Pressure Drop,Boiling Heat Transfer and Flow Patterns during Flow Boiling in a Single Microchannel

The boiling heat transfer and two-phase pressure drop of water in a microscale channel were experimentally investigated. The tested horizontal rectangular microchannel had a hydraulic diameter of 100 μ m and length of 40 mm. A series of microheaters provided heat energy to the working fluid, which made it possible to control and measure the local thermal conditions in the direction of the flow. Both the microchannel and microheaters were fabricated using a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technique. Flow patterns were obtained from real-time flow visualizations made during the flow boiling experiments. Tests were performed for mass fluxes of 90, 169, and 267 kg/m²s and heat fluxes from 200 to 500 kW/m². The effects of the mass flux and vapor quality on the local flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and two-phase frictional pressure gradient were studied. The evaluated experimental data were compared with existing correlations. The experimental heat transfer coefficients were nearly independent of the mass flux and vapor quality. Most of the existing correlations did not provide reliable heat transfer coefficient predictions for different vapor quality values, nor could they predict the two-phase frictional pressure gradient except under some limited conditions.     

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer of Refrigerant R-134a in Copper Microchannel Heat Sink

In this paper we present experimental data on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics at flow boiling of refrigerant R-134a in a horizontal microchannel heat sink. The primary objective of this study was to experimentally establish how the local heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop correlate with the heat flux, mass flux, and vapor quality. The copper microchannel heat sink contains 21 microchannels with 335 × 930 μm² cross section. The microchannel plate and heating block were divided by the partition wall for the local heat flux measurements. Distribution of local heat transfer coefficients along the length and width of the microchannel plate was measured in the range of external heat fluxes from 50 to 500 kW/m²; the mass flux varied within 200–600 kg/m²-s, and pressure varied within 6–16 bar. The obvious impact of heat flux on the magnitude of heat transfer coefficient was observed. It showed that nucleate boiling is the dominant mechanism for heat transfer. A new model of flow boiling heat transfer, considering nucleate boiling suppression and liquid film evaporation, was proposed and verified experimentally in this paper.     

微细通道内R290流动沸腾换热特性实验研究

对R290制冷剂在微细通道内的流动沸腾换热特性进行了实验研究。研究管径分别为1和2 mm,热流密度为20~65 k W/m~2,质量流率为100~200 kg/m~2·s,饱和温度为15和25℃,干度范围为0.1~0.9。通过实验数据分析管径、热流密度、质量流率、饱和温度对流动沸腾换热的影响。结果表明:随着管径的下降,换热系数呈现出大幅上升的趋势,其平均增幅为31%;随着热流密度的上升,换热系数呈现出大幅上升的趋势,其平均增幅达到了131%;随着质量流率的上升,换热系数呈现出小幅上升的趋势,其平均增幅为14%;随着饱和温度的上升,大部分换热系数呈现出小幅上升的趋势,其平均增幅为12.6%。     

Numerical Simulation of Bubble Growth and Heat Transfer During Flow Boiling in a Surface-Modified Microchannel

Flow boiling in a microchannel without or with surface modifications, such as fins, grooves, and cavities, has received significant attention as an effective cooling method for high-power microelectronic devices. However, a general predictive approach for the boiling process has not yet been developed because of its complexity involving the bubble dynamics coupled with boiling heat transfer in a microscale channel. In this study, direct numerical simulations for flow boiling in a surface-modified microchannel are performed by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in the liquid and vapor phases. The bubble surfaces are determined by a sharp-interface level-set method, which is modified to include the effect of phase change at the liquid–vapor interface and to treat the no-slip and contact-angle conditions on immersed solid surface of microstructures. This computation demonstrates that the surface-modified microchannel enhances boiling heat transfer significantly compared to a plain microchannel. The effects of various surface modifications on the bubble growth and heat transfer are investigated to find better conditions for boiling enhancement.     

