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.     

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.     

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.     

Two-Phase Frictional Pressure Drop and Flow Boiling Heat Transfer for R245fa in a 2.32-mm Tube

Experimental two-phase frictional pressure drop and flow boiling heat transfer results are presented for a horizontal 2.32-mm ID stainless-steel tube using R245fa as working fluid. The frictional pressure drop data was obtained under adiabatic and diabatic conditions. Experiments were performed for mass velocities ranging from 100 to 700 kg m^?2 s^?1, heat flux from 0 to 55 kW m^?2, exit saturation temperatures of 31 and 41°C, and vapor qualities from 0.10 to 0.99. Pressures drop gradients and heat transfer coefficients ranging from 1 to 70 kPa m^?1 and from 1 to 7 kW m^?2 K^?1 were measured. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient is a strong function of the heat flux, mass velocity, and vapor quality. Five frictional pressure drop predictive methods were compared against the experimental database. The Cioncolini et al. (2009) method was found to work the best. Six flow boiling heat transfer predictive methods were also compared against the present database. Liu and Winterton (1991), Zhang et al. (2004), and Saitoh et al. (2007) were ranked as the best methods. They predicted the experimental flow boiling heat transfer data with an average error around 19%.     

Hydraulic Characteristics of Flow Boiling of Hydrocarbon Fluids: Two-Phase Pressure Drop

Two-phase hydraulic characteristics, in terms of pressure drop and void fraction data, are reported for boiling of single-component hydrocarbon fluids in vertical upflow. These data were obtained simultaneously with the boiling heat transfer measurements. The systematic trends of the measured pressure gradient with respect to vapor quality, mass flux, and pressure are examined. This provides useful information in terms of the relative importance of the constituent parts of the two-phase pressure gradients and confirms the internal consistency of the measured data. These two-phase pressure-drop data under flow boiling conditions are then compared with various correlations from the open literature and also with a proprietary correlation used in commercial heat exchanger design and simulation software. Typical results of these comparisons are presented. It is noted that in the near-zero vapor quality region the measured pressure-gradient data may be lower than expected because of the effect of subcooled boiling.     

Experimental Study on Flow Boiling of Deionized Water in a Horizontal Long Small Channel

In this paper, an experimental investigation on the flow boiling heat transfer in a horizontal long mini-channel was carried out. The mini-channel was with 2 mm wide and 1 mm deep and 900 mm long. The material of the mini-channel was stainless. The working fluid was deionized water. The experiments were conducted with the conditions of inlet pressure in the range of 0.2~0.5 MPa, mass flux in the range of 196.57-548.96 kg/m²s, and the outlet vapor quality in the range of 0.2 to 1. The heat flux was in the range of 292.86 kW/m² to 788.48 kW/m², respectively. The influences of mass flux and heat flux were studied. At a certain mass flow rate, the local heat transfer coefficient increased with the increase of the heat flux. If dry-out occurred in the mini-channel, the heat transfer coefficient decreased. At the same heat flux, the local heat transfer coefficient would depend on the mass flux. It would increase with the mass flux in a certain range, and then decrease if the mass flux was beyond this range. Experimental data were compared with the results of previous studies. Flow visualization and measurements were conducted to identify flow regime transitions. Results showed that there were eight different kinds of flow patterns occurring during the flow boiling. It was found that flow pattern had a significant effect on heat transfer.     

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.     

Microchannel size effects on local flow boiling heat transfer to a dielectric fluid

Heat transfer with liquid–vapor phase change in microchannels can support very high heat fluxes for use in applications such as the thermal management of high-performance electronics. However, the effects of channel cross-sectional dimensions on the two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop have not been investigated extensively. In the present work, experiments are conducted to investigate the local flow boiling heat transfer of a dielectric fluid, Fluorinert FC-77, in microchannel heat sinks. Experiments are performed for mass fluxes ranging from 250 to 1600 kg/m² s. Seven different test pieces made from silicon and consisting of parallel microchannels with nominal widths ranging from 100 to 5850 μm, all with a nominal depth of 400 μm, are considered. An array of temperature sensors on the substrate allows for resolution of local temperatures and heat transfer coefficients. The results of this study show that for microchannels of width 400 μm and greater, the heat transfer coefficients corresponding to a fixed wall heat flux as well as the boiling curves are independent of channel size. Also, heat transfer coefficients and boiling curves are independent of mass flux in the nucleate boiling region for a fixed channel size, but are affected by mass flux as convective boiling dominates. A strong dependence of pressure drop on both channel size and mass flux is observed. The experimental results are compared to predictions from a number of existing correlations for both pool boiling and flow boiling heat transfer.     

