Concerning the magnitude of the maximum heat flux and the mechanisms of superintensive bubble boiling

We have developed a stabilizer of the temperature of a thermoresistor wire electric heater based on a PID controller. Using this stabilizer, we investigated heat exchange of subcooled water in pool boiling. We found that on stabilization of the heater temperature up to that of the subcooled water, transition from convection to the regime of bubble boiling and vice versa occurs spontaneously and is accompanied by a jumpwise change in heat transfer. It is shown that in the regime of stable bubble boiling, the law of heat transfer is independent of the liquid temperature and the heater diameter and that the maximum heat loading may attain 50 MW/m², which is much above the values cited earlier in the literature. Based on the results obtained, a mechanism of implementation of bubble boiling for the regimes of a constant heat flux and a constant temperature is suggested. The assumption is made that the regime of heterogeneous vapour generation is possible only in the case of the heater constant temperature. In the regime of a stabilized heat flux on the heater, the spatially inhomogeneous regime of heat transfer is established. This regime represents a spatially distributed combination of three regimes: convective heat transfer, homogeneous boiling, manifesting itself in periodic boiling-up of overheated layers of the liquid near the surface and an unstable regime of heterogeneous vapour generation.     

Enhancement of cooling rate during rapid quenching of a thin wire by ultrasonic vibration

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of ultrasonic vibrations on heat transfer during the rapid quenching of thin horizontal platinum wires in subcooled water and ethanol. The frequency of ultrasonic vibration was 24 and 44 kHz. The power input to the transducer P ranged from 0 to 280 W. The measured boiling curve had two minimum-heat-flux points; the first (named the MI point) corresponded to the onset of significant liquid–solid contact. For P ≤ 20 W, the wall superheat at the MI point increased considerably with increasing P. The heat flux was not much affected by the ultrasonic vibrations until the MI point was reached. After the MI point, the heat flux increased significantly with increasing P. The effect was more significant for υ = 24 kHz. Distributions of the sound pressure and the cavitation intensity were also measured and their effects on the heat transfer characteristics are discussed. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(1): 16–30, 1998     

Evaporative Cooling Heat Transfer of Water From Hierarchically Porous Aluminum Coating

A study of evaporative cooling of water was conducted using dual-scale hierarchically porous aluminum coating. The coating was created by brazing aluminum powders to a flat aluminum plate. The effects of particle size and thickness on evaporative heat transfer were investigated using average aluminum particle diameters of 27, 70, and 114 µm and average coating thicknesses of 560, 720, and 1200 µm. Constant ambient temperature of 24°C and relative humidity of 50% were provided throughout the study. Evaporative cooling tests on the coated surfaces were compared to the plain surface. Tested dual-scale porous coatings enhanced evaporative heat transfer significantly, compared to that of the plain surface, due to the effective wicking of water to the entire heated area. With particle size increase, both the wickability and dryout heat flux were significantly increased. The dryout heat flux with the particle size of 114 µm was 3.2 times higher than that with the particle size of 27 µm. At the fixed particle size of 70 µm the dryout heat flux increased as thickness increased, which resulted in the maximum dryout heat flux of 10.6 kW/m² and the maximum heat transfer coefficient of 251 W/m²K at the coating thickness of 1200 µm.     

Confined Submerged Jet Impingement Boiling of Subcooled FC-72 over Micro-Pin-Finned Surfaces

Heat transfer characteristics of confined submerged jet impingement boiling of air-dissolved FC-72 on heated micro-pin-finned surfaces are presented. The dimension of the silicon chips is 10 × 10 × 0.5 mm³ (length × width × thickness) on micro-pin-fins with the four dimensions of 30 × 30 × 60 μm³, 50 × 50 × 60 μm³, 30 × 30 × 120 μm³, and 50 × 50 × 120 μm³ fabricated by using the dry etching technique. For comparison, experiments of jet impinging on a smooth surface were also conducted. The results have shown that submerged jet impingement boiling gives a large heat transfer enhancement compared with pool boiling, and all micro-pin-fins showed better heat transfer performance than a smooth surface. The effects of jet Reynolds number, jet inlet subcooling, micro-pin-fins, and nozzle-to-surface distance on jet impingement boiling heat transfer were explored. For micro-pin-fins, the maximum allowable heat flux increases with jet Reynolds number and subcooling. The largest value of the maximum allowable heat flux of micro-pin-fins by submerged jet impingement boiling is 157 W/cm², which is about 8.3 times as large as that for the smooth surface in pool boiling. Also, Nusselt number has a strong dependence on Reynolds number.     

