surfaces compared to the reference sample (hydrophobic surface). Performed flow visualization proves that the tested biphilic surfaces enhance heat transfer by reducing the bubbly flow regime and extending the slug regime.


Author(s):  
Satish G. Kandlikar

The forces due to surface tension, inertia, and momentum change during evaporation in microchannel govern the two-phase flow patterns and the heat transfer characteristics during flow boiling. These forces are analyzed in this paper, and two new non-dimensional groups, K1 and K2, relevant to flow boiling phenomenon are derived. These groups are able to represent some of the key flow boiling characteristics, including the CHF. The small hydraulic dimensions of microchannel flow passages present a large frictional pressure drop in single-phase and two-phase flows. In order to keep the pressure drop within limits, the channel lengths are generally shorter and the mass fluxes are generally lower than those with conventional channels (Dh>3 mm). The resulting lower mass fluxes, coupled with small Dh, lead to Reynolds numbers in the range 100–1000. Such low Reynolds numbers are rarely employed for flow boiling in conventional channels. In these low Reynolds number flows, nucleate boiling systematically emerges as the dominant mode of heat transfer. Aided by strong evaporation rates, the bubbles nucleating on the wall grow quickly and fill the entire channel. The contact line between the bubble base and the channel wall surface now becomes the entire perimeter at both ends of the vapor slug. Evaporation occurs at the moving contact line of the expanding vapor slug as well as over the channel wall covered with a thin liquid film surrounding the vapor core. The usual nucleate boiling heat transfer mechanisms, including liquid film evaporation and transient heat conduction in the liquid adjacent to the contact line region, play an important role. The liquid film under the large vapor slug evaporates completely at downstream locations thus presenting a dryout condition periodically with the passage of each large vapor slug. The flow boiling correlation by Kandlikar [1, 2] with (i) the nucleate boiling dominant region equation, and (ii) the laminar flow equation for single-phase all-liquid flow heat transfer coefficient hLO was successful in correlating the available R-134a data for parallel microchannels of 190 μm hydraulic diameter.


Author(s):  
Ewelina Sobierska ◽  
Rudi Kulenovic ◽  
Rainer Mertz

Experimental investigations on flow boiling phenomena in a vertical narrow rectangular microchannel with the hydraulic diameter dh = 0.48 mm were carried out. The experiments were performed under fluid-inlet subcooling conditions with deionised and degassed water for different mass fluxes. Investigations on pressure drop and heat transfer during single-and two-phase flow have been carried out. Moreover, flow visualisation of the two-phase flow patterns along the channel was performed using a digital high-speed video camera. The present work outlines local heat transfer coefficients for three mass fluxes (200, 700 and 1500 kg/m2s) and heat fluxes (30–110, 35–150 and 65–200 kW/m2, respectively) during two-phase flow. The fluid temperature at the inlet was about 50 °C what corresponds to inlet subcooling, depending on flow pressure conditions, from 34 °C to 57 °C. The visual observations were used to obtain a better insight about the heat transfer mechanism.


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