R1234yf Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Inside a 2.4-mm Microfin Tube

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an experimental study on R1234yf flow boiling inside a mini microfin tube with an inner diameter at the fin tip of 2.4 mm. R1234yf is a new refrigerant with an extremely low global warming potential (GWP <1), proposed as a possible substitute for the common R134a, whose GWP is about 1300. The mass flux was varied between 375 and 940 kg m^?2 s^?1, heat flux from 10 to 50 kW m^?2, and vapor quality from 0.1 to 1. The saturation temperature at the inlet of the test section was kept constant and equal to 30°C. The wide range of operative test conditions permitted highlighting the effects of mass flux, heat flux, and vapor quality on the thermal and hydraulic behavior during the flow boiling mechanism inside such a mini microfin tube. The results show that at low heat flux the phase-change process is mainly controlled by two-phase forced convection, and at high heat flux by nucleate boiling. The two-phase frictional pressure drop increases with increasing both mass velocity and vapor quality. Dry-out was observed only at the highest heat flux, at vapor qualities of around 0.94–0.95.     

Flow Boiling of R245fa in a Single Circular Microchannel

This paper describes an experimental setup for the investigation of two-phase heat transfer inside microchannels and reports local heat transfer coefficients measured during flow boiling of HFC-245fa in a 0.96-mm-diameter single circular channel. The test runs have been performed during vaporization at around 1.85 bar, corresponding to 31°C saturation temperature. As a peculiar characteristic of the present technique, the heat transfer coefficient is not measured by imposing the heat flux; instead, the boiling process is governed by controlling the inlet temperature of the heating secondary fluid. In the data, mass velocity ranges between 200 and 400 kg m^?2 s^?1, with heat flux varying from 5 to 85 kW m^?2 and vapor quality from 0.05 up to 0.8. Since these data are not measured at uniform heat flux conditions, a proper analysis is performed to enlighten the influence of the different parameters and to compare the present data to those obtained when the heat flux is imposed. Besides, the test runs have been carried out in a double mode: by increasing the water-to-refrigerant temperature difference and by decreasing it. Finally, the experimental data are compared to models available in the literature for predicting the heat transfer coefficients inside microchannels.     

Flow Boiling of Ammonia in a Diamond-Made Microchannel Heat Sink for High Heat Flux Hotspots

To solve the heat dissipation problem of electronic devices with high heat flux hotspots,a diamond microchannel heat sink consisting of 37 parallel triangular microchannels with channel lengths of 45 mm and hydraulic diameters of 280 μm was designed.The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of ammonia in the microchannels were investigated under high heat fluxes of 473.9-1000.4 W/cm².Saturated flow boiling experiments with saturation temperatures of 25℃,30℃,and 35℃ and mass fluxe...     

Prediction of Heat Transfer Coefficient in Saturated Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Parallel Rectangular Microchannel Heat Sinks: An Experimental Study

This study focuses mainly on the prediction of saturated flow boiling heat transfer in microchannels. A wide range of experiments has been carried out with de-ionized water to obtain a comprehensive data set. Experiments of mass fluxes of 51–728.7 kg/m²s, wall heat fluxes of 36–221.7 kW/m², vapor qualities of 0.01–0.69, liquid Reynolds number of 7.72–190, aspect ratios of 0.37–5.00 (with a constant hydraulic diameter of 100 µm) and hydraulic diameters of 100–250 µm (for constant aspect ratio = 1). A new correlation including the aspect ratio effect is proposed to predict the heat transfer coefficient for saturated flow boiling in microchannels. The proposed correlation shows very good predictions with an overall mean absolute error of 16.9% and 86.4%, 96.2% and 99.5% of the predicted data falling within ±30, ±40 and ±50% error bands, respectively.     

Seed Bubble Guided Heat Transfer in a Single Microchannel

We use the seed bubble concept for manipulating the evaporative heat transfer in a heated microchannel with smooth surfaces. Using this concept, separation of bubble nucleation and growth is obtained to simplify the heat transfer system. Not only is the temperature excursion at the boiling incipience eliminated, but also the heat transfer system displays well-ordered and repeated flow characteristics. The heat transfer rates and wall temperatures can be controlled through adjusting the seed bubble frequency. The method provides a thermal management solution for microsystems and a tool for the study of the intricate flow and heat transfer.     

