Mesoscale Combustor/Evaporator Development

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriston P. Brooks ◽  
Peter M. Martin ◽  
M. Kevin Drost ◽  
Charles J. Call

Abstract Battelle has developed a mesoscale combustor/evaporator that provides a lightweight and compact source of heating, cooling, or energy generation for both man-portable and stationary applications. The device uses microscale flow channels that increase the available surface area for heat transfer and reduce the fluid boundary layer. These characteristics in turn result in heat fluxes for hydrocarbon/air combustion in excess of 25 W/cm2 and thermal efficiencies of 80 to 90%. Furthermore, high heat transfer rates allow for short channels and reduced pressure drops. Recent development efforts have focused on obtaining low emissions and improving the combustor/evaporator fabrication process. By using spatially varying stoichiometry inside the combustor, catalyst coated microchannels, and increased coolant temperature, the combustor’s CO and NOx emissions were reduced to below California standards for hot water heaters and boilers. The fabrication process photochemically machines thin metal laminates and then uses diffusion bonding to form a monolithic component. This approach is capable of high fin aspect ratios and can be scaled up for mass production.

Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jundika Kurnia ◽  
Desmond Lim ◽  
Lianjun Chen ◽  
Lishuai Jiang ◽  
Agus Sasmito

Owing to its relatively high heat transfer performance and simple configurations, liquid cooling remains the preferred choice for electronic cooling and other applications. In this cooling approach, channel design plays an important role in dictating the cooling performance of the heat sink. Most cooling channel studies evaluate the performance in view of the first thermodynamics aspect. This study is conducted to investigate flow behaviour and heat transfer performance of an incompressible fluid in a cooling channel with oblique fins with regards to first law and second law of thermodynamics. The effect of oblique fin angle and inlet Reynolds number are investigated. In addition, the performance of the cooling channels for different heat fluxes is evaluated. The results indicate that the oblique fin channel with 20° angle yields the highest figure of merit, especially at higher Re (250–1000). The entropy generation is found to be lowest for an oblique fin channel with 90° angle, which is about twice than that of a conventional parallel channel. Increasing Re decreases the entropy generation, while increasing heat flux increases the entropy generation.


Author(s):  
Jessica Sheehan ◽  
Avram Bar-Cohen

Heat transfer to an evaporating refrigerant and/or dielectric liquid in a microgap channel can provide very high heat transfer coefficients and volumetric cooling rates. Recent studies at Maryland have established the dominance of the annular flow regime in such microgap channels and related the observed high-quality peak of an M-shaped heat transfer coefficient curve to the onset of local dryout. The present study utilizes infrared thermography to locate such nascent dryout regions and operating conditions. Data obtained with a 210 micron microgap channel, operated with a mass flux of 195.2 kg/m2-s and heat fluxes of 10.3 to 26 W/cm2 are presented and discussed.


Author(s):  
N. Jeffers ◽  
J. Punch ◽  
E. Walsh

Contemporary electronic systems currently generate high heat fluxes at component level. Impingement cooling is an effective way to generate high heat transfer coefficients in order to meet thermal constraints. This paper investigates the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics of a confined impinging liquid jet with a nozzle-to-plate spacing (H/D) ratio of 0.5. A custom measurement facility was created to infer local heat transfer rates from infra-red images of a jet impinging on a 12.5μm thick stainless steel foil configured to generate uniform heat flux. Particle-Image Velocimetry (PIV) was performed in order to obtain quantitative velocity data within the jet. A series of experiments were run for Reynolds numbers (Re) in the range of 1,000–24,000 for a jet of 8 mm diameter (D). For Re > 4,000, the local heat transfer rate — in terms of Nusselt number (Nu) as a function of dimensionless radius (r/D) — had a plateau section between 0 < r/D < 0.6 followed by a peak at r/D ∼ 1.35. For higher Re the Nu peak exceeds that of the plateau section. For Re < 4,000, a plateau section exists between 0 < r/D < 0.4 followed by a shoulder located between 1 < r/D < 1.4. The PIV data for Re > 4,000 showed a strong vortex in the area of the secondary peak in Nu which was not present in the lower Re range. This phenomenon — the local peaks of heat transfer rate — has been previously reported in the literature with a degree of uncertainty as to the related fluid mechanics. This paper contributes to an understanding of the fluidic phenomenon responsible for the distribution of heat transfer rate in confined jets.


