Effect of microgravity on flow boiling heat transfer of liquid hydrogen in transportation pipes

The flow boiling phenomenon of liquid hydrogen (LH2) during transportation in microgravity is very different from that under terrestrial condition. In this study, a saturated flow boiling of LH2 in a horizontal tube has been simulated under microgravity condition using coupled level-set and volume of fluid method. The validation of the developed model shows good agreement with the experimental data from the literature. The changes of heat fluxes and pressure drops under different gravitational accelerations were analyzed. And, the variation of heat fluxes with different wall superheat and contact angle were compared between microgravity (10⁻⁴g) and normal gravity (1g) condition. Also, the influence of surface tension were studied under microgravity. The numerical results indicate that the heat flux decrease with the decrement of gravitational acceleration. And the heat transfer ratio decrease with the increment of wall superheat in the nucleate boiling regime. The heat transfer slightly reduce when considering surface tension. In addition, the changes of contact angle have a more significant impact on heat transfer under microgravity condition.     

Photographic study of high-flux subcooled flow boiling and critical heat flux

This study examines both high-flux flow boiling and critical heat flux (CHF) under highly subcooled conditions using FC-72 as working fluid. Experiments were performed in a horizontal flow channel that was heated along its bottom wall. High-speed video imaging and photomicrographic techniques were used to capture interfacial features and reveal the sequence of events leading to CHF. At about 80% of CHF, bubbles coalesced into oblong vapor patches while sliding along the heated wall. These patches grew in size with increasing heat flux, eventually evolving into a fairly continuous vapor layer that permitted liquid contact with the wall only in the wave troughs between vapor patches. CHF was triggered when this liquid contact was finally halted. These findings prove that the CHF mechanism for subcooled flow boiling is consistent with the interfacial lift-off mechanism proposed previously for saturated flow boiling.     

Experimental assessment of the effects of body force, surface tension force, and inertia on flow boiling CHF

The interfacial instabilities important to the modeling of critical heat flux (CHF) in reduced-gravity systems are sensitive to even minute body forces, especially for small coolant velocities. Understanding these effects is of paramount importance to both the reliability and safety of two-phase thermal management loops proposed for future space and planetary-based thermal systems. Unfortunately, reduced gravity systems cannot be accurately simulated in 1g ground-based experiments. However, ground-based experiments can help isolate the effects of the various forces (body force, surface tension force and inertia) which influence flow boiling CHF. In this project, the effects of the component of body force perpendicular to a heated wall were examined by conducting 1g flow boiling experiments at different orientations. Boiling experiments were performed using FC-72 in vertical and inclined upflow and downflow, as well as horizontal flow, and with the heated surface facing upward or downward relative to gravity. CHF was very sensitive to orientation for flow velocities below 0.2 m/s and near-saturated flow; CHF values for downflow and downward-facing heated surface were much smaller than for upflow and upward-facing surface orientations. Increasing velocity and subcooling dampened the effects of flow orientation on CHF. For saturated flow, the vapor layer characteristics fell into six different regimes: wavy vapor layer, pool-boiling, stratification, vapor stagnation, vapor counterflow, and vapor concurrent flow. The wavy vapor layer regime encompassed all subcooled and high-velocity saturated conditions at all orientations, as well as low-velocity upflow orientations. Prior CHF correlations and models were compared, and shown to predict the CHF data with varying degrees of success.     

Critical heat flux under conditions of high subcooling and high velocity at atmospheric pressure

A quantitative analysis of critical heat flux (CHF) under high mass flux with high subcooling at atmospheric pressure was successfully carried out by applying a new transition region model for a macro-water sublayer on heated walls to the existing model of a vapor blanket over the macro-water sublayer. The CHF correlation proposed in this study could predict well the experimental data obtained for water mass flux of 940 to 20,300 kg/m²s using circulate tubes 2 to 4 mm in diameter and 30 to 100 mm in length with inlet subcooling of 30 to 90 °C and rectangular channels heated from one side with gaps of 3 to 20 mm, length of 50 to 305 mm, and inlet subcooling of 30 to 77 °C and revealed a unique feature of CHF, namely, that the effects of wall friction of subcooled boiling flow and the velocity of the steam blanket above the macro-water sublayer at atmospheric pressure become the dominant factors while they were not dominant at higher pressures. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc Heat Trans Jpn Res, 26 (1): 16–29, 1997     