Boiling Heat Transfer Performance in a Spiraling Radial Inflow Microchannel Cold Plate

ABSTRACT

This study presents an experimental exploration of flow boiling heat transfer in a spiraling radial inflow microchannel heat sink. The effect of surface wettability, fluid subcooling, and mass fluxes are considered. The design of the heat sink provides an inward radial swirl flow between parallel, coaxial disks that form a microchannel of 300 microns. The channel is heated on one side, while the opposite side is essentially adiabatic to simulate a heat sink scenario for electronics cooling. To explore the effects of varying surface wetting, experiments were conducted with two different heated surfaces. One was a clean, machined copper surface and the other was a surface coated with zinc oxide nanostructures that are superhydrophilic. During boiling, increased wettability resulted in quicker rewetting and smaller bubble departure diameter, as indicated by reduced temperature oscillations during boiling, and achieving higher maximum heat flux without dryout. The highest heat transfer coefficients were seen in fully developed boiling with low subcooling levels as a result of heat transfer being dominated by nucleate boiling. The highest heat fluxes achieved were during partial subcooled flow boiling at 300 W/cm² with an average surface temperature of 134° Celsius. Recommendations for electronics cooling applications are also discussed.     

三角形微通道饱和沸腾传热系数的预测

基于以丙酮为工质的三角形截面微通道饱和沸腾传热的实验数据,通过最小二乘法对实验数据进行参数拟合,得到一组新的经验参数,结合Thome提出的预测圆形截面微通道饱和沸腾传热系数的三区模型,对微通道饱和沸腾的传热系数进行了预测。结果表明:该三区模型可以较好地预测出传热系数随着干度的变化趋势,并得到90.04%的实验值和预测值误差在30%之内,吻合度较好。     

Heat Transfer and Flow Pattern Characteristics for HFE-7100 Within Microchannel Heat Sinks

This study investigates the heat transfer characteristics and flow pattern for the dielectric fluid HFE-7100 within multiport microchannel heat sinks with hydraulic diameters of 480 μm and 790 μm. The test results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient for the smaller channel is generally higher than that of the larger channel. It is found that the heat transfer coefficients are roughly independent of heat flux and vapor quality for a modest mass flux ranging from 200 to 400 kg m^?2 s^?1 at a channel size of 480 μm and there is a noticeable increase of heat transfer coefficient with heat flux for hydraulic diameters of 790 μm. The difference arises from flow pattern. However, for a smaller mass flux of 100 kg m^?2 s^?1, the presence of flow reversal at an elevated heat flux for hydraulic diameters of 480 μm led to an appreciable drop of heat transfer coefficient. For a larger channel size of 790 μm, though the flow reversal is not observed at a larger heat flux, some local early partial dryout still occurs to offset the heat flux contribution and results in an unconceivable influence of heat flux. The measured heat transfer coefficients for hydraulic diameters of 790 μm are well predicted by the Cooper correlation. However, the Cooper correlation considerably underpredicts the test data by 35–85% for hydraulic diameters of 480 μm. The influence of mass flux on the heat transfer coefficient is quite small for both channels.     

Facile Fabrication of Nanostructured Microchannels for Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement

Flow boiling in microchannels promises high heat transfer due to the combined effect of latent heat of vaporization and forced convection in confined spaces. However, flow boiling based miniaturized thermal management devices are limited due to instability induced dryout. While several efforts have been made to delay instabilities via advanced surface modification techniques, there is a need to expand the scope of applications by developing low-cost and scalable fabrication technologies for commonly used heat exchanger materials. In this paper, we use a facile and self-limiting chemical oxidation technique for fabricating sharp needle-like superhydrophilic CuO nanostructures within six parallel 500 × 250 µm² microchannels spread uniformly over a 1 × 1 cm² area in a copper heat sink. We demonstrate heat transfer enhancement with nanostructured microchannels (NSM) without any appreciable change either in the average pressure drop or the fluctuations in comparison to baseline plain wall microchannels (PWM). Analysis of the high-speed images was performed to attribute the enhancement with NSM to the presence of a capillarity-fed thin-film evaporation regime, which otherwise was absent in PWM. We believe that these results are encouraging and suggest that the heat sink geometry can be optimized to investigate the true potential of nanostructured microchannels.     

