Microscale study of mechanisms of heat transfer during flow boiling in a microchannel (original) (raw)
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Experimental investigation of vapor bubble growth during flow boiling in a microchannel
International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2011
Experiments were conducted to analyze flow boiling characteristics of water in a single brass microchannel of 25 mm length, 201 lm width, and 266 lm depth. Different heat flux conditions were tested for each of two different mass flow rates over three different values of inlet fluid temperature. Temporal and spatial surface temperature profiles were analyzed to show the relative effect of axial heat conduction on temperature rise along the channel length and the effect of flow regime transition on local surface temperature oscillation. Vapor bubble growth rate increased with increasing wall superheat. The slower a bubble grew, the further it was carried downstream by the moving liquid. Bubble growth was suppressed for increased mass flux while the vapor bubble was less than the channel diameter. The pressure spike of an elongating vapor bubble was shown to suppress the growth of a neighboring bubble by more than 50% of its volume. An upstream progression of the Onset of Bubble Elongation (OBE) was observed that began at the channel exit and progressed upstream. The effects of conjugate heat transfer were observed when different flow regime transitions produced different rates of progression for the elongation sequence. Instability was observed at lower heat fluxes for this single channel experiment than for similar studies with multiple channels.
Bubble confinement in flow boiling of FC-72 in a “rectangular” microchannel of high aspect ratio
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 2010
High aspect ratio microchannel Two-phase flow instabilities a b s t r a c t Boiling in microchannels remains elusive due to the lack of full understanding of the mechanisms involved. A powerful tool in achieving better comprehension of the mechanisms is detailed imaging and analysis of the two-phase flow at a fundamental level. Boiling is induced in a single microchannel geometry (hydraulic diameter 727 lm), using a refrigerant FC-72, to investigate the effect of channel confinement on bubble growth. A transparent, metallic, conductive deposit has been developed on the exterior of the rectangular microchannel, allowing simultaneous uniform heating and visualisation to be achieved. The data presented in this paper is for a particular case with a uniform heat flux applied to the microchannel and inlet liquid mass flowrate held constant. In conjunction with obtaining high-speed images and videos, sensitive pressure sensors are used to record the pressure drop across the microchannel over time. Bubble nucleation and growth, as well as periodic slug flow, are observed in the microchannel test section. The periodic pressure fluctuations evidenced across the microchannel are caused by the bubble dynamics and instances of vapour blockage during confined bubble growth in the channel. The variation of the aspect ratio and the interface velocities of the growing vapour slug over time, are all observed and analysed. We follow visually the nucleation and subsequent both 'free' and 'confined' growth of a vapour bubble during flow boiling of FC-72 in a microchannel, from analysis of our results, images and video sequences with the corresponding pressure data obtained.
Numerical study of vapor bubble effect on flow and heat transfer in microchannel
International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 2012
Flow boiling in a microchannel is characterized by nucleation and dynamic behavior of vapor bubbles in the channel. In the present study, the effect of vapor bubble on fluid flow and heat transfer in a microchannel is investigated via lattice Boltzmann (LB) modeling. With respect to boiling flow in a single microchannel, the bubble nucleation, growth, and departure are simulated by using an improved hybrid LB model. Relating bubble behavior with fluid flow and boiling heat transfer provides some insight into the relevant fundamental physics on flow boiling in the microchannel. It is found that the bubble growth before its departure from the wall induces an obvious resistance to the fluid flow. The processes of nucleation and motion of different bubbles interact, leading to an alternate, either enhanced or weakened, effect of bubble behavior on the flow boiling.
Local measurement of flow boiling in structured surface microchannels
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2007
Experiments were conducted to investigate flow boiling in 200 lm  253 lm parallel microchannels with structured reentrant cavities. Flow morphologies, boiling inceptions, heat transfer coefficients, and critical heat fluxes were obtained and studied for mass velocities ranging from G = 83 kg/m 2 s to G = 303 kg/m 2 s and heat fluxes up to 643 W/cm 2 . Comparisons of the performance of the enhanced and plain-wall microchannels were performed. The microchannels with reentrant cavities were shown to promote nucleation of bubbles and to support significantly better reproducibility and uniformity of bubble generation. The structured surface was also shown to significantly reduce the boiling inception and to enhance the critical heat flux.