Flow boiling of liquid nitrogen in micro-tubes: Part II – Heat transfer characteristics and critical heat flux

This paper is the second portion of a two-part study concerning the flow boiling of liquid nitrogen in the micro-tubes with the diameters of 0.531, 0.834, 1.042 and 1.931 mm. The contents include the heat transfer characteristics and critical heat flux (CHF). The local wall temperatures are measured, from which the local heat transfer coefficients are determined. The influences of heat flux, mass flux, pressure and tube diameter on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficients are investigated systematically. Two regions with different heat transfer mechanism can be classified: the nucleate boiling dominated region for low mass quality and the convection evaporation dominated region for high mass quality. For none of the existed correlations can predict the experimental data, a new correlation expressed by Co, Bo, We, K_p and X is proposed. The new correlation yields good fitting for 455 experimental data of 0.531, 0.834 and 1.042 mm micro-tubes with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 13.7%. For 1.931 mm tube, the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics are similar to those of macro-channels, and the heat transfer coefficient can be estimated by Chen correlation. Critical heat flux (CHF) is also measured for the four tubes. Both the CHF and the critical mass quality (CMQ) are higher than those for conventional channels. According to the relationship that CMQ decreases with the mass flux, the mechanism of CHF in micro-tubes is postulated to be the dryout or tear of the thin liquid film near the inner wall. It is found that CHF increases gradually with the decrease of tube diameter.     

High Heat Flux Burnout in Subcooled Flow Boiling

ＨｉｇｈＨｅａｔＦｌｕｘＢｕｒｎｏｕｔｉｎＳｕｂｃｏｏｌｅｄＦｌｏｗＢｏｉｌｉｎｇＧ．Ｐ．Ｃｅｌａｔａ；Ｍ．Ｃｕｍｏ；Ａ．Ｍａｒｉａｎｉ（ＥＮＥＡＥｎｅｒｇｙＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔ，ＶｉａＡｎｇｕｉｌｌａｒｅｓｅ，３０１Ｉ－０００６０Ｓ．Ｍ．Ｇａｌｅｒ...     

Heat transfer for flow boiling of water and critical heat flux in a half‐heated round tube under low‐pressure conditions

Heat transfer for flow boiling of water and critical heat flux (CHF) experiments in a half‐circumferentially heated round tube under low‐pressure conditions were carried out. To clarify the flow patterns in the heated section, experiments in the round tube under the same conditions were also carried out, and their results were compared. The experiments were conducted with atmospheric‐pressure water in test sections with inner diameter D = 6 mm, heated length L = 360 mm, inlet water subcooling ΔT_in = 80 K, and mass velocity G from 0 to 2000 kg/(m²·s) for the half‐circumferentially heated round tube and from 0 to 7000 kg/(m²·s) for the full‐circumferentially heated tube. The experimental data demonstrated that the wall temperature near the outlet of the half‐circumferentially heated tube remained almost the same until CHF. It was found that burnout occurred when the flow regime changed from churn flow to annular flow, and the liquid film on the heated wall dried out although liquid film on the unheated wall remained. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 31(3): 149–164, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10022     

Critical heat flux in subcooled flow boiling with water in a tube with axially nonuniform heating

Critical heat flux (CHF) in subcooled flow boiling under axially nonuniform heating conditions was experimentally investigated using a tube heated with a dc power source. The thickness of the tube wall in the axial direction was varied to attain axially nonuniform heating. The different thicknesses, therefore, separated the tube into regions of high heat flux and regions of low heat flux. The lengths of these regions of the tube were also varied to study the effect on the CHF. The objective of this system is to initiate boiling in the high-heat-flux region, thus increasing heat transfer, and to interrupt the bubble boundary layer in the low-heat-flux region. Because it is the initiation of boiling that increases heat transfer, the performance of such a system is linked to its effectiveness in repeatedly interrupting and re-establishing the bubble boundary layer. Our experiments, involving tubes that had sections of different thicknesses and different lengths, showed that when the heat flux in the low-heat-flux region was below the net vapor generation (NVG) heat flux, this system enhanced the CHF, but not when it was above the NVG. Also, for relatively short low-heat-flux regions, the CHF was not enhanced, presumably because there was insufficient time to interrupt the bubble boundary layer. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(2): 169–178, 1998     

