Subcooled Flow Boiling in a Minichannel

It has been considered that dry-out occurs easily in boiling heat transfer for a small channel, a mini- or microchannel, because the channel was easily filled with coalescing vapor bubbles. In the present study, the experiments of subcooled flow boiling of water were performed under atmospheric conditions for a horizontal rectangular channel for which the size is 1 mm height and 1 mm width, with a flat heating surface of 10 mm length and 1 mm width placed on the bottom of the channel. The heating surface has a top of copper heating block and is heated by ceramic heaters. In the high heat flux region of nucleate boiling, about 70–80% of the heating surface was covered with a large coalescing bubble and the boiling reached critical heat flux as observed by high-speed video. In the beginning of transition boiling, coalescing bubbles were collapsed to many fine bubbles and microbubble emission boiling was observed at liquid subcooling higher than 30 K. The maximum heat flux obtained was 8 MW/m² (800 W/cm²) at liquid subcooling of higher than 40 K and a liquid velocity of 0.5 m/s. However, the surface temperature was very much higher than that of a centimeter-scale channel. The high-speed video photographs indicated that microbubble emission boiling occurs in the deep transition boiling region.     

窄矩形通道中欠热流动沸腾气泡图像分割方法

为快速且准确地计算气泡行为参数,本研究针对窄距形通道中欠热流动沸腾的气泡图像,提出了一种气泡分割方法.首先,对实验图像进行滤波,背景差值等操作消除背景噪声,提高两相之间对比度;然后,利用双阈值法获得气泡图像二值图;最后,依据气泡特征选择合适的结构元素,并利用形态学操作完成气泡图像分割.实验结果表明,该方法所得气泡图像分割结果有效消除复杂背景,气泡形状、大小及位置均与实验图像符合较好.因此,该方法能够对窄矩形通道中欠热流动沸腾的气泡图像进行快速有效的分割识别.     

高热流密度微通道的周期性欠热沸腾

实验发现单微通道在高热流密度条件下会发生一种长周期/小幅度间歇性欠热沸腾现象.它发生在入口温度在室温到8℃的范围,出口温度及压差呈现非常有规律的小幅度脉动,且呈现反相.当热流密度略大于沸腾起始点时,脉动周期长达50～100 s.随着热流密度的增大,脉动周期变短.当热流密度接近临界值时,脉动周期在5～10 s.实验还发现在宽广的热流密度范围内.时均质量流速对于热流密度的变化不敏感,推断出在一个完整周期内,汽泡产生及逸出的时间相对较短.     

Hysteresis Phenomena at the Onset of Subcooled Nucleate Flow Boiling in Microchannels

In this paper, attempts were made to experimentally investigate the boiling incipience in a narrow rectangular vertical channel of 1 mm depth with an external 40 mm wide wall heated uniformly and others assumed quasiadiabatic. The “boiling front” location was determined from the temperature distribution of the heated wall obtained from liquid crystal thermography. Boiling incipience occurs when a considerable rise in the wall temperature above the saturation temperature takes place. Thus, boiling incipience is accompanied by “nucleation hysteresis.” The impact of various factors on the boiling incipience in microchannels, such as pressure, the inlet liquid subcooling, and flow velocity, were investigated.     

Time and Frequency Characteristics of Pressure Fluctuations during Subcooled Nucleate Flow Boiling

Time and frequency analyses methods including PDF (Probability Density Function), CDF (Cumulative Probability Function), FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and PSD (Power Spectral Density) were used to investigate the pressure fluctuation characteristics during subcooled nucleate flow boiling and the effects of various parameters. The experimental conditions were heating currents to a high frequency induction heater of 200–720 A, liquid temperatures of 50–85°C, and flow rates of 0–290 L/h. The CDF and PSD methods were more effective than the PDF and FFT methods for the time-frequency analyses of the pressure fluctuations. Higher heating currents, lower liquid temperatures and lower flow rates result in wider frequency distributions and larger pressure fluctuation amplitudes in the time domain and wider frequency distributions and higher PSD of the pressure fluctuations in the frequency domain. The effects of the operating conditions on the Onset of Nucleate Boiling (ONB) were analyzed qualitatively by correlating the pressure fluctuation signals with visual images obtained from the experiments. A pressure drop occurs at the ONB regardless of the conditions with the pressure drop appearing earlier at higher heating currents and liquid temperatures and lower flow rates.     