Author(s):  
Herman D. Haustein ◽  
Alon Gany

This work deals with the dynamics of rapid-boiling of a droplet, at medium-high superheat, rising in a host liquid environment. It considers the heat transfer, the superheat consumption and the hydrodynamics of the droplet as it boils. In the course of the research water-column experiments were conducted, and results are shown. Superheating was implemented by the sudden depressurization of the ambient liquid. Boiling was very rapid, concluding within several milliseconds, and high heat fluxes across the interface were obtained. Additionally, certain critical times in the boiling process were predicted and defined, and a novel criterion for the end of rapid boiling (liquid film collapse), is proposed. These defined critical times agree well with measured points of change in the boiling dynamics. From these results and analysis a deeper understanding of the three-fluid rapid boiling at medium-high superheat has been established, for the first time. In addition, various initial conditions were tested and their effect established qualitatively. This form of boiling, though being very rapid and sustaining high heat transfer rates, is non-explosive in nature, and therefore more designable and widely applicable.


Author(s):  
Peipei Chen ◽  
Barclay G. Jones ◽  
Ty A. Newell

This work reports on experimental studies to visualize nucleate boiling on the enhanced heat transfer surface of the hypervapotron for with application in the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor [ITER]. This research uses the simulant fluid Freon (R134A) instead of prototypic water to model the system performance. This results in much lower thermophysical conditions to represent the prototypic phenomena. By using reduced pressure, temperatures, etc, based on the critical physical properties of both working fluids, Freon and water, the dramatic drop in the level of these quantities with Freon allows the use of modest test conditions. The experiment was conducted for both saturated and subcooled boiling with different heat fluxes (from 50 to 300 kW/m2). A comparison of the heat transfer performance of finned structures and flat surfaces were examined under particular fluid conditions. The uniqueness of this work is the visualization method that allows direct observation of the subcooled boiling process of the Hypervapotron surfaces. Working with a high speed (12,000 frames per second), high fidelity digital camera with variable magnifications (from 1×–25×), the sub-cooled boiling phenomena was observed in detail. A major conclusion of this work is the existence of two separate zones linked to different energy removal efficiency in hypervapotron. Under high heat flux condition, enhanced boiling heat transfer (about 20–30% higher than flat surface) was observed for hypervapotron effect, while saturated boiling happened in the cavity, and a large portion of the region was vapor filled. The process of vapor bubble rotation in the slot appeared to be helpful to enhance energy transfer, as evidenced by an improved wetting condition on the heating surfaces.


Author(s):  
R. Anandalakshmi ◽  
Tanmay Basak

The phenomena of natural convection within a rhombic enclosure filled with air (Pr = 0.71) for (a) isothermally (case 1) and (b) non-isothermally (case 2) heated bottom walls with various aspect-ratios has been studied numerically. In all the cases, top horizontal wall is maintained adiabatic and side walls are maintained cold. Galerkin finite element method with penalty parameter is used to solve non-linear coupled partial differential equations for flow and temperature fields. Poisson equation of streamfunction and heatfunction is also solved using Galerkin method. Simulations are carried out over a range of Rayleigh numbers and numerical results are presented in terms of streamfunction, heatfunction and temperature contours. Streamlines are useful to visualize the fluid flow whereas heatlines are used to study the heat energy distribution within the rhombic cavity. Heatlines are further used to visualize the trajectories of heat flow and zones of high thermal mixing. At lower Ra, heatlines are smooth circular arcs with low magnitude streamfunctions and heatfunctions and thus the heat transfer is conduction dominant. Asymmetric flow is observed for all the cases due to geometrical asymmetry. As Ra increases, buoyant force starts dominating and the magnitudes of streamfunctions and heatfunctions are found to be greater due to enhanced convection effect. Heatlines are distorted greatly showing complex heat distribution inside the cavity. It is observed that primary heat circulation cell is larger for greater tilt angles and thus thermal mixing is high. Heat transfer rates are also studied via local and average Nusselt numbers as functions of Ra and Pr on bottom, left and right walls. Various quantitative and qualitative features of Nusselt numbers have also been explained based on heatlines.