Critical heat flux performance for flow boiling of R-134a in vertical uniformly heated smooth tube and rifled tubes

In the present paper, critical heat flux (CHF) experiments for flow boiling of R-134a were performed to investigate the CHF characteristics of four-head and six-head rifled tubes in comparison with a smooth tube. Both of rifled tubes having different head geometry have the maximum inner diameter of 17.04 mm while the smooth tube has the average inner diameter of 17.04 mm. The experiments were conducted for the vertical orientation under outlet pressures of 13, 16.5, and 23.9 bar, mass fluxes of 285-1300 kg/m²s and inlet subcooling temperatures of 5-40 °C in the R-134a CHF test loop. The parametric trends of CHF for the tubes show a good agreement with previous understanding. In particular, CHF data of the smooth tube for R-134a were compared with well-known CHF correlations such as Bowring and Katto correlations. The CHF in the rifled tube was enhanced to 40-60% for the CHF in the smooth tube with depending on the rifled geometry and flow parameters such as pressure and mass flux. In relation to the enhancement mechanism, the relative vapor velocity is used to explain the characteristics of the CHF performance in the rifled tube.     

Effect of tube bundles on nucleate boiling and critical heat flux

In order to elucidate boiling heat transfer characteristics for each tube and the critical heat flux (CHF) for tube bundles, an experimental investigation of pool and flow boiling of Freon-113 at 0.1 MPa was performed using two typical tube arrangements. A total of fifty heating tubes of 14 mm diameter, equipped with thermocouples and cartridge heaters, were arrayed at pitches of 18.2 and 21.0 mm to simulate both square in-line and equilateral staggered bundles. For the flow boiling tests the same bundles as were used in pool boiling were installed in a vertical rectangular channel, to which the fluid was supplied with an approach velocity varying from 0.022 to 0.22 m/s. It was found in this study that the boiling heat transfer coefficient of each tube in a bundle was higher than that for an isolated single tube in pool boiling. This enhancement increases for tubes at higher locations, but decreases as heat flux is increased. At heat fluxes exceeding certain values, the heat transfer coefficient becomes the same as that for an isolated tube. As the heat flux approaches the CHF, flow pulsations occurred in the pool boiling experiments although the heat transfer coefficient was invariant even under this situation. The approach velocity has an appreciable effect on heat transfer up to a certain level of heat flux. In this range of heat flux, the heat transfer coefficient exceeds the values observed for pool boiling. An additive method with two contributions, i.e., single phase convection and boiling, was used to predict the heat transfer coefficient for bundles. The predicted results showed reasonable agreement with the measured results. The critical heat flux in tube bundles tended to increase as more bubbles were rising through the tube clearance. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(4): 312–325, 1998     

High-Quality Critical Heat Flux in Horizontally Coiled Tubes

Ｈｉｇｈ－ＱｕａｌｉｔｙＣｒｉｔｉｃａｌＨｅａｔＦｌｕｘｉｎＨｏｒｉｚｏｎｔａｌｌｙＣｏｉｌｅｄＴｕｂｅｓＷｅｉｍｉｎＭａ；ＭｉｎｇｙｕａｎＺｈａｎｇ；ＸｕｅｊｕｎＣｈｅｎ（ＳｔａｔｅＫｅｙＬａｂｏｒａｔｏｒｙｏｆＭｕｌｔｉｐｈａｓｅＦｌｏｗｉｎＰｏ...     

