Influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer coefficients of Al2O3/R141b in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering

Al2O3/R141b+Span-80 nanorefrigerant for 0.05 wt.% to 0.4 wt.% is prepared by ultrasonic vibration to investi-gate the influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer of Al2O3/R141b+Span-80 in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering.Experimental results show that nanoparticle concentrations have significantly impact on heat transfer coefficients by homogeneity test of variances according to mathemat-ical statistics.The heat transfer performance of Al2O3/R141b+Span-80 nanorefrigerant is enhanced after adding nanoparticles in the pure refrigerant R141b.The heat transfer coefficients of 0.05 wt.%,0.1 wt.%,0.2 wt.%,0.3 wt.% and 0.4 wt.% Al2O3/R141b+Span-80 nanorefrigerant respectively increase by 55.0%,72.0%,53.0%,42.3% and 39.9% compared with the pure refrigerant R141b.The particle fluxes from viscosity gradient,non-uniform shear rate and Brownian motion cause particles to migrate in fluid especially in the process of flow boiling.This mi-gration motion enhances heat transfer between nanoparticles and fluid.Therefore,the heat transfer performance of nanofluid is enhanced. It is important to note that the heat transfer coefficients nonlinearly increase with nanoparticle concentrations increasing.The heat transfer coefficients reach its maximum value at the mass concentration of 0.1% and then it decreases slightly.There exists an optimal mass concentration corresponding to the best heat transfer enhancement. The reason for the above phenomenon is attributed to nanoparticles deposition on the minichannel wall by Scanning Electron Microscopy observation.The channel surface wettability increases during the flow boiling experiment in the mass concentration range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%.The channel surface with wettability increasing needs more energy to produce a bubble.Therefore,the heat transfer coefficients decrease with nanoparticle concentrations in the range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%.In addition,a new correlation has been proposed by fitting the experimental data considering the influence of mass concentrations on the heat trans-fer performance.The new correlation can effectively predict the heat transfer coefficient.     

One-Piece Stainless-Steel 3D Printed Minichannel Evaporators using Flow Boiling Carbon Dioxide

New concepts are required for high-performance minichannel evaporators with low mass and reduced size involved in the cooling of cylindrical or conical surfaces. The development of one-piece stainless-steel evaporators using flow boiling CO₂ for the cooling of conical copper test specimens heated by a foil heater element is presented. The specimens mimic a mobile cooling device used in high-energy and particle physics. The stainless-steel evaporators were manufactured with a state-of-the-art 3D stainless-steel printer via selective laser melting. The computer-aided design and the construction of this new type of evaporators are described. A dedicated two-phase accumulator controlled loop filled with liquid CO₂ was developed, it allowed for operating four parallel connected evaporators. Cooling efficiency and manufacture reproducibility were experimentally investigated by applying different thermal loads and refrigerant mass flows.     

非圆截面小通道内R113的流动沸腾换热特性

针对非圆截面小通道流动沸腾换热研究报道较少的现状,以R113为工质,对4种不同水力直径的正方形、三角形截面小通道内的流动沸腾换热特性进行试验研究,试验参数范围：入口干度,过冷～1.0;质量流速400～ 3 300 kg/(m2?s);热流密度20～150 kW/m2,并将试验结果与相近水力直径的圆通道内流动沸腾试验结果进行了对比分析。试验结果表明：非圆小通道内饱和流动沸腾局部壁面温度与质量流速密切相关,并受热负荷与流动沸腾换热状况的影响;质量流速和壁面热负荷是非圆小通道内流动沸腾换热特性的主要影响因素;与相近水力直径的圆通道内流动沸腾试验数据对比显示,非圆截面小通道具有明显的强化传热作用。     

Experimental hydrothermal characteristics of minichannel heat sink using various types of hybrid nanofluids

The hydrothermal characteristics of minichannel heat sink are analyzed experimentally by using deionized (DI) water based different nanoparticles mixture dispersed hybrid nanofluids. Al₂O₃, MgO, SiC, AlN, MWCNT and Cu nanoparticles are considered for this study. Different nanoparticles combinations (oxide-oxide, oxide-carbide, oxide-nitride, oxide-carbon nanotube and oxide-metal) in 50/50 vol ratio with base fluid (DI water) have been taken as coolants for volume concentration of 0.01%. Effects of volume flow rate (0.1–0.5LPM), fluid inlet temperature (20–40 °C) and Reynolds number (50–500) are studied for heat flux of 50 W/cm². Convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are increased by about 42.24% and 22% for Al₂O₃ + MWCNT hybrid nanofluid. The maximum reduction of 21.36% in thermal resistance is obtained for Al₂O₃ + MWCNT hybrid nanofluid in comparison to DI water. Heat transfer effectiveness and figure of merit are above one for all the hybrid nanofluids which conclude that hybrid nanofluid is better option for electronics cooling over DI water. Al₂O₃ + MWCNT hybrid nanofluid is better in terms of heat transfer effectiveness; whereas, Al₂O₃ + AlN hybrid nanofluid (oxide-nitrite mixture) has maximum heat transfer coefficient to pressure drop ratio and coefficient of performance.     