Heat Transfer Correlations for Elongated Bubbly Flow in Flow Boiling Micro/Minichannels

An improved conventional-to-micro/minichannel criterion was proposed by using the Bond number and the liquid Reynolds number. In micro/minichannels, bubbles tend to be confined and elongated in the channel and the conventional two-phase flow theory loses its applicability. As significant disagreement in experimental trends and heat transfer mechanisms was reported for flow boiling in micro/minichannels in the literature, it is not possible to explain the discrepancy and predict all data points by a single correlation without considering the different flow patterns. In this study, heat transfer correlations for elongated bubbly flow in flow boiling micro/minichannels were developed based on a collected micro/minichannel heat transfer database. The newly developed correlations not only can present a decent overall accuracy, but also estimate the parametric trends correctly. More than 97% of the data points can be predicted by the proposed correlations within a ±50% error band for elongated bubbly flow. Also, a flow-pattern-based model can be developed by combining the developed elongated bubbly flow correlations with previous annular flow correlations for predicting flow boiling heat transfer in micro/minichannels.     

Two-Phase Flow and Boiling Heat Transfer in Small-Diameter Tubes

For the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small channels or minichannels for air-conditioning systems, it is necessary to clarify the characteristics of vapor‐liquid two-phase flow and heat transfer of refrigerants in small-diameter tubes. In this keynote paper, the related research works that have already been performed by the author and coworkers are introduced. Based on the observations and experiments of R410A flowing in small-diameter circular and noncircular tubes with hydraulic diameter of about 1 mm, the characteristics of vapor‐liquid two-phase flow pattern and boiling heat transfer were clarified. In low quality or mass flux and low heat flux condition, in which the flow was mainly slug, the “liquid film conduction evaporation” heat transfer peculiar to small-diameter tubes prevailed and exhibited considerably good heat transfer compared to nucleate boiling and forced convection evaporation heat transfer. The effects of the tube cross-sectional shape and flow direction on the heat transfer primarily appeared in the region of the “liquid film conduction evaporation” heat transfer. A new heat transfer correlation considering all of three contributions has been developed for small circular tubes.     

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics of R600a in Multiport Minichannel

ABSTRACT

Evaporators of small and medium refrigeration systems, as in commercial and automobile air conditioning applications, are being studied to develop more compact and lighter equipment, that reaches good thermal performance and reliability, with low pressure drop. In this way, evaporators are being designed with small channels and materials like aluminum. Moreover, different refrigerants are being tested to substitute for hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, with different operational temperatures and pressures. Some of them, like hydrocarbons, although they present advantages with respect to their thermodynamic and transport properties, should be used with small charge in the system due to their flammability. This work presents the results of an experimental study to characterize the flow boiling of the refrigerant R600a (isobutane) in a multiport aluminum extruded tube with 7 parallel minichannels of 1.47 mm hydraulic diameter. The effects of mass velocity, heat flux, and vapor quality on heat transfer were investigated for constant saturation temperature and pressure. Heat fluxes in the range from 5 to 30 kW m^?2, mass velocities set to discrete values in the range of 50 to 200 kg m^?2 s^?1, and saturation temperature of 20°C were considered. It was verified a significant effect of heat flux. Moreover, some images of flow patterns, in different conditions, are presented, and the main patterns identified were slug, intermittent, and annular.     

Correlation of the Flow Pattern and Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Microchannels

Flow boiling in microchannels is characterized by the considerable influence of capillary forces and constraint effects on the flow pattern and heat transfer. In this article we utilize the features of gas–liquid flow patterns in rectangular microchannels under adiabatic conditions to explain the regularities of refrigerants flow boiling heat transfer. The flow-pattern maps for the upward and horizontal nitrogen–water flow in a microchannel with the size of 1500 × 720 μm were determined via dual-laser flow scanning and compared with corrected Mishima and Ishii prediction. Flow boiling heat transfer was studied for vertical and horizontal microchannel heat sink with similar channels using refrigerants R-21 and R-134a. The data on local heat transfer coefficients were obtained in the range of mass flux from 33 to 190 kg/m²-s, pressure from 1.5 to 11 bar, and heat flux from 10 to 160 kW/m². The nucleate and convective flow boiling modes were observed for both refrigerants. It was found that heat transfer deterioration occurred for annular flow when the film thickness became small to suppress nucleate boiling. The mechanism of heat transfer deterioration was discussed and a model of heat transfer deterioration was applied to predict the experimental data.     