A fractal model for critical heat flux in pool boiling

In this paper, a fractal model for the high heat flux nucleate boiling region and for the critical heat flux (CHF) is proposed. The expression for the critical heat flux (CHF) is derived based on the fractal distribution of nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. The proposed fractal model for CHF is found to be a function of wall superheat, the contact angle and physical properties of fluid. The relation between CHF and the number of active nucleation sites is obtained from the fractal distribution of active nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. The contact angle and the physical properties of fluid have the important effects on CHF. The predicted CHF from a boiling surface based on the proposed fractal model is compared with the existing experimental data. An excellent agreement between the proposed model predictions and experimental data is found.     

Effects of spray characteristics on critical heat flux in subcooled water spray cooling

Effects of spray parameters (mean droplet size, droplet flux, and droplet velocity) on critical heat flux (CHF) were studied while these parameters were systematically varied. The effect of each parameter was studied while keeping the other two nearly constant. The mean droplet velocity (V) had the most dominant effect on CHF and the heat transfer coefficient at CHF (h_c), followed by the mean droplet flux (N). The Sauter mean diameter (d₃₂) did not appear to have an effect on CHF. By increasing V, CHF and h_c were increased. This trend was observed when all other spray parameters were kept within narrow ranges and even when relaxed to wider ranges, indicating the dominant effect of V. The effect of N, although not so much as V, was also found to be significant. Increasing N resulted in an increase in CHF and h_c when other parameters are kept in narrow ranges. A dilute spray with large droplet velocities appears to be more effective in increasing CHF than a denser spray with lower velocities for a given N. The mass flow rate was not a controlling parameter of CHF.     

Laminar free-convection in glycerol with variable physical properties adjacent to a vertical plate with uniform heat flux

The steady laminar boundary layer flow of glycerol along a vertical stationary plate with uniform heat flux is studied in this paper. The density, thermal conductivity and heat capacity of this liquid are linear functions of temperature but dynamic viscosity is a strong, almost exponential, function of temperature. The results are obtained with the numerical solution of the boundary layer equations. Both upward flow (plate heating) and downward flow (plate cooling) is considered. The variation of μ with temperature has significant influence on wall heat transfer and much stronger influence on wall shear stress. It was also found that the similarity exponent, which is equal to 0.20 for the classical problem with constant properties, is lower than 0.20 in the upward flow and higher than 0.20 in the downward flow.     

Critical heat flux of natural circulation boiling in a vertical tube: Effect of oscillation and circulation on CHF

An experimental study has been made to elucidate an effect of oscillated flow induced near critical heat flux (CHF) and natural circulated flow of vapor and liquid in a vertical tube on the CHF. The experiment has been carried out for the condition of heated tube length of L=100-1000 mm, tube diameter of D=4-9 mm and the CHF is measured under the condition that the exit of the unheated tube connecting the heated tube is extruded into a vapor chamber to prevent a liquid flowing into the heated tube from the top. The experiment reveals that the CHF for D=7 and 9 mm and any tube length from 100 to 1000 mm becomes identical to that for the case of the tube top in the liquid, while the CHF for D=4 and 5 mm is smaller than that for the case of the tube top in the liquid due to no liquid supply from the top. It is found that the oscillation induced near the CHF increases the CHF.     

Finite element analysis of couple stress micropolar nanofluid flow by non‐Fourier's law heat flux model past stretching surface

Numerical analysis has been done to investigate magnetohydrodynamics nonlinear convective flow of couple stress micropolar nanofluid with Catteneo‐Christov heat flux model past stretching surface with the effects of heat generation/absorption term, chemical reaction rate, first‐order slip, and convective boundary conditions. The coupled highly nonlinear differential equation governing the steady incompressible laminar flow has been solved by a powerful numerical technique called finite element method. The impacts of diverse parameters on linear velocity, angular velocity (microrotation), temperature, concentration profile, local skin friction coefficient, local wall couple stress, local Nusselt number, and Sherwood number are presented in graphical and tabular form. The result pointed out that the enhancement in material parameter β increases the velocity of the fluid while the couple stress parameter K has quite opposite effect. Heat and mass transfer rate of the fluid are enhanced by increasing material parameter while couple stress parameter shows the opposite influence. Moreover, heat and mass transfer rate are higher with the Catteneo‐Christov heat flux model than Fourier's law of heat conduction. The accuracy of the present method has been confirmed by comparing with previously published works.     