2006 ◽  
Vol 956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleg A. Voronov ◽  
Gary S. Tompa ◽  
Veronika Veress

ABSTRACTWhile absolute power levels in microelectronic devices are relatively modest (a few tens to a few hundred watts), heat fluxes can be significant (through 50 W/cm2 in current electronic chips and up to 2000 W/cm2 in semiconductor lasers). Diamond heat sinks enable heat transfer rates well above what is possible with standard thermal management devices. We have fabricated heat sinks using diamond, which has the highest temperature thermal conductivity of any known material. Polycrystalline diamonds manufactured by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are machined by laser and combined with metallic or ceramic tiles. Cooling by fluid flow through micro-channels enhances heat removal. These unique attributes make diamond based heat sinks prime contenders for the next generation of high heat load sinks. Such devices could be utilized for efficient cooling in a variety of applications requiring high heat transfer capability, including semiconductor lasers, microprocessors, multi-chip modules in computers, laser-diode arrays, radar systems, and high-flux optics, among other applications. This paper will review test designs, heat flux measuring system, and measured heat removal values.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6590
Author(s):  
Toshihiko Shakouchi ◽  
Kazuma Yamamura ◽  
Koichi Tsujimoto ◽  
Toshitake Ando

Conventional circular double or triple tube type heat exchanger, DHE or THE, is one of the compact heat exchangers; a large number of studies have been performed to improve their heat transfer performance. The authors demonstrated that a petal-shaped special DHE with a large wet perimeter yields a high heat transfer efficiency, η. In this study, the DHE with six or five petals-, five shallow petals-, and circular-inner tubes were used. To further improve the η of the DHE, a THE with a petal-shaped inner tube along with the middle and outer circular tubes were used. Hot water flowed through the inner tube and cold water flowed through the middle and outer tubes as a counter current flow. The heat transfer was approximately equal; however, the flow resistance (pressure loss) of the outer tube of the DHE could be decreased using the middle and outer tubes under the same amount of cold water as the DHE; consequently, the η could be improved. In addition, the effect of changing the flow path of the hot- and cold-water flows on the η was examined.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Faulkner ◽  
Reza Shekarriz

This paper reports some of the results of our tests for the development of a high heat flux cooling system for thermal management of high power electronics. Our objective is to develop a practical design solution for achieving 1000 W/cm2 cooling. To achieve such high heat transfer rates, we have pursued and combined design advantages of a microchannel heat exchanger, high heat fluxes associated with forced convective nucleate boiling, and the use of a nanoparticles laden fluid for enhancement of heat transfer. A laboratory test module was designed, built, and tested to verify its performance. The experimental system employed sub-cooled as well as saturated forced convection boiling heat transfer in a high aspect ratio parallel microchannel heat sink. The working fluids tested were water and a selection of ceramic-based nanoparticle suspensions (nanofluids). The system was observed to readily dissipate heat fluxes in excess of 275 W/cm2 of substrate, while maintaining the substrate at or below 125°C. For optimized fin geometry, the current conditions would result in greater than 500 W/cm2. While the use of nanofluids was intended for boiling enhancement to push the envelop beyond 1000 W/cm2, we discerned limited improvement in the overall heat transfer rate. Future studies are planned for further exploitation of nanoparticles for enhancement of convective nucleate boiling.


Author(s):  
W.-H. Chen ◽  
M.- X. Ho ◽  
Chin Pan

Microchannel heat sink with its high heat transfer area density and potentially high heat transfer coefficient has been proposed for applications with high heat fluxes. The objective of this study is to investigate single-phase convection in the thermally developing region of a rectangular microchannel. An infrared thermography provides an effective approach for non-intrusive and spatio-temporal measurement of temperature. The entrance region, where the heat transfer coefficient is higher than that of the fully developed region, is of particular interest for microchannel cooling applications. The present study establishes an innovative benchmark experimental measurement uaing an infrared thermography. The experiments are conducted on a rectangular cross-section microchannel made of aluminum alloy 6061 with dimensions 22mm×1.5mm×0.3mm and covered on the top with a 5mm thick infrared transmitting germanium glass window. Consequently, the temperature distribution in the channel can be observed via the window directly. In order to measure the temperature correctly, all of the aluminum channel surface substrate was anodized such that emissivity can be increased to 0.95. The results show that the temperature distribution can be measured correctly using infrared thermography. And local heat transfer coefficient can be acquired successfully.


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