Experimental Investigation of Flow Boiling Instability in a Single Horizontal Microtube With and Without Inlet Restriction

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
YanFeng Fan ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the effects of inlet restriction (orifice) on flow boiling instability in a single horizontal microtube. The test-section is composed of a stainless steel tube with an inner diameter of 889 μm, and a length of 150 mm. Experiments are performed for three different orifice configurations with 20%, 35%, and 50% area ratio. Mass flux is varied from 700 to 3000 kg/m2 · s, whereas the heat flux is varied from 6 to 27 W/cm2. The dielectric coolant FC-72 is selected as the working fluid. In the absence of an orifice at the inlet, four oscillation types are observed at the onset of flow instability; it is also noticed that the frequency of the oscillations increases with increasing heat flux, while the amplitude remains constant. The addition of an orifice at the inlet helps stabilizing the flow without generating significant pressure drop at the same operating condition as the microtube without orifice. The 20% area ratio orifice shows better performance at low mass fluxes (<1000 kg/m2 · s). Whereas, at high mass fluxes (>2000 kg/m2 · s), 50% and 35% area ratio orifices are efficient in stabilizing the flow or delaying the onset of flow instability. Therefore, selecting the area ratio of the orifice depends on the operating condition. A small area ratio orifice is preferably used at low mass fluxes, whereas a large area ratio orifice is more suitable for high mass fluxes.

Author(s):  
Kan Zhou ◽  
Junye Li ◽  
Zhao-zan Feng ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Hua Zhu ◽  
...  

For improving the functionality and signal speed of electronic devices, electronic components have been miniaturized and an increasing number of elements have been packaged in the device. As a result there has been a steady rise in the amount of heat necessitated to be dissipated from the electronic device. Recently microchannel heat sinks have been emerged as a kind of high performance cooling scheme to meet the heat dissipation requirement of electronics packaging, In the present study an experimental study of subcooled flow boiling in a high-aspect-ratio, one-sided heating rectangular microchannel with gap depth of 0.52 mm and width of 5 mm was conducted with deionized water as the working fluid. In the experimental operations, the mass flux was varied from 200 to 400 kg/m2s and imposed heat flux from 3 to 20 W/cm2 while the fluid inlet temperature was regulated constantly at 90 °C. The boiling curves, flow pattern and onset of nucleate boiling of subcooled flow boiling were investigated through instrumental measurements and a high speed camera. It was found that the slope of the boiling curves increased sharply once the superheat needed to initiate the onset of nucleate boiling was attained, and the slope was greater for lower mass fluxes, with lower superheat required for boiling incipience. As for the visualization images, for relatively lower mass fluxes the bubbles generated were larger and not easy to depart from the vertical upward placed narrow microchannel wall, giving elongated bubbly flow and reverse backflow. The thin film evaporation mechanism dominated the entire test section due to the elongated bubbles and transient local dryout as well as rewetting occurred. Meanwhile the initiative superheat and heat flux of onset of nucleate boiling were compared with existing correlations in the literature with good agreement.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
YanFeng Fan ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan

Flow boiling heat transfer in a horizontal microtube with inlet restriction (orifice) under uniform heating condition is experimentally investigated using FC-72 as working fluid. A stainless steel microtube with an inner diameter of 889 μm is selected as main microtube. Two microtubes with smaller diameters are assembled at the inlet of main microtube to achieve the restriction ratios of 50% and 20%. The experimental measurement is carried out at mass fluxes ranging from 160 to 870 kg/m2·s, heat fluxes varying from 6 to 170 kW/m2, inlet temperatures of 23 and 35 °C, and saturation pressures of 10 and 45 kPa. The effects of the orifices on two-phase pressure drop, critical heat flux (CHF), and flow boiling heat transfer coefficient are studied. The results show that the pressure drop caused by the orifice takes a considerable portion in the total pressure drop at low mass fluxes. This ratio decreases as the vapor quality or mass flux increases. The difference of normal critical heat flux in the microtubes with different orifice sizes is negligible. In the aspect of flow boiling heat transfer, the orifice is able to enhance the heat transfer at low mass flux and high saturation pressure, which indicates the contribution of orifice in the nucleate boiling dominated regime. However, the effect of orifice on flow boiling heat transfer is negligible in the forced convective boiling dominated regime.