High heat flux removal using water subcooled flow boiling in a single-side heated circular channel

High heat flux removal from plasma-facing components and electronic heat sinks involves conjugate heat transfer analysis of the applicable substrate and flowing fluid. For the present case of subcooled flow boiling inside a single-side heated circular channel, the dimensional results show the significant radial, circumferential and axial variations in all thermal quantities for the present radial aspect ratio (R_o=outside radius to inside radius) of 3.0. A unified, dimensionless representation of the two-dimensional inside wall heat flux, and the dimensional inside wall heat flux (q_i(φ,z)) and temperature (T_i(φ,z)) data was found and used to collapse the data for all circumferential locations. Finally, 2-D boiling curves are presented and are among the first full set of 2-D boiling data presented for a single-side heated circular configuration.     

Effect of channel length on critical heat flux under conditions of high subcooling and high velocity in short heated channels

The characteristics of critical heat flux (CHF) in existing experiments under high subcooling and high velocity in short heated channels have, for the first time, been systematically and quantitatively investigated to provide a CHF correlation that can properly predict the effect of channel length, especially when the channel length-to-channel diameter ratio L/D is less than about 20. The major test conditions of existing CHF experiments investigated in this study were channel diameter 1 to 4 mm, L/D 1 to 25, 0.1 to 1.2 MPa pressure, 34 to 117°C inlet water subcooling and 500 to 40 700 kg/(m² · s) mass flux in circular channels, and 3 to 20 mm gap size, 6 to 40 L/D_e, 0.1 to 3.1 MPa pressure, 4 to 166°C inlet water subcooling, and 940 to 27,000 kg/(m² · s) mass flux in rectangular channels. The effect of L/D on CHF was evaluated referring to the analytical solution of CHF, which was previously derived by the author for the channel flow at high subcooling and high velocity. As a result, the effect of L/D was quantitatively clarified as an effect of magnitude in heat transfer of single-phase forced-convection flow, giving a larger CHF with a smaller L/D in the case of L/D less than about 20. The proposed correlation predicts CHF to within a ±35 percent error margin. ©1998 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(7): 509–521, 1998     

Effect of gravity on cryogenic boiling heat transfer during tube quenching

Cryogenic forced convective boiling under terrestrial and microgravity conditions for the development of cryogenic fluid management on orbit is studied. The experiments are conducted in a low mass velocity region (100–300 kg/m² s) that is easily influenced by gravity, and fluid behavior observations and heat transfer measurements are performed simultaneously. These experiments aim at understanding the effect of gravitational acceleration on the relation between the flow behavior and thermal characteristics during the quenching of the tube by a cryogenic fluid. The heat transfer increases under microgravity conditions, and results from an increase in the quench front velocity.     

Critical heat flux in non‐uniformly heated tube under low‐pressure and low‐mass‐flux condition

In an actual boiling channel, e.g., a boiler water‐tube, the circumferential heat flux is not uniform. Thus, the critical heat flux (CHF) of a non‐uniformly heated tube becomes an important design factor for conventional boilers, especially for a compact water‐tube boiler with a tube‐nested combustor. A small compact boiler is operated under low‐pressure and low‐mass‐flux conditions compared with a large‐scale boiler, thus the redistribution of liquid film strongly affects the characteristics of CHF. In this investigation, non‐uniform heat flux distribution along the circumferential direction was generated by using the Joule heating of SUS304 tubes with the wall thickness distribution. The heated length of test‐section was 900 mm with an inner diameter of 20 mm and an outer diameter of 24 mm. The center of the inner tube surface was shifted by ε=0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 mm from the center of the outer tube surface. The heat flux ratio between maximum and minimum heat flux of these tubes corresponded to 1.0, 1.7, 3.0, and 7.0, respectively. The experimental conditions were as follows: system pressure at 0.3 and 0.4 MPa, mass flux of 10–100kg/(m²s), inlet temperatures at 30° and 80°. The experimental results showed an increase in the critical heat flux substantiated by the existence of the redistribution of the flow. These characteristics are explained by using a concept similar to that of Butterworth's spreading model. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(1): 47–60, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20095