On the Prediction of Heat Transfer in Micro-Scale Flow Boiling

Xu et al. have recently published a set of results for boiling heat transfer measurements in a multi-channel micro-scale evaporator for flow boiling of acetone in triangular cross-section channels (hydraulic diameter of 155.4 mm). In the present collaboration, we assess our current capability to predict this independent flow boiling data set with a fluid not in the original database and also much smaller in size using the phenomenological three-zone model of Thome, Dupont, and Jacobi. The method models boiling in small diameter channels in the elongated bubble/slug flow regime. The boiling data falling in this regime are identified here using a new micro-scale flow pattern map proposed by Revellin in order to utilize only test data corresponding to the elongated bubble flow mode. The decrease of the measured wall temperature due to the heat spread by longitudinal conduction through the heat sink was investigated through a finite differences analysis. In addition, a data reduction procedure different than that one used by Xu et al. was used and, consequently, some differences in the heat transfer behavior were found. Based on the present database, a new set of empirical parameters for the three-zone model was proposed. The conjugated effect of flow pattern and bubble/slug frequency on the heat transfer coefficient was also investigated.     

Flow Patterns and Heat Transfer for Flow Boiling in Small to Micro Diameter Tubes

An overview of the recent developments in the study of flow patterns and boiling heat transfer in small to micro diameter tubes is presented. The latest results of a long-term study of flow boiling of R134a in five vertical stainless-steel tubes of internal diameter 4.26, 2.88, 2.01, 1.1, and 0.52 mm are then discussed. During these experiments, the mass flux was varied from 100 to 700 kg/m²s and the heat flux from as low as 1.6 to 135 kW/m². Five different pressures were studied, namely, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 bar. The flow regimes were observed at a glass section located directly at the exit of the heated test section. The range of diameters was chosen to investigate thresholds for macro, small, or micro tube characteristics. The heat transfer coefficients in tubes ranging from 4.26 mm down to 1.1 mm increased with heat flux and system pressure, but did not change with vapor quality for low quality values. At higher quality, the heat transfer coefficients decreased with increasing quality, indicating local transient dry-out, instead of increasing as expected in macro tubes. There was no significant difference between the characteristics and magnitude of the heat transfer coefficients in the 4.26 mm and 2.88 mm tubes but the coefficients in the 2.01 and 1.1 mm tubes were higher. Confined bubble flow was first observed in the 2.01 mm tube, which suggests that this size might be considered as a critical diameter to distinguish small from macro tubes. Further differences have now been observed in the 0.52 mm tube: A transitional wavy flow appeared over a significant range of quality/heat flux and dispersed flow was not observed. The heat transfer characteristics were also different from those in the larger tubes. The data fell into two groups that exhibited different influences of heat flux below and above a heat flux threshold. These differences, in both flow patterns and heat transfer, indicate a possible second change from small to micro behavior at diameters less than 1 mm for R134a.     

Bubble Dynamics and Heat Transfer during Pool and Flow Boiling

A large number of studies of bubble growth rate and departure diameter have been reported in the literature. Because of uncertainty in defining the shape of an evolving interface, empirical constants are invariably used to match the model predictions with data. This is especially true when force balance is made on a vapor bubble to determine the departure diameter. In this paper, the results of an alternate approach based on a complete numerical simulation of the process are given. Single and multiple bubbles are considered for both pool and flow boiling. The simulations are based on the solution of the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy for both phases. Interface shape is captured through a level set function. A comparison of bubble shape during evolution, bubble diameter at departure, and bubble growth period is made with data from well-controlled experiments. Among other variables, the effect of magnitude of gravity and contact angle is explicitly investigated.