Cavitation-Enhanced Microchannel Heat Exchanger Demonstration and Heat Transfer Correlation Development Using R-134a

Electronics of all types, particularly those in the military aviation arena, are decreasing in size while at the same time increasing in power. As a result, newer high-heat-flux electronic components are exceeding the cooling capabilities of conventional single-phase military aviation coldplates and coolants. It is for this reason that we have been investigating new methods to cool the next generation of high-heat-flux military aviation electronics. In this work, a novel method of inducing two-phase conditions within a microchannel heat exchanger has been developed and demonstrated. Micro-orifices placed upstream of each microchannel in a microchannel heat exchanger not only cause an improvement in flow distribution, but can also induce cavitation in the incoming subcooled refrigerant and result in favorable two-phase flow regimes for enhanced heat transfer. In this study, R-134a is used as the coolant in the cavitation enhanced microchannel heat exchanger (CEMC-HX) which has been integrated into a vapor compression refrigeration system. Multiple micro-orifice geometries combined with a fixed microchannel geometry (nominally 250 μm × 250 μm) were investigated over a range of applied base heat fluxes (10–100 W/cm2) and mass fluxes (500–1000 kg/m2-s). Two-phase heat transfer coefficients exceeding 100,000 W/m2-K at refrigerant qualities of less than 5% have been demonstrated due to the achievement of preferential, cavitation-induced, flow regimes such as annular flow. To the author’s knowledge, this is the highest heat transfer coefficient ever reported in the literature for R-134a. Additionally, a four term two-phase heat transfer correlation was developed that achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 25.5%.

Development of a Three-Dimensional Iterative Methodology Using a Commercial CFD Code for Flow Scouring Around Bridge Piers

One of the major concerns affecting the safety of bridges with foundation supports in river-beds is the scouring of river-bed material from bridge supports during floods. Scour is the engineering term for the erosion caused by water around bridge elements such as piers, monopiles, or abutments. Scour holes around a monopile can jeopardize the stability of the whole structure and will require deeper piling or local armoring of the river-bed. About 500,000 bridges in the National Bridge Registry are over waterways. Many of these are considered as vulnerable to scour, about five percent are classified as scour critical, and over the last 30 years bridge failures caused by foundation scour have averaged about one every two weeks. Therefore it is of great importance to predict the correct scour development for a given bridge and flood conditions. Apart from saving time and money, integrity of bridges are important in ensuring public safety. Recent advances in computing boundary motion in combination with mesh morphing to maintain mesh quality in computational fluid dynamic analysis can be applied to predict the scour hole development, analyze the local scour phenomenon, and predict the scour hole shape and size around a pier. The main objective of the present study was to develop and implement a three dimensional iterative procedure to predict the scour hole formation around a cylindrical pier using the mesh morphing capabilities in the STARCCM+ commercial CFD code. A computational methodology has been developed using Python and Java Macros and implemented using a Bash script on a LINUX high performance computer cluster. An implicit unsteady approach was used to obtain the bed shear stresses. The mesh was iteratively deformed towards the equilibrium scour position based on the excess shear stress above the critical shear stress (supercritical shear stress). The model solves the flow field using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, and the standard k–ε turbulence model. The iterative process involves stretching (morphing) a meshed domain after every time step, away from the bottom where scouring flow parameters are supercritical, and remeshing the relevant computational domain after a certain number of time steps when the morphed mesh compromises the stability of further simulation. The simulation model was validated by comparing results with limited experimental data available in the literature.

Experimental and Numerical Study of Methanol-Water Mixture Single-Phase Heat Transfer in a Micro-Channel Heat Sink

This paper presents an experimental study of single-phase heat transfer characteristics of binary methanol-water mixtures in a micro-channel heat sink containing an array of 22 microchannels with 240μm × 630μm cross-section. Pure water, pure methanol, and five methanol-water mixtures with methanol molar fraction of 16%, 36%, 50%, 63% and 82% were tested. Key parametric trends were identified and discussed. The experimental study was complemented by a three-dimensional numerical simulation. Numerical predictions and experimental data are in good agreement with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.87%.

Developments in Enhanced Heat Transfer Technology From a Petroleum Industry Perspective in 2012

Within the past 30 years, many Enhanced Heat Transfer (EHT) technologies have become available in a number of forms for application in heat exchangers. These technologies are used in various industries to widely different extents. In 1999, H. Joshi, T. Rudy, and A. Wanni, former Ph.D. students of Dr. Ralph L. Webb and specialists in the application of EHTs in the Petroleum Industry prepared a paper for the Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer that reviewed the extent of use of EHT Technologies in the Petroleum Industry [1]. The current paper reviews how the application of EHT in the Petroleum Industry has changed in the last 14 years.

Highly Subcooled Flow Boiling: A Model for Estimating Heat Transfer Behind Sliding Bubbles in a Narrow Channel

A quenching/diffusion analytical model has been developed for predicting the wall temperature and wall heat flux behind bubbles sliding in a confined narrow channel. The model is based on the concept of a well-mixed liquid region that enhances the heat transfer near the heated wall behind the bubble. Heat transfer in the liquid is treated as a one-dimensional transient conduction process until the flow field recovers back to its undisturbed level prior to bubble passage. The model is compared to experimental heat transfer results obtained in a high-aspect-ratio (1.2×23mm) rectangular, horizontal channel with one wide wall forming a uniform-heat-generation boundary and the other designed for optical access to the flow field. The working fluid was Novec™ 649. A thermochromic liquid crystal coating was applied to the outside of the uniform-heat-generation boundary, so that wall temperature variations could be obtained and heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers could be obtained. The experiments were focused on high inlet subcooling, typically 15–50°C. The model is able to capture the elevated heat transfer rates measured in the channel without the need to consider nucleate boiling from the surface or microlayer evaporation from the sliding bubbles. Surface temperatures and wall heat fluxes were estimated for 17 different experimental conditions using the proposed model. Results agreed with the measured values within ±15% accuracy. The insight gathered from comparing the results of the proposed model to experimental results provides the basis for a better understanding of the physics of subcooled bubbly flow in narrow channels.