Magnetohydrodynamic Natural Convection Flow in an Enclosure with a Finite Length Heater Using the Differential Quadrature (DQ) Method

Analysis of heat and fluid flow transport due to natural convection and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in a square enclosure with a finite length heater has been performed using the differential quadrature (DQ) technique. The heater with constant heat flux is located on the bottom wall of the enclosure and isothermal boundary conditions are applied to the right vertical wall while the remaining walls are adiabatic. The effects of heater length (0.2 ≤ ? ≤ 0.8), heater location (0.1 ≤ c/L ≤ 0.9), and direction of magnetic force (0° ≤ φ ≤ 90°) for different values of Grashof (10³ ≤ Gr ≤ 10⁶) and Hartmann numbers (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 100) on the heat and fluid flow in the enclosure are studied. According to the results obtained, heat transfer reduces when increasing the Hartmann number. The rate of reduction is higher for high values of Grashof number. The heat transfer rate for the heater closer to the cold wall is considerably higher than the heaters far from the right wall.     

Performance Analysis of Flat-Plate Solar Collector Having Silver Nanofluid as a Working Fluid

A study on water solar collector performance having silver nanofluid as working fluid was carried out. In this study, 20-nm silver particles mixed with water at the concentrations of 1,000 and 10,000 ppm were undertaken in 3 small identical closed-loop flat-plate solar collectors, each with an area of 0.15 m × 1.0 m. The mass flux of the working fluid varied between 0.8 and 1.2 L/min-m² and the inlet temperatures were controlled in the range of 35–65°C. The tests were performed outdoor under a steady-state condition. The experimental results showed that at the same Reynolds number, the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid inside the solar absorber tube at 1,000 ppm was slightly higher than that of water, and at 10,000 ppm, the heat transfer coefficient was about 2 times that of water. This meant that the overall heat loss coefficient of the solar collector with nanofluid could be reduced and more solar heat gain could be obtained, especially with a high inlet temperature of the working fluid. In our experiments, for 10,000 ppm concentration of silver nanoparticles, the optical characteristic and the thermal loss characteristic of the solar collector, under steady-state condition with a mass flux of 1.2 kg/min-m², were 0.691 and 4.869 W/m²-K, compared with 0.684 and 7.178 W/m²-K, respectively for 1,000 ppm concentration and 0.702 and 8.318 W/m²-K for water. When the flow rate was different from the standard value, the solar thermal characteristics were also improved with the nanofluid.     

Experimental Study on Subcooled Flow Boiling in Horizontal Microtubes and Effect of Heated Length

ABSTRACT

In this study, subcooled flow boiling was investigated in horizontal microtubes. Experiments were conducted using deionized water as the working fluid over a mass flux range of 4000–7000 kg m^?2s^?1 in microtubes with inner and outer diameters of ～600 and ～900 μm, respectively. Microtubes with lengths of 3, 6, and 12 cm were tested to clarify the effect of heated length on flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. A force analysis related to two-phase flow was conducted to understand the effect of forces on bubble dynamics. Pressure drop and heat transfer data in flow boiling were acquired. Experimental heat flux data were compared with partial boiling heat flux correlations, and good agreements were obtained. Pressure drop was larger in longer microtubes in comparison to shorter ones, while higher heat fluxes were obtained in shorter microtubes at the same wall superheat. Two-phase heat transfer coefficient increased with the microtube length due to lower temperature difference between wall temperature and bulk fluid temperature in longer microtubes. Higher heat fluxes achieved in shorter microtubes at the same wall superheat imply higher critical heat fluxes in shorter microtubes.     

Subcooled flow boiling and microbubble emission boiling phenomena in a partially heated microchannel

A simultaneous visualization and measurement study has been carried out to investigate subcooled flow boiling and microbubble emission boiling (MEB) phenomena of deionized water in a partially heated Pyrex glass microchannel, having a hydraulic diameter of 155 μm, which was integrated with a Platinum microheater. Effects of mass flux, inlet water subcooling and surface condition of the microheater on subcooled flow boiling in microchannels are investigated. It is found that MEB occurred at high inlet subcoolings and at high heat fluxes, where vapor bubbles collapsed into microbubbles after contacting with the surrounding highly subcooled liquid. In the fully-developed MEB regime where the entire microheater was covered by MEB, the mass flux, the inlet water subcooling and the heater surface condition have only small effects on the boiling curves. The occurrence of MEB in microchannel can remove a large amount of heat flux, as high as 14.41 MW/m² at a mass flux of 883.8 kg/m² s, with only a moderate rise in wall temperature. Therefore, MEB is a very promising method for cooling of microelectronic chips. Heat transfer in the fully-developed MEB in the microchannel is presented, which is compared with existing subcooled flow boiling heat transfer correlations for macrochannels.     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer of FC-72 from silicon chips fabricated with micro-pin-fins