Investigation of Bubble Behavior in Subcooled Flow Boiling of Water in a Horizontal Annulus Using High-Speed Flow Visualization

Experiments have been carried out to study bubble behavior in subcooled flow boiling of water in a horizontal annulus at mass fluxes from 400 to 1200 kg/m²-s, heat fluxes from 0.1 to 1 MW/m², and pressures varying from 1 to 4 bar using high-speed visualization methods. National Instruments Labview IMAQ Vision Builder automated image-processing software was used to analyze the images obtained by high-speed visualization to obtain bubble size and bubble density. The parametric effects of pressure, mass flux, and heat flux on bubble behavior have also been brought out. Experimental results were validated by comparing with the predicted bubble sizes by using the Zeitoun and Shoukri (1996) correlation and were found to be in good agreement. It was found that bubble behavior is significantly affected by mass flux of working fluid and applied heat flux, whereas pressure of working fluid influences the bubble formation process indirectly.     

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.     

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.     

Critical Heat Flux (CHF) Correlations for Subcooled Water Flow Boiling at High Pressure and High Heat Flux

The subcooled water flow boiling is beneficial for removing the high heat flux from the divertor in the fusion reactor,for which an accurate critical heat flux(CHF)correlation is necessary.Up to now,there are many CHF correlations mentioned for subcooled water flow boiling in the open literatures.However,the CHF correlations’accuracies for the prediction of subcooled water flow boiling are not satisfactory at high heat flux and high pressure for reactor divertor.The present paper compiled 1356 CHF experimental data points from 15 independent open literatures and evaluated 10 existing CHF correlations in subcooled water flow boiling.From the evaluation,the W-2 CHF correlation performs best for the experimental CHF data in all existing critical heat flux correlations.However,the predicted mean absolute error(MAE)of the W-2 correlation is not very ideal for all database and the MAE of the W-2 correlation is from 30%to 50%for some database.In order to enhance the CHF prediction accuracy in subcooled water flow boiling at high heat flux and high pressure,the present paper developed a new CHF correlation.Compared with other existing CHF correlations,the new CHF correlation greatly enhances the prediction accuracy over a broad range of pressures and heat fluxes which are desired in the cooling of high heat flux devices,such as those in the fusion reactor divertor.The validation results show that the new correlation has a MAE of 10.05%and a root mean squared error(RMSE)of 16.61%,predicting 68.1%of the entire database within±10%and 81.5%within±15%.The MAE of the new CHF correlation is 7.4%less than that of the best existing one(W-2 correlation),further confirming its superior prediction accuracy and reliability.Besides,the new CHF correlation works well not only for a uniform power profile but also for a non-uniform power profile in subcooled water flow boiling at high pressure and high heat flux.     

Bubble Dynamics,Flow, and Heat Transfer during Flow Boiling in Parallel Microchannels

Significant efforts have recently been made to investigate flow boiling in microchannels, which is considered an effective cooling method for high-power microelectronic devices. However, a fundamental understanding of the bubble motion and flow reversal observed during flow boiling in parallel microchannels is lacking in the literature. In this study, complete numerical simulations are performed to further clarify the boiling process by using the level-set method for tracking the liquid–vapor interface which is modified to treat an immersed solid surface. The effects of contact angle, wall superheat, and the number of channels on the bubble growth, reverse flow, and heat transfer are analyzed.     

Numerical Simulation of Single Bubble Dynamics During Flow Boiling Conditions on a Horizontal Surface

Complete three-dimensional numerical simulations of single bubble dynamics during flow boiling conditions are carried out using the computational fluid dynamics code FLOW3D based on the volume-of-fluid method. The analyses include a numerically robust kinetic phase-change model and transient wall heat conduction. The simulation approach is calibrated by comparison with available experimental and theoretical data. It is found that the observed hydrodynamics (i.e., bubble shape, departure, and deformation) are simulated very well. The comparison with high-resolution transient temperature measurements during a heating foil experiment indicates that the modeling of the spatiotemporal heat sink distribution during bubble growth requires major attention. The simulation tool is employed for single bubble dynamics during flow boiling on a horizontal heating wall, and the agreement is excellent with published experimental data. The numerical results indicate how bulk flow velocity and wall heat transfer influence the bubble dynamics and heat transfer characteristics.     

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.     