Condensation Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer in 5-mm-OD Micro-Fin Tubes

An experimental investigation was performed for convective condensation of R410A inside four micro-fin tubes with the same outside diameter (OD) 5 mm and helix angle 18°. Data are for mass fluxes ranging from about 180 to 650 kg/m2s. The nominal saturation temperature is 320 K, with inlet and outlet qualities of 0.8 and 0.1, respectively. The results suggest that Tube 4 has the best thermal performance for its largest condensation heat transfer coefficient and relatively low pressure drop penalty. Condensation heat transfer coefficient decreases at first and then increases or flattens out gradually as G decreases. This complex mass-flux effect may be explained by the complex interactions between micro-fins and fluid. The heat transfer enhancement mechanism is mainly due to the surface area increase over the plain tube at large mass fluxes, while liquid drainage and interfacial turbulence play important roles in heat transfer enhancement at low mass fluxes. In addition, the experimental data was analyzed using seven existing pressure-drop and four heat-transfer models to verify their respective accuracies.

Experimental Study of Cylindrical Latent Heat Energy Storage Systems Using Lauric Acid as the Phase Change Material

Phase change materials (PCMs) inside latent heat energy storage systems (LHESS) can be used to store large amounts of thermal energy in relatively small volumes. However, such systems are complicated to design from a heat transfer point of view since the low thermal conductivity of PCMs makes charging and discharging those systems challenging on a usable time scale. Results of experiments performed on both a vertical and a horizontal cylindrical LHESS, during charging, discharging and simultaneous charging/discharging, are presented in this paper. Both LHESS are made of acrylic plastic, the horizontal LHESS has one 1/2″ copper pipe passing through its center. The vertical LHESS has two 1/2″ copper pipes, one through which hot water flows, and the other through which cold water flows. Each of the pipes has four longitudinal fins to enhance the overall rate of heat transfer to and from the PCM, therefore reducing the time required for charging and discharging. The objective of this work is to determine the phase change behavior of the PCM during the operation of the LHESS, as well as the heat transfer processes within the LHESS. Natural convection was found to play a crucial role during charging (melting) and during simultaneous charging/discharging (in the vertical LHESS). However, during discharging, the effect of natural convection was reduced in both systems.

Numerical Simulation of the Temperature Field and the Flow Field Inside the Domestic Cooling and Heating Unit’s Water Tank

A water tank of the domestic cooling and heating unit, which has a helix coil, is used to recover the waste heat of the unit. The temperature field and the flow field in the water tank have great effects on the variation of the water temperature in it. In order to obtain the temperature distribution, the flow distribution and the influencing factors, and then obtain the changing situation of the water temperature, the temperature field and the flow field of the water tank are simulated by using Fluent. The results showed that the water temperature will change with different coil decorate. The numerical model which is created by Fluent is appropriate and could be used to improve the layout of the coil in the water tank and speed up heating.

Particle Scale Heat Transfer Analysis in Rotary Kiln

Rotary furnaces have multiple applications including calcination, pyrolysis, carburization, drying, etc. Heat transfer through granular media in rotary kilns is a complex phenomenon and plays an important role in the thermal efficiency of rotary furnaces. Thorough mixing of particles in a rotary kiln determines the bed temperature uniformity. Hence it is essential to understand the particle scale heat transfer modes through which the granular media temperature changes. In this study, numerical simulations are performed using coupled Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze heat transfer in a non-reacting rotary kiln. The microscopic models of particle-particle, particle-fluid, particle-surface and fluid-surface heat transfer are used in the analysis. The heat transfer simulations are validated against experimental data. The effect of particle cascading on the bed temperature is measured and contributions from various modes of particle scale heat transfer mechanisms are reported. Particles are heated near the rotary kiln walls by convection heat transfer as they pass through the thermal boundary layer of the heated fluid. These particles are transported to the center of the kiln where they transfer heat to the cooler particles in the core of the kiln and back to the cooler fluid at the center of the kiln. It is found that 90% of the heat transferred to particles from the kiln walls is a result of convection heat transfer, whereas only 10% of the total heat transfer is due to conduction from the kiln walls.

Design and Optimization of Conductive Heat Trees at Micro and Nanoscales for Cooling Electronics

In this research, we consider the generation of conductive heat trees at micro and nano scales for cooling electronics which are considered as heat-generating disc-shaped solids. Due to the development of nano technology and its role in the production of small scale electronics in recent decades, the necessity of designing cooling systems for them will be revealed more than any other time. Therefore, tree-shape conduction paths of highly conductive material including radial patterns, structures with one level of branching, tree-with-loop architectures, and combination of structures with branching and structures with loop are generated for cooling such electronic devices. Furthermore, Constructal method which is used to analytically generate heat trees for cooling a disk-shaped body is modified in the present work, that we call it modified analytical method. Moreover, every feature of the tree-shaped architectures is optimized numerically to make a comparison between numerical and analytical results and to generate novel architectures. When the smallest features of the internal structure are so small, the conventional description of conduction breaks down. Hence, the effective thermal conductivity exhibits the “size effect”, and is governed by the smallest structural dimension which is comparable with the mean free path of the energy carriers. Therefore, we consider a model which was proposed for small-scale bodies in order to evaluate conductivity of heat trees.