Experiments were conducted to study the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer performance of FC-72 over silicon chips. For boiling heat transfer enhancement, two kinds of micro-pin-fins having fin thickness of 50 μm and fin heights of 60 and 120 μm, respectively, were fabricated on the silicon chip surface with the dry etching technique. The fin pitch was twice the fin thickness. The experiments were conducted at the fluid velocities of 0.5, 1 and 2 m/s and the liquid subcoolings of 15, 25 and 35 K. The micro-pin-finned surfaces showed a sharp increase in heat flux with increasing wall superheat and a large heat transfer enhancement compared to a smooth surface. The nucleate flow boiling curves for the two micro-pin-finned surfaces collapsed to one line showing insensitivity to fluid velocity and subcooling, while the critical heat flux values increased with fluid velocity and subcooling. The micro-pin-finned surface with a larger fin height of 120 μm provided a better flow boiling heat transfer performance and a maximum critical heat flux of 145 W/cm². The wall temperature at the critical heat flux for the micro-pin-finned surfaces was less than 85 °C for the reliable operation of LSI chips.     

Bubble Dynamics and Heat Transfer During Pool Boiling on Wettability Patterned Surfaces

Surfaces with spatial wettability patterns have been proven to enhance heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux in pool boiling. To understand the physical mechanism behind this phenomenon and obtain the correlation among some critical parameters (bubble departure frequency, bubble size, nucleation site density, surface tension), pool boiling experiments were conducted. A Pyrex glass with a layer of indium-tin-oxide was used as the substrate. Hydrophobic patterns will serve as nucleation sites. Experiments were conducted in deionized water under atmospheric pressure at a relatively low heat flux. The processes of nucleation, growth, and departure of individual bubbles were visualized by using a high speed camera through the bottom of the heater surface. It has been found that the patterned surface performed the best in heat transfer for subcooled pool boiling when compared with hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. The nucleation site density of the biphilic surface was much higher, when compared with that of the homogeneous surface. The individual bubbles always nucleate on the edge of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic area, and then move onto the hydrophobic pattern. Most of the individual bubbles detach from the wettability patterned surface in the diameter range from 300 µm to 450 µm (around 77.3%). The bubble departure periods scatter in the range from 80 ms to 1500 ms.     

Nucleate Boiling in Large Arrays of Impinging Water Sprays

The nucleate boiling of subcooled water, under 100 cm² square arrays of impinging sprays, was experimentally investigated. Three types of commercially available full cone pressure nozzles, of distinct flow capacities, allowed for runs where the average impinging coolant mass flux spanned the 0.3–7.2 kg/m²-s range. Array geometry was varied adjusting nozzle-to-nozzle and nozzle-to-impingement surface distances. Experimental construction allowed for good drainage of spent coolant and unrestricted air entrainment to spray cones. The average heat flux through the heated, upward-facing, copper impingement surface was found to be equal to the sum of single-phase and nucleate boiling heat flux components. The phase-change component was experimentally observed to depend upon wall excess temperature only. The proposed heat transfer correlation reproduces original experimental data with a mean absolute error of 10.6%. Non-critical-heat-flux (non-CHF) cooling capacity and efficiencies of up to, respectively, 2000 kJ/kg and 83% were observed.     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of FC-72 on a heated micro-pin-finned silicon chip

Experiments are conducted here to investigate subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of FC-72 on a heated micro-pin-finned silicon chip flush-mounted on the bottom of a horizontal rectangular channel. In the experiments the mass flux is varied from 287 to 431 kg/m² s, coolant inlet subcooling from 2.3 to 4.3 °C, and imposed heat flux from 1 to 10 W/cm². Besides, the silicon chips contain three different geometries of micro-structures, namely, the smooth, pin-finned 200 and pin-finned 100 surfaces. The pin-finned 200 and 100 surfaces, respectively, contain micro-pin-fins of size 200 μm × 200 μm × 70 μm (width × length × height) and 100 μm × 100 μm × 70 μm. The measured data show that the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient is reduced at increasing inlet liquid subcooling but is little affected by the coolant mass flux. Besides, adding the micro-pin-fin structures to the chip surface can effectively raise the single-phase convection and flow boiling heat transfer coefficients. Moreover, the mean bubble departure diameter and active nucleation site density are reduced for rises in the FC-72 mass flux and inlet liquid subcooling. Increasing coolant mass flux or reducing inlet liquid subcooling results in a higher mean bubble departure frequency. Furthermore, larger bubble departure diameter, higher bubble departure frequency, and higher active nucleation site density are observed as the imposed heat flux is increased. Finally, empirical correlations for the present data for the heat transfer and bubble characteristics in the FC-72 subcooled flow boiling are proposed.     