An Experimental Investigation of Flow Boiling Characteristics of Water in Parallel Microchannels
Microchannels are being considered in many advanced heat transfer applications including automotive and stationary fuel cells as well as electronics cooling. However, there are a number of fundamental issues from the heat transfer and fluid mechanics perspectives that still remain unresolved. The present work focuses on obtaining the fundamental heat transfer data and two-phase flow patterns present during flow boiling in microchannels. An experimental investigation is performed for flow boiling using water in six parallel, horizontal microchannels with a hydraulic diameter of 207 m. The ranges of parameters are: mass flux from 157 to 1782 kg/m 2 s, heat flux from 5 to 930 kW/m 2 , inlet temperature of 22°C, quality from sub-cooled to 1.0, and atmospheric pressure at the exit. The corresponding single-phase, all-liquid flow Reynolds number range at the saturation conditions is from 116 to 1318. The measured single-phase, adiabatic pressure drop agreed with the conventional theory within the experimental error. The experimental single-phase Nusselt number was found to be between the constant heat flux and the constant wall temperature boundary conditions, corresponding to Nu H and Nu T respectively. The flow visualization demonstrates that the flow reversal condition in parallel flow channels is due to bubble nucleation followed by its rapid growth. In addition, the dry-out condition is observed, showing a change in the contact angles of the liquid-vapor interface. The local flow boiling heat transfer coefficient exhibits a decreasing trend with increasing quality. A comparison with the nucleate boiling dominant regime of a flow boiling correlation shows good agreement, except for the large peak in two-phase heat transfer coefficient observed at the onset of nucleate boiling.
Flow Boiling in Micro-Passages: Developments in Fundamental Aspects and Applications
2018
Flow boiling in mini to micro passages located at the heat source, and as part of a thermal management system, has been identified as a possible way to remove the increasing high heat fluxes generated by high power electronic devices due to their capability of high heat transfer rates with small surface temperature variations. However, some still unresolved fundamental issues hinder the possible full adoption of this technology. These relate to the prevailing flow patterns, heat transfer rates and pressure drop in such geometries, and their dependence on key parameters. The possible major applications of flow boiling in microchannels are first mentioned in this paper, highlighting the requirements and the challenges of the thermal management of each application. The paper then presents new experimental research by the present authors as well as research reported in the literature on flow boiling in single tubes and rectangular multi microchannels to help elucidate the following fundamental issues: the definition of a microchannel, prevailing flow patterns, heat transfer mechanisms, flow instability and reversal and their effect on heat transfer rates, effect of channel material and surface characteristics (including latest research in coatings), effect of different fluid properties, and its relation to channel material, effect of channel length and aspect ratio. An appreciation of the above can help explain the interpretation of the prevailing fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena and the data scatter and discrepancies observed in past studies. In addition, models and correlations predicting flow patterns and heat transfer rates are presented.
Scientific Reports, 2017
Performance enhancement of the two-phase flow boiling heat transfer process in microchannels through implementation of surface micro- and nanostructures has gained substantial interest in recent years. However, the reported results range widely from a decline to improvements in performance depending on the test conditions and fluid properties, without a consensus on the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed behavior. This gap in knowledge stems from a lack of understanding of the physics of surface structures interactions with microscale heat and mass transfer events involved in the microchannel flow boiling process. Here, using a novel measurement technique, the heat and mass transfer process is analyzed within surface structures with unprecedented detail. The local heat flux and dryout time scale are measured as the liquid wicks through surface structures and evaporates. The physics governing heat transfer enhancement on textured surfaces is explained by a deterministic...
Bubble Dynamics and Boiling Heat Transfer in Microsystems
ASME 2008 6th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels, 2008
Bubble dynamics and boiling heat transfer are received great attention in recent years, due to the wide applications in micro devices or systems. The literature is becoming rich in conventional microchannels. One should be careful to apply these results in silicon microchannels, which have much smoother wall surface and smaller channel size. The fundamental issues related to non-dimensional parameters, bubble nucleation, flow patterns, flow instabilities and heat transfer mechanisms are reviewed in this paper. Besides, future studies on the bubble dynamics and boiling heat transfer are suggested.