Author(s):  
Qian You ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan ◽  
Lyes Kadem

The experiments are conducted to study the flow boiling instability in a single microtube with 0.889 mm hydraulic diameter in vertical upward and downward flow directions (VU and VD). The subcooled dielectric liquid FC-72 is driven at mass fluxes varying from 700 to 1400 kg/m2·s, and the heat flux uniformly applied on the microtube surface is up to 9.6 W/cm2. The onsets of flow oscillations (OFIs) in both flow directions are observed. Their oscillation types and characteristics are presented as well. The effects of mass flux and heat flux on flow instability in vertical flow directions are discussed. The results show that as the mass flux increases, the OFI occurrence is postponed, and the compounded oscillation types (Ledinegg, pressure drop and density wave oscillations) turn to pressure drop type dominant. At low mass fluxes, the OFI appears earlier in VD than in VU due to the buoyancy force impeded the bubble discharging. As the mass flux increases, the OFI appearance in VD is close to the ones in VU and its flow oscillations tend to be re-stabilized. After OFIs appeared at a given mass flux, with more heat flux added, the density wave oscillation type in VU becomes more active. However, at a constant mass flux, as the heat flux increases, the flow instability in VD becomes “stable” which may be due to the rapid flow pattern change, and this kind of “stable” is not expected because the local dryout may accompany. Hence, the microtube with vertical upward flow direction (VU) performs better from flow boiling instability point of view.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Leroux ◽  
M. K. Jensen

The critical heat flux (CHF) on a single tube in a horizontal bundle subject to an upward crossflow of R113 has been studied in three bundle geometries. Effects of local quality, mass flux, pressure, and bundle geometry on the CHF were investigated. The shapes of the CHF-quality curves display three distinct patterns, which progress from one to another as mass flux increases. At low mass fluxes, the CHF data monotonically decreased with increasing quality. At intermediate mass fluxes with increasing quality, the CHF data initially decreased to a relative minimum, then increased to a relative maximum, and finally began to decrease again as the higher qualities were reached. At high mass fluxes, as quality increased, the CHF rose gradually from the zero quality value to a maximum and then began to decrease. For all mass fluxes, the zero-quality CHF points clustered around an average value, which varied slightly with test section geometry. Mechanisms for the CHF condition are suggested.


Author(s):  
Mehmed Rafet Özdemir ◽  
Alihan Kaya ◽  
Ali Koşar

In this article, an experimental study on boiling heat transfer and fluid flow in microtubes at high mass fluxes is presented. De-ionized water flow was investigated over a broad range of mass flux (1000 kg/m2s–7500 kg/m2s) in microtubes with inner diameters of  ∼ 250 μm and ∼685 μm. The reason for using two different capillary diameters was to investigate the size effect on flow boiling. De-ionized water was used as working fluid, and the test section was heated by Joule heating. Heat transfer coefficients and qualities were deduced from local temperature measurements. It was found that high heat removal rates could be achieved at high flow rates under subcooled boiling conditions. It was also observed that heat transfer coefficients increased with mass flux, whereas they decreased with local quality and heat flux. Moreover, experimental heat flux data were compared with partial boiling correlations and fully developed boiling correlations. It was observed that at low wall superheat values, there was only a small inconsistency between the experimental data and the conventional partial boiling prediction method of Bergles, while the subcooled and low quality fully developed boiling heat transfer correlation of Kandlikar could fairly predict experimental results at high wall superheat values.


Author(s):  
Osamu Kawanami ◽  
Shih-Che Huang ◽  
Kazunari Kawakami ◽  
Itsuro Honda ◽  
Yousuke Kawashima ◽  
...  

In the present study, flow boiling in a transparent heated microtube having a diameter of 1 mm was investigated in detail. The transparent heated tube was manufactured by the electroless gold plating method. The enclosed gas-liquid interface could be clearly recognized through the tube wall, and the inner wall temperature measurement and direct heating of the film were simultaneously conducted by using the tube. Deaerated and deionized water that was subcooled temperature of 15 K was used as a test fluid, and constant and stable mass velocities of 50, 100, and 200 kg/m2s were provided by using a twin plunger pump. Among our experimental results, a vapor bubble grew up in a direction opposite the flow at a low heat flux and low mass velocities; however, this flow pattern was not observed at a high mass velocity of 200 kg/m2s. Under the conditions of G = 50 kg/m2s and high heat flux, the liquid film surrounding an elongated bubble near the heated tube wall occasionally thickened partially. The inner wall temperature exhibited large random oscillations in this regime; however, the visual observation revealed that dry-patches did not occur. The mass velocity had a negligible effect on the boiling heat transfer except in the counter-growth bubble flow regime.


Author(s):  
Yefei Liu ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Xingtuan Yang ◽  
Liqiang Pan

Series of experiments are conducted in a single microchannel, where subcooled water flows upward inside a transparent and vertical microchannel. The cross section of the channel is rectangle with the hydraulic diameter of 2.8mm and the aspect ratio of 20. The working fluid is 3–15K subcooled and surface heat flux on the channel is between 0–3.64 kW/m2, among which two-phase instability at low vapor quantity may occur. By using a novel transparent heating technique and a high-speed camera, visualization results are obtained. The parameters are acquired with a National Instruments Data Acquisition card. In the experiments, long-period oscillation and short-period oscillation are observed as the primary types of instability in a microchannel. Instability characteristics represented from signals correspond well with the flow pattern. Moreover, effects of several parameters are investigated. The results indicate that the oscillating period generally increases with the heat flux density and decreases with inlet subcooling, while the effects of inlet resistance are more complex.


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