Heat transfer enhancement of spray cooling with ammonia by microcavity surfaces

In the present work, spray cooling heat transfer performances with ammonia as coolant were experimentally investigated on three self-manufactured microcavity surfaces and the enhancement of heat transfer over that of flat surface was also examined. The experimental results showed that almost the same heat transfer performance was obtained at low surface superheats for different heat transfer surfaces due to the fact that the single phase convection dominated the heat transfer process. The microcavity surfaces exhibited uniform temperature distribution and higher heat transfer coefficient than that on the flat surface at high surface superheats once the heat transfer was dominated by the nucleate boiling. This was because that the capillary effect induced by the microcavity structure results in dramatic reduction in heat transfer resistance and then enhancement of the nucleate boiling. It was also found that the microcavity surface with the lowest Bo number of 0.1004 yielded the maximum heat transfer coefficient of 148,245 W/m²·K at the heat flux of 451 W/cm² as a result of the strongest capillary effect. In the meantime, low surface temperature of below 0 °C and uniform temperature distribution with deviation below ±1.5 °C at the heat flux of 420 W/cm² was simultaneously achieved.     

Effect of Nanostructured Microporous Surfaces on Pool Boiling Augmentation

ABSTRACT

Nanostructured microporous surfaces were electrodeposited at various electrolyte temperatures on copper substrate to investigate the saturated pool boiling enhancement of distilled water at atmospheric pressure. Surface structure topography and wickability were analyzed to investigate their relation to critical heat flux. Scanning electron microscope showed that the micro-clusters have nanostructures from cubic at 5°C to dendritic at 60°C electrolyte temperature. Rate-of-rise experiments demonstrated that dendritic copper structure has the best capillary performance. The experimental results of pool boiling heat transfer indicate that the critical heat flux increased with surface wickability. Electrodeposited porous surface in hot electrolyte showed the highest critical heat flux and heat transfer coefficient of the 124 W/cm² and 17 W/cm²K, respectively, which is 50% and 270% higher than that of plain surface. However, the two-step electrodeposition and annealing were used in fabrication of surfaces, but the mechanical strength of layer needs more improvement by changing the electrochemical process parameters.     

Pool boiling heat transfer of water and nanofluid outside the surface with higher roughness and different wettability

In order to investigate the effect of surface wettability on the pool boiling heat transfer, nucleate pool boiling experiments were conducted with deionized water and silica based nanofluid. A higher surface roughness value in the range of 3.9 ~ 6.0μm was tested. The contact angle was from 4.7° to 153°, and heat flux was from 30kW/m² to 300kW/m². Experimental results showed that hydrophilicity diminish the boiling heat transfer of silica nanofluid on the surfaces with higher roughness. As the increment of nanofluid mass concentration from 0.025% to 0.1%, a further reduction of heat transfer coefficient was observed. For the super hydrophobic surface with higher roughness (contact angle 153.0°), boiling heat transfer was enhanced at heat flux less than 93 kW/m², and then the heat transfer degraded at higher heat flux.     

Evaporation Heat Transfer Coefficients of R-446A

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the evaporation heat transfer coefficients of R-446A, as a low global warming potential alternative refrigerant to R-410A. The evaporation heat transfer coefficients were obtained by measuring the wall temperature of a straight stainless tube and refrigerant pressure. The heat transfer coefficients were measured for the quality range from 0.05 to 0.95, the mass flux from 100 to 400 kg/m²s, heat flux from 10 to 30 kW/m², and saturation temperature from 5 to 10°C. The evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-410A was verified by comparing the measured evaporation heat transfer coefficient with the value predicted by the existing correlation. The evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was measured using a proven experimental apparatus. When the heat flux was 10 kW/m², the evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was always higher than that of R-410A. But, when the heat flux was 30 kW/m², the evaporation heat transfer coefficient of R-446A was measured to be lower than that of R-410A near the dry-out point. The effect of the tube diameter on the R-446A evaporation heat transfer coefficient was negligible. The effect of saturation pressure on the evaporation heat transfer coefficient was prominent in the low quality region where the nucleate boiling was dominant.     