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 pattern transition instability during flow boiling in a single microchannel

We studied the unique characteristics of flow boiling in a single microchannel, including the periodic pressure drop, mass flow rate, and temperature fluctuations, in terms of a long time period. Experiments were conducted using a single horizontal microchannel and deionized water to study boiling instabilities at very small mass and heat flow rate conditions. A Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rectangular single microchannel had a hydraulic diameter of 103.5 μm and a length of 40 mm. A series of piecewise serpentine platinum microheaters were fabricated on the inner bottom wall of the rectangular microchannel to supply thermal energy to the test fluid. Real-time flow visualizations of the flow pattern inside the microchannel were performed simultaneously with measurements of the experimental parameters. Tests were performed for mass fluxes of 170 and 360 kg/m² s and heat fluxes of 200–530 kW/m². The test results showed that the heated wall temperature, pressure drop, and mass flux all fluctuated with a long period and large amplitude. These periodic fluctuations exactly matched the transition of two alternating flow patterns inside the microchannel: a bubbly/slug flow and an elongated slug/semi-annular flow. Therefore, the flow pattern transition instability in the single microchannel caused a cyclic behavior of the wall temperature, pressure drop, and mass flux, and this behavior had a very long period (100–200 s) and large amplitude.     

Prediction of Pressure Drop for Flow Boiling in Rectangular Multi-Microchannel Heat Sinks

In this study, two new correlations are developed to predict pressure drop for the flow boiling in micro systems with low mass flux. The correlations developed rely on extensive experimental results. Experiments are conducted for flow boiling in nine different silicon multichannel heat sinks with deionized water. In the experiments, mass fluxes of 51–324 kg?m^?2?s^?1, wall heat fluxes of 36–121.8 kW?m^?2, exit vapor qualities of 0.04–0.81, liquid-only Reynolds number of 20.3–89.4, aspect ratios of 0.37–5.00 and hydraulic diameters of 100–250 µm are tested. At first, validation tests for the single phase have been conducted. Then, some of the well-known existing correlations developed for the prediction of two phase pressure drop are used for comparison of the experimental results obtained. Finally, two new empirical correlations are developed for low mass flux conditions. The first one is for frictional pressure drop component, which is obtained by following a general procedure. The second one is for the prediction of total pressure drop (a dimensionless pressure drop correlation). The latter has been shown to predict better with an overall mean absolute error of 14.5% and, 87.8%, 94.8% and 96.5% of the predictions falling within ±30, ±40 and ±50% error bands, respectively.     

A Flow Boiling Microchannel Evaporator Plate for Fuel Cell Thermal Management

In order to provide a high-power density thermal management system for PEM fuel cell applications, a flow boiling microchannel evaporator plate has been developed that operates in a closed loop two-phase thermosyphon. The flow is passively driven by gravity, and the flow rate initially increases with increasing evaporation rate and then decreases after reaching a peak flow rate. A microchannel plate has been fabricated with 56 square channels that have a 1 mm × 1 mm cross-section and are 115 mm long. The working fluid, HFE-7100, has been chosen due to its favorable saturation temperature at one atmosphere. Experiments have been conducted with the heat flux as the control variable. Measurements of mass flow rate, temperature field, and pressure drop have been made. The flow regimes are predominately bubbly and slug. The maximum heat flux observed, 32 kW/m², is an order of magnitude greater than that required in current fuel cells and is limited by a Ledinegg instability. Two-phase thermal hydraulic models give a reasonable prediction for the mass flow rates and wall temperatures using standard flow boiling correlations. This paper will thoroughly describe the performance of the two-phase thermal management system over a wide range of operating conditions.     

Pool Boiling Heat Transfer in Diluted Water/Glycerol Binary Solutions

Pool boiling heat transfer in water/glycerol binary solutions has been experimentally investigated on a horizontal rod heater. The experiments have been performed at various concentrations (zero to 35% mass glycerol) and heat fluxes up to 92 kW m^?2 at atmospheric pressure. The experimental values of boiling heat transfer coefficient have been compared to main existing correlations. It has been shown that the various predictions are significantly inconsistent. Based on the high difference between relative volatilities of water and glycerol, a simple model has been proposed to predict the boiling heat transfer coefficient. The applicability of this model is limited to low concentrations of glycerol and medium/low heat fluxes; however, the predictions are accurate. The proposed model is anticipated to be extendable to other binary systems in which the vapor pressure of one constituent is considerably higher when compared to the other component.     