Dynamic Analysis of Bubble Attachment and Sweeping on Microwire in Subcooled Nucleate Pool Boiling

With the development of industrial technology,heat transfer at the microscale has attracted more and more attention.In this work,200 μm platinum wire and 150 μm...     

Visual Study of Flow Pattern Evolution of Flow Boiling in a Microtube

High-speed photography was applied to visualize the flow pattern evolution of flow boiling of liquid nitrogen in an upward quartz microtube coated with a layer of transparent indium tin oxide film as the heater. The inner diameter of the employed tube was about 1.33 mm. The characteristic of nucleation site activation, which was the beginning of the flow pattern evolution, was studied visually. In the case of low heat flux and small mass flux, only a single nucleation site was activated. The departed bubbles grew to the size of the inner diameter of the tube soon and the transition from the bubbly flow to slug and annular flow occurred earlier compared to the conventional normal-sized tubes. In the case of high mass flux and high subcooling, multiple nucleation sites were activated. The interaction between adjacent nucleation sites was considered. Slug and annular flow were found to suppress the downstream nucleation site. Bubble coalescence was one of the key factors for the flow pattern evolution, and it was found that the bubble coalescence would bring about great disturbance to the adjacent nucleation site. The characteristics of bubble condensation in the subcooled liquid nitrogen were also demonstrated. Flow pattern evolution beyond the boiling crisis was also investigated. Post-dryout regimes such as inverted bubbly, inverted slug, and inverted annular flow were observed in the microtube. Flow reversal and liquid entrainment, which were relevant to flow instability in the flow pattern evolution, were demonstrated clearly.     

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.     

Development of a Computational Fluid Dynamics Model for Predicting Fouling Process Using Dynamic Mesh Model

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive computational model capable of simulating fouling layer thickness evolution using dynamic mesh model. This computational methodology has been developed to reproduce the deposit generation during fouling process with an innovated work method. Dynamic mesh model, from Ansys Fluent software, and external routines have been used to implement this advanced numerical model which allows to move the boundaries of a region relative to other boundaries of the zone. The displacement of the nodes of the mesh is the mechanism that this model uses to adjust the geometry according to the fouling layer evolution. During the simulation process, the geometry under investigation is modified to reproduce the emergence and gradual change of the fouling layer. Different rules of deposition and removal of the fouling process can be implemented in the proposed algorithm. The direct interaction between fouling expressions and governing equations of the main flow is used to predict deposits formation and growth. In this article, numerical simulations of soot fouling layer formation have been presented. Deposit evolution has been calculated inside different heat exchanger technologies used in exhaust gas recirculation systems to analyze fouling process and to verify the advantages of this new computational strategy.     

Study of a Vertical Boiling Flow in Rectangular Mini-Channels

Mini-channel heat exchangers with boiling flows present optimal performances: they are highly efficient and compact and require low fluid mass. However, classical correlations for two-phase flow in macro-channels fail in predicting the heat transfer coefficient and the eventual premature dry-out in mini-channels. Therefore, new studies are needed to provide better knowledge on flow boiling phenomena in small, confined spaces. The proposed paper presents an experimental study of vertical flow boiling in mini-channels. The pressure drop and the heat transfer coefficient in the test section have been measured for a variety of conditions. Different heat flux, inlet vapor quality, and mass flow rate values have been tested. A critical dry-out vapor quality depending on the mass flow rate has been found. Nevertheless, the superficial velocity appears to be much more appropriate than the vapor quality or the mass flow rate for the dry-out occurrence prediction. A clean dependence with a single critical velocity value has been found.     

电站锅炉虚拟产品开发CFD技术

基于AEAT的CFX软件技术,概述电站锅炉制造业产品开发、研制寻求的虚拟产品开发（VPD）的计算流体动力学（CFD）技术。     

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.     

CFD技术在汽轮机定子线圈冷却水流量测量中的应用

利用超声波流量计检测大型汽轮发电机定子线圈冷却水流量大小,可直接判断冷却水的堵、漏,从根本上解决定子绕组冷却水堵塞问题,但超声波流量计用于弯管段测量时存在误差。本文利用CFD技术计算了某火电厂定子线圈内冷却水的流速分布,分析了管内流动对超声波测流的影响,获得了不同测点处流量误差的变化趋势。采用CFD技术可确定超声波流量计的最佳安装位置,为获得准确的流量提供理论依据。