结构参数对全玻璃真空管太阳热水器夜间热损失的影响研究

文章建立了三维非稳态的全玻璃真空管太阳热水器的数值模型,分析了夜间散热时,该热水器内的流动和传热特征,并且在夜间同一工况下,模拟研究了贮热水箱保温材料的导热系数、保温厚度,以及真空管涂层的发射率对贮热水箱温度、真空管温度和该热水器夜间热损失的影响。分析结果表明:随着散热过程的持续进行,全玻璃真空管太阳热水器内温度分层情况越来越明显,内部流体的流速越来越小,真空管内静滞区域自下往上逐渐扩大;当贮热水箱保温材料的导热系数由0.035 W/(m·℃)减小至0.020 W/(m·℃)时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了8.5%;当贮热水箱保温厚度由50 mm增加至60 mm时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了5.0%;当真空管涂层的发射率由0.06减小至0.05时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了4.0%。     

Electrocaloric Refrigeration using Multi-Layers of Electrocaloric Material Films and Thermal Switches

The electrocaloric effect in thin films of electrocaloric material has the potential to be used for efficient cooling systems. We numerically calculated the effect of the parameters in electrocaloric refrigeration with multi-layers of electrocaloric material films and thermal switches by changing the contact thermal conductance to improve thermal performance. It was found that the average heat transfer efficiency was 10% and the average heat flux transferred to the cold side of the system was 2.4 × 10⁴ W/m² for the standard conditions of a frequency of 100 Hz and a temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side of the system of 20 K. The average heat flux transferred to the cold side of the system was maximum when the thickness of the electrocaloric material was 70 µm and thickness of the heat storage material 100 µm. The average heat transfer efficiency was maximum at the two layers of the electrocaloric material.     

Numerical Analysis of Experimental Observations for Heat Transfer Augmentation by Ultrasonic Vibration

Previous experimental measurements showed that heat transfer performance of heaters submerged in a water pool is enhanced when ultrasonic vibration is applied to the pool. The increase rate in CHF values varied depending on the inclination angle of the heated surface with the maximum when horizontal and facing downward. Despite the obvious enhancement of heat transfer performance, it was not clear how ultrasonic vibration influenced heat transfer in a pool. In order to understand the mechanism, the experimental conditions inside the water pool with and without ultrasonic vibration were numerically analyzed. A commercial CFD package that has a dynamic mesh model, FLUENT V.6.1, was used in the analysis. The results show that the standard deviation of temperature distribution in the pool is reduced when ultrasonic vibration is applied to the pool. The reduction rate of standard deviation of temperature is greatest when the heated surface faces downward and decreases as the inclination angle of heated surfaces increases. This trend coincides with the trend of CHF increase rate. Based on these results, it is concluded that an ultrasonic vibration enhances fluid mixing around the heater and thus provides heated surface with fresh water. This has an effect of lowering liquid temperature adjacent to heater surface, and in turn, leads to a heat transfer augmentation.     

Nucleate Pool Boiling Heat Transfer on a Micro-Pin-Finned Surface in Short-Term Microgravity

Nucleate boiling heat transfer of air-dissolved FC-72 on a micro-pin-finned surface was experimentally investigated in microgravity by utilizing the drop tower facility in Beijing. The dimensions of the silicon chips were 10 mm × 10 mm × 0.5 mm and on these, two kinds of micro-pin-fins with the dimensions of 30 × 30 × 60 μm³ and 50 × 50 × 120 μm³ (width × thickness × height, named PF30-60 and PF50-120) were fabricated by the dry etching technique. Nucleate pool boiling on a smooth surface was also studied under both Earth gravity and microgravity for comparison. In general, the micro-pin-fins showed better heat transfer performance when compared with a smooth surface, both under Earth gravity and microgravity. In microgravity, this is mainly due to the fact that bubbles generated on micro-pin-finned surface can depart from the heater surface continuously. For micro-pin-fins, the reduced-gravity critical heat flux was about two-thirds of that in the Earth gravity experiment, but almost three times as large as that for the smooth surface, which is larger than that in the terrestrial experiment. Under different gravity levels, PF50-120 shows a little better heat transfer than that of PF30-60, mainly due to larger heat transfer area. Besides, the fin gap of PF30-60 may generate a larger flow resistance for microconvection around the fin side walls, resulting in a lower heat transfer performance.