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics in Minitubes With and Without Hydrophobicity Coating

Abstract

Wettability plays an important role during flow boiling inside micro and mini channels. The present work focuses on the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics inside copper minitube (inner diameter of 3?mm) coated internally to render the inside surface nearly hydrophobic. Electroless Galvanic Deposition technique is employed for hydrophobic coating inside the copper tube. Both single phase heat transfer and two-phase flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics were investigated in regular and internally coated hydrophobic copper minitubes. The experiments were performed with deionized water as a working fluid and the mass flux was varied from 100 to 650?kg/m²s. The two-phase heat transfer characteristics was observed to be both functions of mass flux as well as heat flux. The two phase heat transfer has been observed to be augmented due to the wettability within the tubes. The two-phase pressure drop has also been observed to increase when compared to the regular, uncoated tube; however, the proportional increment is lower than the augmentation achieved in two-phase heat transfer. The enhanced heat transfer effects observed have been explained on the basis of wetting physics.     

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.     

Boiling heat transfer in a hydrofoil-based micro pin fin heat sink

Flow boiling of R-123 in a hydrofoil-based micro pin fin heat sink was investigated. Average two-phase heat transfer coefficients were obtained over effective heat fluxes ranging from 19 to 312 W/cm² and mass fluxes from 976 to 2349 kg/m² s. The paper presents a flow map, which divides the data into three flow pattern regions: bubbly, wavy intermittent and spray-annular flows. Heat transfer coefficient trends and flow morphologies were used to infer boiling heat transfer mechanisms. Existing conventional scale correlations for circular tubes resulted in large scatter and were not able to predict the heat transfer coefficients accurately.     

Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Refrigerant R32 Flowing in a Small Horizontal Tube

In this study, experiments were performed to examine characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of a low global warming potential refrigerant R32 flowing in a horizontal copper circular tube with 1.0 mm inside diameter for the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small-diameter tubes or minichannels for air conditioning systems. Axially local heat transfer coefficients were measured in the range of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s), qualities from 0.05 to 1.0, and heat fluxes from 2 to 24 kW/m² at the saturation temperature of 10°C. Pressure drops were also measured in the rage of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s) and qualities from 0.05 to 0.9 at the saturation temperature of 10°C under adiabatic condition. In addition, two-phase flow patterns were observed through a sight glass fixed at the tube exit with a digital camera. The characteristics of boiling heat transfer and pressure drop were clarified based on the measurements and the comparison with data of R410A obtained previously. Also, measured heat transfer coefficients were compared with two existing correlations.     

Fundamental Issues Related to Flow Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Patterns in Microchannels – Experimental Challenges and Opportunities

ABSTRACT

Flow boiling heat transfer in microchannels is used today in many diverse applications. The previous studies addressing the effect of channel size, heat flux, vapor quality, and mass flux on heat transfer during flow boiling are reviewed in the present paper. The relationship between flow characteristics and flow boiling heat transfer was studied experimentally for refrigerant R-C318 at moderate reduced pressures where the contribution of nucleate boiling is decisive. Flow boiling mechanisms were identified using an annular microchannel with transparent outer wall for successive visualization of boiling. The considerable suppression of nucleate boiling heat transfer was observed at transition to annular flow and explained by formation of a liquid flow with thin film and dry spots. A general equation for prediction of two-phase flow boiling heat transfer inside the circular, annular, and rectangular microchannels is proposed and verified using the experimental data. This equation accounts for the nucleate boiling suppression, forced convection, and thin film evaporative heat transfer in the form that allows to distinguish more clearly the contribution of each mechanism of heat transfer under the conditions, when it is predominant. A new approach for prediction of transition to the annular flow is proposed and verified, using the experimental data.     

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.     

R1234yf Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in a Rectangular Channel Heated from the Bottom

This paper presents some preliminary experimental measurements collected during flow boiling heat transfer of low global warming potential refrigerant R1234yf in an asymmetrically heated rectangular plain channel. The asymmetrical heating is the common boundary condition that occurs in many different applications, for instance, in almost all the electronic devices, which are now pushing the cooling demands to more and more greater requirements. From this standpoint, the analysis of the flow boiling heat transfer of efficient and eco-friendly refrigerants can open new frontiers to the electronic thermal management. The experimental measurements were carried out at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padova by imposing two different heat fluxes, 50 and 100 kW m^?2, at a constant saturation temperature of 30°C; the refrigerant mass velocity was varied between 50 and 200 kg m^?2 s^?1, while the vapor quality varied from 0.2 to 0.95. The developed measuring technique permits to estimate the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and the critical value of vapor quality at the onset of the dryout.