A minichannel aluminium tube heat exchanger – Part III: Condenser performance with propane

This paper reports heat transfer results obtained during condensation of refrigerant propane inside a minichannel aluminium heat exchanger vertically mounted in an experimental setup simulating a water-to-water heat pump. The condenser was constructed of multiport minichannel aluminium tubes assembled as a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Propane vapour entered the condenser tubes via the top end and exited sub-cooled from the bottom. Coolant water flowed upward on the shell-side. The heat transfer areas of the tube-side and the shell-side of the condenser were 0.941 m² and 0.985 m², respectively. The heat transfer rate between the two fluids was controlled by varying the evaporation temperature while the condensation temperature was fixed. The applied heat transfer rate was within 3900–9500 W for all tests. Experiments were performed at constant condensing temperatures of 30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C, respectively. The cooling water flow rate was maintained at 11.90 l min⁻¹ for all tests. De-superheating length, two-phase length, sub-cooling length, local heat transfer coefficients and average heat transfer coefficients of the condenser were calculated. The experimental heat transfer coefficients were compared with predictions from correlations found in the literature. The experimental heat transfer coefficients in the different regions were higher than those predicted by the available correlations.     

Impact of selected parameters on refrigerant flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop in minichannels

This paper presents results concerning flow boiling heat transfer in a rectangular minichannel 1 mm deep, 40 mm wide and 360 mm long. The refrigerant flowing in the minichannel, Fluorinert FC-72, was heated by a thin foil microstructured on the side in contact with the fluid. Two types of microstructured surfaces were used: one with evenly distributed microcavities and the other with non-uniformly distributed minicavities. Liquid crystal thermography was applied to determine the temperature of the smooth side of the foil. The paper analyses mainly the impact of the microstructured heating surface and orientation of the minichanel on the heat transfer coefficient and two phase pressure drop. This required calculating the local values of heat transfer coefficient and measuring the pressure drop for different positions of the minichannel with enhanced heating wall. Moreover, the effects of selected thermal and flow parameters (mass flux density and inlet pressure), the geometric parameters, and the type of cooling liquid on the nucleate boiling heat transfer is studied. From the measurement results it is evident that applying a microstructured surface caused an increase in the heat transfer coefficient, which was approximately twice as high as that reported for the smooth surface. The highest values of the coefficient were observed for position 90° (the vertical minichannel) and position 0° (the horizontal minichannel), whereas the lowest were reported for position 180° (the horizontal minichannel). The experimental data concerning the two-phase flow pressure drop was compared with the calculation results obtained by applying nine correlations known from the literature. It is reported that most of the correlations can be used to predict the two-phase flow pressure drop gradient within an acceptable error limit (±30%) only for positions 90° and 135° (the vertical and inclined minichannels, respectively). The lowest agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical predictions was reported for the horizontal positions of the minichannel.     

Performance model of a novel evacuated-tube solar collector based on minichannels

Thermal performance of a novel minichannel-based solar collector is investigated numerically. The particular collector consists of a U-shaped flat-tube absorber with a selective coating on its external surface. The working fluid flows inside an array of minichannels located in the cross-section of the absorber along its length. The absorber is enclosed in an evacuated-glass envelope to minimize convective losses. Performance and pressure drop are evaluated for different inlet temperatures and flow rates of the working fluid. Thermal performance of minichannel-based solar collector is compared to that of an evacuated tube collector without minichannels from the literature. Configurations with and without a concentrator are analyzed.     

Oscillating flow behavior of a natural circulation loop using minichannels at atmospheric pressure

Natural circulation loops at the macroscale have been widely applied in the passive cooling of nuclear power plant. However, little has been done on the miniaturized natural circulation loop for electronic cooling. The present study is to develop a miniaturized natural circulation loop consisting of an evaporator, a condenser, a riser (vapor line) and a downcomer (liquid line). Heat is dissipated from the heated chip to the evaporator, and transferred to the condenser by the air natural convection. The working fluid is selected as methanol. It is demonstrated that the system can dissipate the heating power up to 80 W with the temperatures of a simulated heated chip less than 73 °C. With the heating power varying from 10 to 80 W, the loop operates from the oscillating liquid flow to the periodic liquid/two-phase alternate flow. The thermal oscillatings of the simulated heating chip are always random. However, the inlet/outlet fluid temperatures and pressures display periodic oscillating behavior. A single full cycle is identified by the parameter traces and the simple flow visualizations by the naked eye to have three stages: liquid flow stage, sensible heat receiving stage, boiling two-phase discharging stage. These have clear switch points. The oscillating time period can be as long as 57 s at the heating power of 30 W, and is sharply decreased with increasing heating power. It is also shown that the mean wall temperatures only slightly increase with the increasing heating power, providing the better performance of the present natural circulation loop using minichannels at atmospheric pressure.     

Hydrodynamik und Stofftransport in einem Perlschnurreaktor für Gas/Flüssig/Fest‐Reaktionen

In this work, a pellet string reactor was characterized with respect to hydrodynamics and mass transfer. The catalyst packing consists of a cylindrical channel with a diameter of 1.41 mm, which was filled with spherical catalyst particles, having an outer diameter of 0.8 mm. Under reaction conditions (liquid phase hydrogenation of α‐methylstyrene) overall (gas‐liquid‐solid) volumetric mass transfer coefficients for hydrogen between 0.8 and 5.5 s^–1 were computed. Due to high mass transfer rates and simple reactor geometry, pellet string reactors can be applied in industry as highly efficient reaction units.     

Boiling and two-phase flow in channels with extremely small dimensions: a review of Japanese research

Research concerning micro-actuators utilizing vapor–liquid interfacial phenomena has been carried out extensively to develop thermal devices applied to micromachines. On the other hand, the application of two-phase flow is useful for the removal of waste heat from the semiconductor chips with highly increased heat generation density to be integrated in notebook PCs. In the present paper, the latest Japanese research on boiling and two-phase flow in minichannels is reviewed, covering the topics for the fundamental phenomena and practical applications. Boiling in a narrow channel between parallel plates is an ideal system for the development of high-performance heat exchangers with extremely small sizes. The promising approaches to increasing the critical heat flux (CHF) are introduced, including those by the present author, to compensate for the disadvantages inherent in this system.